The Art of Watercolour No. 11
Watercolour 11th I S S U E
THE ART OF
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THOMAS SCHALLER
N. SIMMONS
Atmospheric street scenes
Perfecting the use of acrylics
COVER STORIES ROGGER ONCOY How tocreate a masterpiece
Portraits of the soul
Chris Forsey Tony Hunt David Poxon Fernando Artal…
TECHNICAL ADVICE: Use shape to create impact in your paintings
L 15673 - 11 - F: 7,50 € - RD
PORTFOLIO STANISLAW ZOLADZ SCANDINAVIAN LIGHT
QUARTERLY - JUNE/AUGUST 2013
FR: 7.50 € - BE: 8.80 € - CH: 15 FS - LU: 8.80 €- ES: 9.50 € - IT: 9 €- GR: 8.90 €- PT CONT.: 8.80 €- UK: £ 6,50 - NL: 9 € - DE.: 9.50 € - AT: 9 € - MA: 97 MAD
SAMPLE
Contents IN THE NEWS 6 THE WORLD WATERCOLOUR COMPETITION A presentation of this global event.
10 WE WERE THERE - Three Chinese masters in Beijing - The Namur Biennial in Belgium
12 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Watercolour events from all over the world.
16 FOCUS ON The 6th Brioude Biennial (France).
18 SOCIETIES AROUND THE WORLD The AIB (Belgium).
20 READERS’ LETTERS Our answers to your questions.
22 REVELATIONS Discover our selection of noteworthy artists.
84 WATERCOLOUR LESSON Style, design and composition.
86 EXPERT ADVICE How to understand and manage shapes.
90 WHAT’S ON 91 IN THE NEXT ISSUE… Printed in France -17, avenue du Cerisier Noir 86530 Naintré – France Tel.: Editorial Office: +33 5 49 90 37 64 - Fax Editorial Office: +33 5 49 90 09 25 E-mail: editorial@artofwatercolour.com - EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-In-Chief: Jean-Philippe Moine Deputy Editor-In-Chief: Laurent Benoist - Editorial assistant: Manuella Pineau - Chief subeditor: Élodie Blain - Sub-editor: Marie-Pierre Lévêque - Art Director: Janine Gallizia - Graphic designer: Audrey Salé - Graphic design team: Nadine Tillet, Hervé Magnin - Translation and adaptation: Simon Thurston - Scanner Operator: Franck Sellier - Manager: Edith Cyr ADVERTISING Tel.: (00 33) 5 49 90 09 19 - Fax: (00 33) 5 49 90 08 29 E-mail: advertising@artofwatercolour.com - SALES, MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION Frédérik Favier Tel.: (00 33) 5 49 90 09 19 - Distribution France: MLP - MANAGEMENT Financial Director: Fabien Richard - Export: Export Press contact@kdpresse.com +33 142 46 02 20 THE ART OF WATERCOLOUR Published by DIVERTI Éditions S.A.R.L. with a capital of 15,000 € 490 317 369 RCS Poitiers 17, avenue du Cerisier Noir 86530 Naintré, France - Main Shareholders: CAPELITIS Group - Photo-engraving: DIVERTI ÉDITIONS - Printers: MEGATOP, 86530 Naintré, France Sending text or photos implies the author’s agreement for publication free of copyright and supposes that the author has in his/her possession any authorisation necessary to publication. All rights reserved for documents and texts published in The Art of Watercolour. Any reproduction of articles published in The Art of Watercolour, either in part or whole, is strictly forbidden without the express written agreement of Diverti Éditions, in compliance with the French law on literary and artistic property of March 11th 1957. Articles and photos, which are not retained for publication, shall not be returned. The editorial staff shall not be liable or responsible for the content of texts, nor for illustrations and photos that they receive. - Publication registration: 0316 K 90760 - ISSN: 2114-3498 - Legal deposit on date of release - Quarterly – No. 11 – JuneAugust 2013.
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David Poxon How to paint a masterpiece: the artist reveals his secrets.
Rogger Oncoy Soulful portraits of both young and old people.
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Stanislaw Zoladz Depicting Swedish landscapes of water, stone and light in large format works.
No.11 June-August 2013 FEATURED ARTISTS
26 DAVID POXON Objects “Windows and doorways reflect so much of life’s journey, representing our entrance and exit from this world, the good times and the bad.”
34 ROGGER ONCOY Portraits “I paint old people and children because they possess a real sensibility and painting them is real challenge.”
40 THOMAS SCHALLER Urban scenes “I am drawn more to those scenes where the iconography of the city – skyscrapers for example – creates a dialogue with the natural elements around it.”
