Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i Watercolor Artist

In his famous anthem, “Th is Land is Your Land,” first recorded in 1944, folk singer Woody Guthrie immortalized the great diversity of the American landscape. In the song's chorus, he name-checks the Redwood forest and the Gulf Stream waters, and, in verses, he continues the cross-country journey, calling out the golden valleys, wheat fields waving and diamond deserts. The continent's vast and varied environments—and the awe and wonder they supply—are there for anyone who has the occasion to experience them, and this, of course, includes watercolor artists, who take that amazement and channel it into paintings as unique and varied as the landscape itself. In this issue, we're celebrating the landscapes of North America with featured watermedia artists whose work reveals the wildly different scenery to be found in…

Purists may insist that true watercolor painting is made with transparent pigments, but great artists tend to make their own rules. In general, and certainly as a watercolorist, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) was an unconventional master. Born in Tulln, Austria, he moved to Vienna at age 16 to study art. Schiele tolerated classes in a conservative academy and, more significantly, found a mentor in Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918). Klimt reinforced the young artist's interest in two-dimensional design, which Schiele readily applied to his drawings and paintings of the figure. Flat patterns, sometimes arranged elegantly and more often arrestingly, fascinated Schiele more than the conventional depiction of form through light and shadow. His portraits take on life not through illusionistic means, but by the sheer energy and artfulness of his draftsmanship. Already…

There are plenty of practical advantages to creating small works of art. Th ey take up less space, making them easier to store and display. They're less expensive to ship. And they're generally more aff ordable for buyers, making them a good entry point for new collectors who might be better poised to acquire multiple pieces at once. But aren't there also creative benefits to working small? To learn more, we went to four artists whose paintings span many sizes and formats, including more petite dimensions. Here's what they had to tell us about the perks and pleasures of working small. JOHN LOVETT LOW PRESSURE, HIGH REWARD Small paintings form a large part of Australian artist John Lovett's work. “They were initially a way to try out options for larger…

William Hook My sketchbook is my entry place for any image. This is how I can remove myself from the frozen “reality” of a photo or live scene in front of me. Often times, I see a space or object in bright daylight that I think would be more interesting depicted from a different angle. Or, I may choose to insert a different story into a scene of fog or winter snow. A thumbnail sketch offers the space to interpret and express my thoughts more creatively. Kelly Eddington When starting a painting, I'm an astronaut. The all-important initial idea is my destination, and all my preliminary steps—my reference photos, the drawing, my color selection and mental preparation—help construct the spacecraft that gets me there. These efforts keep me on track…

Glistening, incandescent, scintillant … Any of these words could be used to describe the color-drenched paintings of New Mexico artist Jane Fritz. Whether her subjects are landscapes, florals or animals, she offers an intimate glimpse of the world's beauty. Following a career teaching high school science in Southeast Asia and South America, as well as in the United States, Fritz and her husband have retired to a rural property in New Mexico, where they've designed and built a passive-solar house. Fritz, who wanted to honor her lifelong interest in art, made sure to include a 12x15foot creative studio with north-facing windows and skylights. She's inspired by the sights just outside her door. “I can look out to our Japanese garden and spot deer, rabbits, birds, foxes and elk come wandering…

For years, I paid little attention to the individual properties of the colors I selected for my paintings. It just wasn't a top priority; instead, I concentrated on the mood, energy and values within my work. Sure, I understood the basics—primary, secondary, warm, cool—but that was about the extent of my knowledge. All that changed, however, when I had the chance to collaborate with a fine art paint manufacturer based in the Pacific Northwest known for using natural ingredients in its products and being laser-focused on making strong colors. Those few years were like opening a Pandora's box. This collaboration revealed a world of color science and the fascinating processes behind the colors on my watercolor palettes. I've always been a strong advocate for a limited palette and the ability…

/ ON THE SHELVES / The Backyard Bird Chronicles: 50 Postcards by Amy Tan [$18.99] World-renowned, bestselling author Amy Tan is an enthusiastic birder and a talented painter of the birds she observes near her Northern California home. This collection of 50 postcards (25 designs, repeating twice) showcases drawings from her New York Times bestselling book The Backyard Bird Chronicles (Knopf, April 2024). / ON THE SHELVES / Lady of the Peacocks: The Life & Art of Mildred Ann Butler by Tom Duffy [$50] In this heavily illustrated book, author Tom Duffy examines the career and artwork of English watercolor painter Mildred Anne Butler (1858–1941), a professional artist during the latter part of the 19th and opening decades of the 20th century. Highly successful, her watercolors were exhibited in London…

Step 1 After tracing my drawing onto the watercolor paper, I masked the areas to be preserved as white—the light reflected off the leaves and upper rock surfaces, and the sparkles in the water. I painted with cobalt blue and burnt sienna in varying proportions for the grays, and ultramarine blue plus QoR raw umber for the darkest shades. The bright greens of the plants are mixtures of cobalt blue and green-gold. Step 2 I blocked in the big shapes of the rocks, including their reflections, and then painted the water. I wet the rocks one at a time, dripping the paint mixtures to depict the textures and lichens on the rock surfaces. I painted the water wet-into-wet using Hansa yellow light, green-gold, raw sienna and burnt sienna. Step 3…

Wherever I go, I always keep my eyes peeled for fountains. The Villa d'Este, with its array of fountains, is nirvana for a fountain painter like me. The appeal stems from the striking interplay of water and stone. Through a multitude of various states and displays, roars and murmurs, sparkles and shimmers, water gives life to any static sculpture or basin. The Villa d'Este, with so many types of fountains, presents a panoply of painting possibilities. Capturing the watery magic of fountains has been a lifelong pursuit—one that's particularly challenging technically. I'm often asked if I opt to use any resist to protect the whites. I do not, preferring instead to paint around the droplets by hand, “freezing” the constantly moving stream in a single moment in time. Meanwhile, I'm…