Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2024 i Watercolor Artist

It has been said that every work of art is a self-portrait. An artist reaches inside their own well of experience, and this informs creative expression. As artist Richard Schmid put it: artist Richard Schmid put it: “Your paintings always reveal more about you than about your subject.” That said, is there not something about painting one's own likeness that requires a somewhat different level of self-inquiry? And a bit more creative courage perhaps? Th ese were a few of the questions I put to the six artists featured in the article, “Me, Myself and I” (page 38). Th eir discussion of the topic is powerful and insightful, but also persuasive. Why paint a self-portrait? For starters, your model is available 24/7—no fee required. Th is point was the main…

Joanna Barnum paints in a bold, direct style that delights in the drama of high-contrast light and embraces a profusion of playful, provocative and sometimes serious imagery. Strong drawing, clear forms and vivid color combine with free paint handling to create a lively, atmospheric world. Trained as an illustrator, Barnum was initially drawn to the domains of fantasy and horror, but broadened her interests to include portraiture and the natural world. Recently she has produced a set of powerful images incorporating multiple views of faces shown with expressions that convey extreme emotions. It's a breakthrough made possible by the active use of masking fluid to facilitate multilayered imagery and dramatic overlays of brushstrokes and washes. “I've always enjoyed painting the portrait and figure,” says the artist. “When I was first…

Reference Photo My granddaughter, Emmerson, and I had a conversation about feelings and struggles one day last winter. Immediately after, I asked her to pose outdoors. I took photos until I got the perfect one. Step 1 I draw the image onto the paper. Using a nib pen, I apply masking fluid to stray strands of hair that will remain white. I add color to the sky and trees. I dampen the paper and apply a mix of cadmium red light and raw sienna. After applying two layers of paint, I work on the eyes; they'll dictate the painting's color scheme. Step 2 I add gamboge in the hair as an undercoat. Using complementary colors, with ultramarine blue being dominant, I paint her hair. I mix an orange for the…

Including people in your paintings can add to the narrative and provide an injection of life that turns an ordinary piece into something special. Painting people, however, comes with some challenges. The moment you include figures in a painting, they become the first thing the viewer notices. If the figures are credible, they add life; if not, they can't be ignored (and may even irritate). The following considerations will help you populate your paintings with less angst and more confidence. PLACEMENT Since figures—regardless of size— tend to become the subject, they need to own their space. They should look like they belong in the painting rather than as an add-on or afterthought. Take care to position your figures in a compositionally sound arrangement. Make them lively and plausible, not static…

• Photos and reference materials are a great source of symbols. I challenge you to look deeper at all of these references. Do you have twice as many photos of landscapes—specifically skies, water or trees? Do you have an obsession with flowers? Do you gravitate to people, figures and portraits? Or are you drawn to something a little more elusive, such as reflections or shadows, patterns, numbers or certain types of mark-making? The images you're drawn to are telling you something. • Quiet, contemplative time is needed to evaluate your interests, concerns and values. You have ideas and hold deep concepts and heartfelt beliefs; identify these in relation to your imagery. Maybe you have a story to tell through your sense of humor or your idiosyncratic view of the world.…

Sometimes I made visual notes by devoting a sketchbook page to small thumbnail sketches laid out quickly in pencil and then painted equally fast, either with the scene before me or right after it slid from view. The two sketches on the left show the narrowness of the locks—often just wide enough to let a barge slide in with mere inches to spare. Between locks, the canal is wide enough to permit two barges to pass, as seen in the sketch above. I later developed that sketch into a separate finished watercolor, Cruising on the Vermenton Canal (page 64).…

The studio offers convenience—and warmth—but Canadian artist Poppy Balser‘s favorite way to paint a snow scene is “outside, on location, standing in the landscape,” she says. “I learn a lot by directly observing how snow interacts with sunshine and shadow.” Because the temperature needs to be above 24 degrees Fahrenheit to work with watercolor outdoors, there's a limited window of opportunity. “When the conditions are right, I go out and paint as much as I can,” Balser says. On one occasion, the artist painted two 7x11-inch warm-up studies, as well as a 15x22-inch plein air watercolor, The Deer Blind (detail shown here), which shows the beautiful pattern of sunlight on a snow-covered field. To see a video of her plein air painting excursion, visit the artist's YouTube channel (@poppybalserart).…

The Poet Is a Funnel is Barnum's multilayered portrait of Grace Cavalieri, Poet Laureate of Maryland, in which the artist depicts the poet's face in three different expressions. Photos of the painting in progress show that the artist masked out broad sections and then worked on the faces one by one. The painterly edges she creates with the masking fluid allow the images to melt into one another. “The title of the painting is something I heard Cavalieri say as a way of describing the role of the poet as a funnel for experiences and feelings,” Barnum says. “I related to that as a painter. The leaves on the top right are nature imagery, a visual for being in the world.”…