46 PORTFOLIO: STANISLAW ZOLADZ Landscapes “Painting water means combining several elements: transparency and depth – what is both below and on the surface – and the movement of the water itself.”
58 NICHOLAS SIMMONS Figures, genre scenes “The most common charge leveled against acrylic watercolour is the assumption that acrylic necessarily means opaque application.”
64 CHRIS FORSEY Water landscapes “My aim is to spark a memory of a place, a time or a certain light in the viewer, enough to touch their soul.”
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Thomas Schaller
Fascinating urban scenes rendered in a wide variety of techniques.
70 ARNOLD LOWREY Flowers “All my work verges on abstraction because to create any successful painting, the abstract quality must be there.”
76 TONY HUNT Natural landscapes “I am interested in the connections between things and the disparities that engender paradox.”
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PERUVIAN ARTIST ROGGER ONCOY PAINTS
PORTRAITS OF BOTH YOUNG AND OLD PEOPLE, WITH ALWAYS THE SAME ATTENTION TO DETAIL AS HE ATTEMPTS TO PORTRAY HIS MODEL’S SOUL.
Mirada al cielo. 2009. 38 x 55 cm.
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Dona Vicenta. 2009. “For me, the most difficult details in a painting are the clothes, not because of any difficulty in painting the actual outfit, but because of the amount of patience that is necessary, especially if there are lots of accessories.”
KEY FACTS Rogger Oncoy was born in 1964 in Peru and is a selftaught painter. He has received numerous prizes of which the most recent are: 2012 First prize at Aiguillon (France) for his watercolour ‘Umbral de Vida’. 2011 honourable mention, ‘The Artist Magazine’ 2010 Second prize at the international exhibition in Caudete (Spain).
CONTACT oncoyperu.blogspot.fr
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POLISH-BORN STANISLAW ZOLADZ HAS SETTLED IN SWEDEN, WHERE HE BRILLIANTLY DEPICTS WATER, STONE AND LIGHT IN HIS OFTEN LARGE-SCALE WATERCOLOURS.
Stanislaw
ON…
FOCUS
Watercolour acrylic Are they really so different? NICHOLAS SIMMONS WORKS IN A MIXED TECHNIQUE THAT HE CALLS ‘ACRYLIC WATERCOLOUR’. HE WORKS BOTH WITH WATERCOLOUR AND ACRYLIC TOGETHER AND ALSO EACH MEDIUM SEPARATELY. HE IS THERFORE THE IDEAL CHOICE TO EXPLAIN AND COMPARE THESE TWO MEDIA AND SHARE HIS LONG EXPERIENCE OF THEM.
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When I began in watercolour many years ago, I enrolled in the workshops of the great American artist, Valfred Thëlin. He was an encyclopedia of different watercolour styles and techniques and in addition to standard watercolour, also mixed watercolour with a small amount of acrylic, in effect making ‘acrylic watercolour’ paint. He used this variation of the transparent watercolour technique for work that required the paint to stay in place during subsequent washes or glazes, which preserved crisp edges, uniform layers, and avoided the various anomalies that characterise watercolour. I was impressed by the method (the paintings were indistinguishable from standard watercolours) and so I did a lot of work this way myself. Thëlin frequently used watercolour board, which, in conjunction with acrylic watercolour, allowed him to safely varnish the picture and frame it without glass. I also did this occasionally, but ultimately decided I preferred the look and feel of paper and glass. Over time, I stopped mixing the watercolour paint with acrylics
FALSE BELIEFS ABOUT OPACITY AND TRANSPARENCY In my workshops I often use both media so that people can learn first hand about their respective characteristics. I developed an instructive way of introduce the comparison: after explaining the difference in permanence, I present two sizable colour swatches on a piece of hot press paper, one in standard watercolour and one in acrylic watercolour. I purposely make the watercolour swatch very opaque and make the acrylic watercolour swatch very transparent with a lot of watercolour anomalies. I ask the workshop to identify which is which. Without fail, people assume the opaque swatch is acrylic. I then wet a large brush and to their great surprise demonstrate which colour lifts and moves. This quickly clears up any confusion about the two media and their opacity/transparency. Countless artists in my workshops have been amazed to find acrylic watercolour virtually identical to standard watercolour to all extents, except permanence. Many have converted to acrylic watercolour, or are using both media in combination, thus opening up whole new worlds of creativity. Those who are quite prolific and/or working on a large scale, benefit economically from acrylic’s lower cost.
Olga Ivanovna. Watercolour, 100 x 100 cm. “Much of this was painted vertically on the wall, with lots of water and spraying. The highlights were masked during most of the process.”
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