When Watercolour Starts to Feel Like Home • Lynda Norman on Letting Go of Anxiety

This isn’t a tutorial in the usual sense. It’s more like sitting across the table from a friend who quietly says: “The magic has been happening all along.” In this gentle conversation, watercolor artist Lynda Norman speaks to the anxiety so many painters carry: the urgency to make a masterpiece, the fear that watercolor is “too hard,” and the quiet shame of not feeling “far enough along.” Instead of quick fixes, she offers something deeper: A reminder to slow down and play with pigment and water Simple, sensory exercises that build trust over time The idea of becoming “manager of your team” — brush, paper, pigment, water How it feels when your paints are juicy, your brush is loaded just right, and the page responds Why fewer colours, better paper, and patient repetition can change everything Along the way, Lynda talks about: Monochromatic paintings built from a single, well-understood colour Letting Daniel Smith pigments mingle directly on the page How quinacridones push other colours aside and create living, shifting textures The honest dilemma of cost vs. results with student vs. 100% cotton paper More than anything, this video is about permission: Permission to not rush. Permission to not own 85 colours. Permission to learn by feel, not just by theory. If you’ve ever felt behind, “not good enough,” or overwhelmed by watercolour, this is a soft landing — a reminder that progress is often happening in ways you can’t yet see. Stay to the end, and let it reframe your relationship with the medium: not as a test to pass, but as a companion you’re slowly learning to trust. Video by Lorenz Plourde