ALI CAVANAUGH REFLECTING INWARD Ali Cavanaugh (alicavanaugh.com) says that most of the painting she did in her teens and 20s was self-portraiture. “I've always painted the figure,” she says, “and at that time in my life, it was easiest to paint myself.” Ease and accessibility is a common motivator for many self-portraits, but there's usually more to it than that, as Cavanaugh explains. “It was a great way to explore emotions and concepts as I was figuring out my artistic voice.” When the artist became a mother, her daughter quickly became the center point of her work. This emotional content, however, still involved self-discovery. “Motherhood, for me, was healing,” Cavanaugh says. “I was abandoned by my father at a young age and was able to work through this trauma in…

Much is made in today's fastpaced world of the desire to reduce speed. For plein air artists, the choice to carefully record with our hands and eyes in lieu of (or in addition to) snapping a picture is a strong vote for slowing down. The good news is that, even in the Jet Age, it's possible to spend six days traveling fewer than 30 miles on a restored cargo barge, or peniche, on one of France's most historic and picturesque canals. It's a journey that could be made in less than an hour by car. The Canal du Nivernais, deep in the wine region of Burgundy, connects the medium-sized cathedral town of Auxerre with the decidedly smaller town of Clamecy, and a journey along this segment is possible in either…

My canal travels ended at the city of Auxerre. Walking through the town in late afternoon, a view of the Auxerre Cathedral (Cathedrale Saint-Étienne d'Auxerre), built in 1215–1233, caught my eye. The transept, bathed in golden light with a backdrop of dramatic dark clouds, rose at the end of a narrow, inclined lane. Spending no more than five minutes, I captured the composition and light values with a soft Derwent Graphic Pencil (see Cathedral sketch, above). I also took a reference photo of the Gothic tracery in the window and portal for a subsequent studio painting, in watercolor. See Cathédral SaintÉtienne, Auxerre (right). For the studio painting, I laid down successive washes to arrive at the simplicity and chromatic density required to convey the dramatic lighting. The initial wash—made of…

No artist made drawing look easier than Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–79), from whose pencil the human condition seemed to emerge effortlessly. Daumier was born in Marseille and accompanied his family to Paris when he was 8 years old. Th ere he took a series of jobs in his youth to help his family, and subsequently studied first with Alexandre Lenoir, then at the Académie Suisse. Soon Daumier was drawing editorial cartoons that provoked the French establishment and, in 1832, he was sentenced to prison for “inciting to hatred and contempt of the government and insulting the king.” His lithograph, Rue Transnonain, 15 April 1834, is an expression of outrage that rivals the fury often seen in the works of painter Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828). Political critique was just one aspect…

Artist's Toolkit DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLORS • alizarin crimson • cobalt blue • quinacridone coral • quinacridone magenta HOLBEIN WATERCOLORS • burnt sienna • Hooker's green • peacock blue • vermilion WINSOR & NEWTON WATERCOLORS • Winsor yellow deep SURFACE • watercolor paper, 12x9 Step 1 I started by making an accurate, detailed drawing. Then I painted the darkest value shapes with a mixture of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. (In this case, I squinted my eyes to better see these shapes, but converting the reference photo to black and white can also be helpful.) Next, I used burnt sienna for the mid-tone shapes. Step 2 I added arbitrary colors to the mid-tone areas. I painted over some areas that already had burnt sienna, but also looked for places where the…

The city of Venice has attracted artists for centuries. The atmosphere, history and beautiful architecture can be like a siren's call for painters. For watercolorist Antonio Darden, the “Floating City” has provided inspiration for a number of paintings. While the Santa Fe artist may be more accustomed to the wide, open landscape of the American Southwest, he was drawn to the city's famous canals—the deep, narrow waterways that create an urban canyon, of sorts. In Venice Canal Chaos (page 51), he takes up the challenge. A bright sky in the background and colorful reflections in the water create a sense of optimism. The piece is one of many in which the artist explores distance as both a compositional tool and a metaphor. KEEPING IT SIMPLE In addition to the piece…

Even when traveling on a slow-moving barge, one must work quickly to create watercolor sketches. Before starting my four-sketch series, I had already taped off four panels on a cold-pressed mounted board and had the paint mixed and ready to go. As the vessel glided past the lovely farmland turning to fall colors, there was no time to wait for paint to dry; I either let the colors run together or strategically deployed dry, white areas between colors.…