Watercolor Is Just Not My Thing

In my art therapy group with students a couple of weeks ago the directive was to challenge oneself by uses different art mediums then one typically uses. I used watercolor as it's always a medium that tends to frustrate me.  I ended up working through my frustration and creating an abstract piece that I was pretty okay with. So, when I was surfing The Brainery website for upcoming classes and saw there was a watercolor class on a Saturday afternoon (that I was actually free) I decided for $20 I would take the class and continue to challenge myself with watercolors.

.....well.....it didn't go quite as I expected. The instructor taught about watercolors for the first hour (different kinds of watercolor paints, brushes to use, different techniques, etc...) and then we chose an image that we brought or that he had there and set about recreating a regular image into a watercolor image.  The instructor stated multiple times that we would not leave the class with a Mona Lisa but still I think I some how thought something would finally click in my brain and I would "get it".  This did not happen.  I spent two hours not necessarily stressed or highly frustrated, just more like disappointed.

During painting time the instructor went around helping people, but for some reason he didn't help me. I'm not sure why...other than I didn't really speak up and ask for help (which is something I'm good at doing, but didn't feel like it that day). I think I was just looking for the space to create and perhaps in the instruction learn the "magic" to painting watercolor.  When that didn't happen I just set about making the best of it and messing around.  I did walk away with learning some new techniques such as using saran wrap and paper towels to create some interesting texture with watercolor.