The Art of Watercolour No. 2
Watercolour 2 n d ISSUE
THE ART OF
ROBERT A. WADE
JANET WALSH
FACE-TO-FACE TURNER’s technique by Michael Chaplin
Secrets for painting magnificent flowers
ALSO INSIDE ALEX POWERS David Curtis
Landscapes
Portraits by a militant artist
Alvaro Castagnet Henry Casselli Myra Schuetter Frank Webb
L 15673 - 2 - F: 7,50 € - RD
A well-travelled watercolourist
QUARTERLY - MARCH-MAY 2011 - 7,50 €
FR : 7,50 € - BE : 8,80 € - CH : 15 FS - LU : 8,80 €- ES : 9,50 € - IT : 9 €- GR : 8,90 €- PT CONT. : 8,80 € - GB : £8,20 - NL : 9 € - DE. : 9,50 € - AT : 9 € - MA : 97 MAD
T H E A R T M A G A Z I N E F O R W AT E R C O L O U R I S T S
EXPERT ADVICE: CHOOSING THE RIGHT COLOUR TO CREATE ATMOSPHERE • KEY INGREDIENTS TO PLAY WITH CONTRASTS
Contents IN THE NEWS 6 FOCUS ON Mary Whyte pays homage to the workers of the South of the United States.
8 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Watercolour events from all over the world.
14 READER’S LETTERS Our answers to your questions.
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Portfolio David Curtis is unrivalled when it comes to capturing with finesse the atmosphere of a landscape.
16 REVELATIONS Discover our selection of noteworthy artists.
72 EXPERT ADVICE (PART 1) How to prepare a painting for a competition.
84 EXPERT ADVICE (PARTS 2 & 3) Create atmosphere by mastering colour; play with contrasts, by Frank Webb.
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88 WATERCOLOUR LESSONS Tips on how to improve your paintings.
96 WHAT’S ON A quick look at upcoming events.
99 IN THE NEXT ISSUE…
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For Janet Walsh, painting is like gardening: shapes, colours and textures are assembled in an artful composition.
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Alvaro Castagnet is one of today’s most important watercolour artists, one for whom intuition and spontaneity play an integral part.
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No. 2
March-May 2011
FEATURED ARTISTS
Face-to-face
Michael Chaplin, member of the RWS, explains how Turner’s techniques influenced his paintings.
20 ROBERT WADE Landscape / Colourist Australian artist Robert Wade tells us how his numerous travels have fed his paintings.
28 HENRY CASSELLI Portraits / Tonal Values A personal quest to find the inner soul of his subjects.
36 EMIL NOLDE Art History Watercolour played an integral part in the work of this major 20th century Expressionist painter.
40 ALVARO CASTAGNET Landscape Paintings / Tonal Values Meet an artist for whom watercolour suits his great speed of execution
48 PORTFOLIO: DAVID CURTIS Landscape / Realism The infinite abundance of plein air painting.
58 ALEX POWERS Portrait / Tonal Values An admirer of A. Wyeth and a defender of the oppressed.
66 MYRA SCHUETTER Still life / Hyperrealism Her work, both personal and profusively detailed, is deeply moving.
74 FACE-TO-FACE: MICHAEL CHAPLIN & TURNER Art History
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Henry Casselli The paintings of this American artist reveal the empathy he shows for his fellow mankind.
The technique of the great master explained.
90 JANET WALSH Flower Painting / Colourist A world of colour and joyfulness.
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FOCUS ON
Mary Whyte
A tribute to the worker in the South MARY WHYTE HAS DEVOTED THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF HER LIFE TO HER LATEST SERIES OF WATERCOLOURS WHICH PORTRAY THOSE PROFESSIONS WHICH ARE DISAPPEARING FROM THE SOUTHERN STATES OF THE USA. IN ADDITION TO THEIR SOCIAL COMMENTARY, THESE WORKS ARE ABOVE ALL WONDERFUL PAINTINGS… SO WE HOPE YOU’LL ENJOY THIS EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW. By Laurent Benoist. Photos: all rights reserved.
