In addition to his better known oil paintings, Vincent van Gogh produced nearly 150 watercolor paintings during his life. Though often lacking his distinctive brush stroke textures, the watercolors are unmistakably Van Gogh in their use of bold, vibrant color. Often times, these watercolors were used as field studies for their eventual larger oil counterparts. Similar to his drawings, Van Gogh often did watercolors as studies before doing an oil painting or as practice. Although his watercolors are not as well know as his paintings, Van Gogh knew that he was perfecting his skills and in that he was on the verge of something great. At the age of 28 Vincent wrote the following in a letter to Theo, "I came away from him with some painted studies and a few watercolours. They are not masterpieces, of course, yet I really believe that there is some soundness and truth in them, more at any rate than what I've done up to now. And so I reckon that I am now at the beginning of the beginning of doing something serious. And because I can now call on a couple of technical resources, that is to say, paint and brush, everything seems fresh again, as it were."