Watercolour. Part 7 Make the Ordinary. Fast and Loose. transform any scene into a spectacular painting

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1 Watercolour Fast and Loose Part 7 Make the Ordinary transform any scene into a spectacular painting No course covering the great impressionistic watercolourists of the 20 th century would be complete without a mention of Edward Wesson. His style and ability to capture the British countryside in the simplest of brush strokes was quite remarkable. He also had the ability of taking what to you or I would be a fairly boring scene, a ploughed field with a tree in it, or a hedgerow or a puddle, and transforming it into a spectacular painting. He had learned to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. And all of this was painted rapidly and with great economy. In this final part of the course we will try and pull together all that we have learned so far and paint with and Edward Wesson style of quick, simple brushstrokes. You will need to mix good sized pools of paint (enough to cover the area you are about to paint, and a bit more as well), and make sure that your dark colours are dark enough. Remember that watercolour dries much lighter, so if the paint looks dark enough when you first put it onto the paper, then it will dry too light. If it looks too dark, you may have got it right! We need to simplify the subject in front of us so that there s no need of overworking or fiddling. We must make good use of the paper itself and try to lay all our washes on it only once which makes for luminosity. Try to paint quickly with accuracy and then resist the urge to fiddle! Below is the painting we will copy as we learn this process. Shere, Surry by Edward Wesson Watch me paint this picture on the accompanying video 29

2 1 Step 1. Draw just the barest outlines of the main features onto your paper, and then mix a watery pool of ultramarine blue and another of raw sienna in your palette. Use the largest brush you have to lay in the sky and foreground with these colours. Paint them in one go, and do not go back in to fiddle if you leave white patches of dry paper. These all add to the drama. Paint right over the trees as these will be covered with darker paint at a later stage. Leave it to dry. 2 Wesson s famous brush was a large round floppy thing called a polisher s mop really, I suppose, made for French polishers and never intended for the use of artists but in his hands it produced free, fresh, uncluttered watercolours. Step 2. With a slightly darker purple mix of ultramarine and red, paint in the distant hills, then add in the distant hedgerow with a dark green (ultramarine and raw sienna) 3 Step 3. Now start to add in the foreground and tree with wetin-wet colours: raw sienna, burnt sienna and a black made from ultramarine and burnt sienna. Keep some edges crisp by not allowing the colours to touch, and some edges soft by letting the colours mingle. Aim for variety whilst keeping the various bushes and clumps of grass as separate colours. Note how no green is used! 30

3 4 Step 4. Use a smaller brush and some very dark black paint to tickle in the branches, and create the small twigs and leaves on the trees by dry brushing in a weak mix of raw sienna using the side of a larger brush. Add the fence and then a few extra shadows on the path and bank with the same purple you used on the distant hills (tying the painting together). Then resist the urge to fiddle, and you should have a luminous, clear, simple but effective picture, which you have painted in about 20 minutes or so. How s that for fast and loose! It is when we have to tinker about with it afterwards, adding a bit here and a bit there, that the process gradually obliterates the loveliness of the paper then we know we ve failed. On the next page are two paintings by Edward Wesson which show a different approach to painting a similar scene. Try copying these using the same methods as before. Take a maximum of 20 minutes if you can! In Blytheborough Church, Suffolk, he has used a lot of wet-in-wet effects to create the feel of a cold damp English day. The cold grey sky colours have been brought into the foreground, helping to tie the land to the sky and also reflecting the lighting conditions of that day. See also how simply the water is painted it s really just a pale sky wash with some other colours dragged downwards through it when dry. The crisp edged features in the foreground add to the sense of space and recession and contrast well with the soft edges in the background. Only the church tower stands out the focal point. In Sea Palling, Waxham, Wesson has used many more wet-on-dry marks and strong tonal contrasts to create crisp edges and the sense of sunshine about to break through. The foreground almost becomes the focal point, with the distant buildings providing a second point of interest. 31

4 Blytheborough Church, Suffolk by Edward Wesson Sea Palling, Waxham by Edward Wesson 32

5 Finally, here s a photo to work from. Look at the painting below for ideas on how to treat the mass of foreground and then try to paint it yourself. Don t use green but use earth colours instead, and lay down a maximum of two layers a pale underwash and then a darker shadow tone in parts. Keep the houses and trees simple too and invent your own sky. Just make sure the sky is tied into the ground in places. Oh, and have fun! Winter in the Wylye Valley by Edward Wesson This is the final part of the course, and I hope you have been inspired and excited by the possibilities for your own paintings. The techniques I have taught are just a spring-board for your own creativity, so incorporate the ideas into your paintings as you develop your own style and freedom in painting fast and loose.. 33