Watercolor Conversations with Cara Brown
Episodes
Painting the effects of light
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The illusion of light in our paintings is a magical thing. Using just contrast between dark and light - and the subtleties of relative shades betw...
Shape Shade Color - Giving your inner critic a job
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this next stop we head inside - our brains and our perception. Our brains are brilliant shortcut machines — and when we're painting, that ...
It's still ALL about the water!
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second episode in this series - all about the water. Watercolor isn't watercolor without water — and yet it's the water that...
Getting intimate with color
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We begin with color — not as a set of rules, but as a relationship. I don't teach color theory, I teach color practice. I can think of no...
A new series of episodes - a walk through my teaching!
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
I made something for you! My first intentional series of Watercolor Conversation episodes. They are a visit to the ideas and information I share i...
Mameen - A poem that calls us forth
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I take a bit of a departure in this episode. I share my thoughts about a poem called "Mameen" by David Whyte. When I first read it, this...
What comes of a promise and putting myself in learning mode
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I share the outcome of this past summer's 92 Days of Watercolor and a project I embarked upon to paint more loosely. I was inspired by a long-a...
Left and Right Brain - who's in charge?
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I share how I find continued value in the way Iain McGilchrist's book The Master and His Emissary reframed my understanding of ou...
Blessings to bolster the courage to make YOUR art
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this - a little bit longer episode - I share the story behind writing my interpretation of The Beatitudes - eight ancient teachings -Â for those o...
Composition - putting it together
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Here's an art-making-oriented episode - a practical one. I'm sharing my thoughts on how it is that I decide the form of my paintings - my pr...
Today is Easter Saturday - Republished
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Doing all this myself, this was bound to happen. A big silent space ended up right in the middle. It's now fixed.  I'm sharing this one...
What brings us alive
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We get crucial life-fuel from what lights us up. I am here to say that doing what brings us alive is worth the effort to carve out time for. This ...
Starting at the beginning - with paint!
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I get really practical in this episode. I share with you the very best way to start out your watercolor experience - as well a great exercise if you...
I just don't know
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A recording I made in the swirl of uncertainty that so many of us humans are feeling at this time. Speaking for myself - I'm compelled to know ...
Imaginal Cells
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I just discovered a recording I made - and then in the swirl of my life this past summer, I completely forgotten about. It was late one night and I ...
Painting in the Present Moment
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recorded early one morning while on vacation at the end of a supercharged summer, sitting on the shores of Lake Tahoe. A rare moment of solitude on ...
The power of commitment
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A short-ish episode to update you on how my 92 Days of Watercolor are going, amidst a life that suddenly became very full of everything else besides a...
Commitment and Creative Confidence
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I share some fresh thoughts about something that I was left wondering about at the time I was writing my online journal every week. ...
Trusting your own rhythm
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Another episode exploring the challenge of time and attention for our creative work in our lives. I take the "both-and" point of view in d...
Easter Saturday
30 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a calendar time-specific episode, though the ideas are applicable for any time in life. I wrote a journal entry in the spring of 2016 when I...
The Case for Beauty
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is beauty - how is it part of life on earth? And most importantly what is its impact on us - and does it matter? These are the questions I po...
Blessed Unrest
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I took inspiration from something that Martha Graham famously said. Humans can be blessed by a certain unrest, by an inner disturbance, of sorts, th...
You get to decide
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I'm here to support and encourage each of us to follow our own breadcrumbs towards our art. There are strong opinions about whether or not maki...
It's All About the Water
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I'm trying something different with this episode. I thought I'd offer some "how it works" insights I have about the very basics ...
Finding it hard to focus?
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Focusing - in order to get stuff done - is more natural for some of us than others. In this episode I take a look at how this is and offer a point o...
Like Potatoes on Mars
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story behind the environment that has been created through gathering with watercolor artists and students over these past dozen years - and how ...
Why do we paint?
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Examining the "why" that has us do whatever we do is an interesting and potenitally powerful exercise. I look at this idea with regard to ...
A room of one's own
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I explore the relationship between our inner and outer rooms - that is the space inside that holds aspects of ourselves - especially o...
Getting Personal
16 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I am a let's-get-personal-kind-of-person. I am oriented subjectively - in pretty much all aspects of my life - but this is especially so in my ...
Painting the Truth
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Two incidents, two days in a row had me go looking for something I'd written, and wisdom I'd shared from other sources, that reminded me of ...
Because there are paintings in us
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a busy, distracted and chaotic-feeling year so far. And I've not been painting much at all! I went searching through my posts fo...
Painting the Light
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The illusion of light in our paintings is a magical thing. Using just contrast of and dark and the subtleties of relative lights and darks in betwee...
The Two Faces of Color
28 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Color! It's such a *deal* for those of us who make art. It can variously be an obsession, a challenge, a tool - as well as a source of fe...
Our relationships with our creations
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yes! We are related to our creations - our paintings for those of us who paint. I outline some of the stages in these relationships in an amusing - ...
I am a journalist!
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How I came to understand just what kind of artist I am - and let go of any idea that I'm not a real artist - for all those who are journalist-art...
The Virtue of Work - by special request!
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hear about the role that work and the energy to do work plays out in our lives and art-making - and learn a word in Croatian!Orignally published under...
My Watercolor Manifesto
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What I've come to believe about painting, learning, pursuing a creative endeavor - a little longer episode, with a couple of personal anecdotes.O...
Heading to hallelujah - the upside and downside of criticism
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How inner and outer criticism plays in our creating - and in our relationships. Â Orignally published under the title "On the way to Hallelujah&q...
Firsts, beginnings and the whole idea of talent
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are we selling ourselves short by limiting how we define the word talent? What if it's not what we usually think?Originally published under the...
Starting out - lessons from the old oak tree
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A revisit of my very first public writing! Hear the wise message of patience I discovered in a tree that could be centuries old.  Originally publis...
Welcome to Watercolor Conversations
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I'm Cara Brown - devoted watercolorist and teacher/mentor and I'm following an inkling to share some of the ideas, connections and revelatio...