Meet Peggi Habets
Peggi Habets is a watercolorist and my guest for episode 4. (<—- Click the link to listen to the episode!)
Habets paints portraits, figures and landscapes in her studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In next week’s interview, we will focus primarily on her portrait work, but we get into a bit of it all.
Habets was a graphic designer, but after taking some time off for family reasons, realized that she did not want to go back to her old job. She took two art classes. The first was not for her. But the second was a watercolor class and she was hooked immediately.
Habets began with portraits- including commissions- and getting a likeness was incredible important. When she started painting, she focused on building her skills and understanding the techniques critical to watercolor as a medium.
She also discovered her process. Habets, in almost direct opposition to last week’s interview with Jane Davies, has a repeatable process that is at the core to how she works. Her process gives her the freedom to be bold and spontaneous. Habets knows that’s it’s a bit counter intuitive that a bunch of planning means you can be daring in your work.
But planning is exactly what it gives Habets the freedom she feels painting.
She does a value study and then a color study. These let her know that her painting will work. So when she’s going into her painting with a giant brush, she can go in with confidence that she’s headed in the right direction.
Once she has her studies completed and her drawing on her paper, she’s ready to approach the painting itself. Habets builds up the values in her work. She does this by starting with a thin mixture of color. She lays that down and then while the paint is still wet, drops in additional colors. This approach allows colors to mix and mingle on the paper itself and the result is a dynamic portrait.
Learn more about watercolorist Peggi Habets by visiting her at her website, on Facebook and on Instagram. And sign up below to get notified when Habets’ interview goes live!