Painting of the Week: “Morning Conversation”

Kathleen Lanzoni shares her watercolor painting process for the portrait “Morning Conversation,” our Painting of the Week.

The following is part of a series featuring a leader in the art community who will be joining us on the faculty of Watercolor Live, a virtual art conference taking place January 24-26, 2025.

“The painting ‘Morning Conversation’ was inspired by a very strong feeling of contentment, a moment in time with a friend,” Kathleen tells us. “A good friend and I were enjoying breakfast and solving all the world’s problems, sitting at her kitchen table. The light was streaming through the window and gave her such a beautiful strong glow, matched only by the energy and wisdom of this friend. It was a moment that I knew I wanted to capture in a painting.”

Kathleen’s Watercolor Painting Process:

“Creating ‘Morning Conversation’ was about using watercolor paint at its most fluid – allowing the light and the hard and soft edges to describe the story,” she said. “What is not painted is just as important as what is painted, keeping key details and eliminating unnecessary details.

“An especially important technique used in this painting was negative painting. Negative painting means painting an area around a shape to create the specific shape. The thought process is that you are painting two areas at the same time. I make a plan of where to save the whites and lights, then begin.

“In this painting, about a quarter of the paper remained dry so that paint would not go into dry locations, and this saved the white clean original paper. The painting began with a wet into wet technique, covering large areas and allowing colors to mix themselves in the wet spaces. Let the watercolor magic happen!

“The image was then built up with many layers of transparent paint, allowing the paper to dry between applications. The process was about painting light to dark, soft edges to hard edges and adding more details as the painting progressed, making sure my friend’s eyes were telling the story.”

Kathleen’s artwork is created both in the studio and en plein air, painting outdoors on location. Painting in a realistic painterly style, the painting subjects include portraits, landscapes, buildings, animals and more.

Kathleen Lanzoni is an award winning artist, receiving over 55 awards from art exhibitions and organizations. She is a signature member of the Colorado Watercolor Society, the Western Colorado Watercolor Society, the Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society and the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. She divides her time painting between the studio, Plein Air (outdoors on location) and on murals sites.

Growing up in both Montreal and California, with much traveling around the world, Kathleen has lived in Colorado for more than 32 years, enjoying the endless subjects offered in this beautiful state. Her formal training is from the Art Institute of Boston and the Massachusetts College of Art, graduating from both schools with a BFA. Visit her website at kathleenlanzoni.com.

Learn how to paint with watercolor during the 5th Annual Watercolor Live online art conference, featuring Kathleen Lanzoni, Thomas Schaller, Alvaro Castagnet, Bjorn Bernstrom, Xi Guo, David Stickel, Kelly Eddington, Shelley Prior, and many more!