Choosing Realism in Watercolor

Turquoise Jewel - Aging Gracefully - collection - Watercolor on paper by Sheryl Brake

When I was first introduced to watercolor, I carried a very specific idea of what the medium was supposed to look like. Loose, watery landscapes felt like the expectation—almost a rule—rather than a choice.

When I eventually began working seriously in watercolor, that assumption followed me into the studio. I approached the medium with a sense of what it should be, even as I was still discovering what actually held my attention.

Fairly quickly, I realized there was a disconnect. Painting loosely felt forced, and the work itself never quite settled.

What did hold me was structure: edges, light, form, and the quiet challenge of observing something closely enough to understand it.

Letting Go of Expectations

That recognition marked the beginning of a shift—not away from watercolor, but toward realism.

What held my attention became increasingly clear as I continued to work. I was drawn to structure—edges, form, and the way light moves across a surface. The work that interested me most required slowing down and looking carefully, and it asked for a level of observation that felt both demanding and deeply engaging.

That pull became more defined when I began studying at a local atelier school. Courses in life drawing, anatomy, and portraiture sharpened my interest in realism and representational art. I found myself energized by the challenge of close observation—understanding the curve of an arm, the subtle shift of light across a surface, or the way reflected color appears on a white napkin. These visual problems were complex, but they held my attention in a way other approaches had not.

Detail from Old Red - Aging Gracefully Collection - watercolor on paper by Sheryl Brake

Most of this training took place in graphite, charcoal, and oil, but the way of seeing carried over naturally into watercolor. By the time the pandemic closed the atelier, I had already begun working representationally in watercolor, even if I hadn’t fully named it yet. This way of working began to take shape in earlier bodies of work, including the Aging Gracefully collection.

For a period of time, I resisted that direction. There was still a lingering sense that watercolor should look a certain way, and that my work needed to conform to those expectations. I continued taking courses, trying to reconcile what consistently held my attention with what I believed the medium required.

Settling Into Realism in Watercolor

It wasn’t until I worked alongside a few contemporary representational painters whose work I admired that the pattern became impossible to ignore. The qualities that consistently held my attention—clarity of form, deliberate edges, and careful observation—were already present in my work. What changed was not the work itself, but my willingness to accept it.

Letting go of prescribed ideas about how watercolor should look allowed me to work with greater confidence and focus. Realism wasn’t a departure from the medium; it was the way I naturally engaged with it.

Looking back, this period feels less like a change in direction and more like the end of an internal negotiation. The things that consistently held my attention—form, surface, light, and detail—had been there all along. Naming them brought clarity.

Embracing realism allowed me to work with greater intention. While I’m not interested in replicating photographs, I am deeply interested in the act of close looking—and in translating those observations into paint.