Watercolor Artist – October 2019

ArtistsNetwork.com 55

says. When the trees were dry, she painted the back-
ground in vertical slivers from the top down. “I started
with a dark blue mixed with a tiny bit of super dark
green,” she says. “When I got two-thirds of the way down
and everything was still wet, I added in a little green to
make the transition from sky to landscape, and then
I moved on to the next sliver.”

BECOMING ONE
After completing hundreds of paintings, Pitts still isn’t
quite sure where her ideas come from, but she’s quite
sure that art is in her being. Her advice for artists looking
for ideas and inspiration? “Take a walk, look around and
listen to that soft inner voice,” she says. “Ideas come in
through the side door, perhaps not fully formed or com-
pletely understood, and sometimes ideas that are initially
unrelated become one idea.”

Amy Leibrock is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer and
content manager.

Meet the Artist

Sharon Pitts (sharonpitts.com)

holds a B.A. in plastic and graphic

arts from the University of Illinois,

Chicago, and has studied at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine

Arts, the Barnes Foundation and

Montclair State University. Her

work is featured in collections

throughout the United States

and in numerous exhibitions. As a

workshop instructor, she teaches at the Yard School of

Art, Montclair Art Museum, in Montclair, N.J., and gives

workshops around the world. She’s a member of Allied

Artists of America and Studio Montclair, Inc., and is

listed in Who’s Who in American Art.

Turn for a demo

Mystery of Trees I
(watercolor on paper, 40x60)