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23 views5 pages

lecture+8

Uploaded by

aeon bliss
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Fast Part 7

Make the Ordinary


and
Watercolour
Loose transform any scene into
a spectacular painting

No course covering the great impressionistic watercolourists of the 20th 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. “We need to simplify the subject in front of us so
that there’s no need of overworking or fiddling.
You will need to mix good sized pools of paint (enough
to cover the area you are about to paint, and a bit more We must make good use of the paper itself and
as well), and make sure that your dark colours are dark try to lay all our washes on it only once which
enough. Remember that watercolour dries much lighter, makes for luminosity”.
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!

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


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.

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 wet-
in-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
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
Blytheborough Church, Suffolk by Edward Wesson

Sea Palling, Waxham by Edward Wesson

32
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

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