Any artist, including those who specialise in pet portraits, will be fascinated with painting water. It’s a dynamic and complex subject that, because of the difficulty in painting it, is so satisfying when we get it right.
However, it’s very easy to get bogged down with the detail when we do have a go and when we do the final effect can be cluttered and loose it’s sense of ‘flow’.
Part of the problem is that when we look at water our eyes will tend to follow it’s flow and we find that we’re trying to take in too much information. An artist needs to learn to simplify the subject. Train yourself to stare at one spot in the river, ignore the water passing through it, and concentrate on the reflections that remain constant. By doing this you edit out a lot of superfluous detail and end up with only what is important.