Mary Whyte’s watercolours portray those left by the side of the road by an economic and financial system for which our human condition is of little consequence: cotton pickers, textile workers, shipyard joiners, shrimp fishermen and farmers… a list of professions that are gradually disappearing from the South. An exhibition (that starts on March 9th in South Carolina) brings together fifty watercolours painted over three and a half years; it not only shows the artist’s technical prowess but also the empathy she feels for her subjects. There’s no doubt about it: these paintings are masterpieces. How did you get the idea for this exhibition? It came to me when I was painting the commissioned portrait of the president of a bank. That same day, I had read in the local paper that a textile mill was closing. Hundreds of workers were about to lose the only job they had ever known. The banker told me that within five or ten years all of these factories would have shut down for good. His statement inspired me to paint the people who had spent their whole lives working in the mills. I then took my idea further by deciding to devote the following three or four years of my life to travelling around the ten southern states painting people in different vanishing industries. Did you feel the need to develop a relationship with your models before painting them? Almost everyone I painted in the series was a stranger to me when I first met them. I found my models by research and word of mouth, with one person leading to another. I don’t think it is necessary to forge a friendship with a person before painting them, it is however necessary to project a level of trust. I was continually amazed at how forthcoming and
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Trap Crabber. (Pinpoint, GA). 2008. Watercolor on paper, 71 x 79 cm.
Lovers Quilter (Berea, KY). 2008. Watercolor on paper, 67 x 71 cm.
Cotton Man. (Bishopville, SC). 2007. Watercolor on paper, 103 x 70 cm. Collection of the Greenville County Museum of Art
TO SEE Mary Whyte’s exhibition ‘Working South’ can be seen at Greenville County Art Museum, South Carolina until September 18th. It will then be at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, from December 1st 2011 to March 11th, at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina (from May 4th to September 2012), the Telfair Museum, Savannah, Georgia (from October 5th 2012 to February 24th 2013) and finally at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia (from April 6th to July 7th 2013). MARY WHYTE: WORKING SOUTH Greenville County Museum of Art 420 College Street Greenville, South Carolina, USA. Tel.: +1 864 271-7570 www.greenvillemuseum.org Exhibition from March 9th 2011
generous people were to me when they learned I wanted to paint them. The unexpected bonus to the series is that I made a few truly wonderful friends. Do you hope these paintings will have an impact on society? My hope is that each painting will be viewed as a work of art, a thing of beauty made up of watercolour and paper. My other desire is to give recognition to folks who otherwise live their lives under the radar, people who are generally overlooked by a celebrity and media driven society. Do you think the artist has a role to play in today’s world? I do believe that each of us as artists has a role to play in today’s society. Even if the artist is employed doing commercial work creating posters for fast food chains, there is always the opportunity to give rise to beauty. In a world consumed by technology and the material, these little islands of artistic creativity give reprieve to the soul.
Get your information regarding your exhibition published for FREE in the next issue of the magazine. Send us your information by Email to the follwowing address:
agenda@artofwatercolour.com W ATERCOLOUR N O .2 / M ARCH -M AY 2011
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LIFE
AN ARTIST’S
I AM PROBABLY THE LUCKIEST MAN IN THE WORLD! HOW MANY OF US ACTUALLY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO FOLLOW THEIR DREAM? AMONG THE PEOPLE THAT I HAVE MET THROUGH WATERCOLOUR, THEY’VE ALL SAID TO ME “HOW I ENVY YOUR WONDERFUL LIFESTYLE!”
Robert A. Wade
Watercolour On the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem. 51 x 76 cm. “The very strong contrast at the focal point is like the star of the act caught in the spot of a searchlight. Hard edges and detail are kept to this area and everywhere else there are softly diffused edges and out-of-focus shapes. The old gentleman provided me the wonderful lightest light shape to place against the warm darkest darks.”
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ROBERT A. WADE The Carpet Market, Marrakech. 38 x 76 cm. “There was plenty of work to do in this one! Busy, busy, busy!!! I left out lots of figures in order to simplify things somewhat. Multi-patterned carpets, signs, people everywhere as well as debris and mess, all needed cleaning up a bit. I took the figures from my many Moroccan sketchbook drawings, popping them in where I felt there was a need to portray people in their everyday situations. They are so important in giving a sense of place to the work. Later on I changed the figure of the lady in the patterned dress to another Moroccan man. I really believe that the FEEL of Morocco and its Souks comes through so very strongly in this painting…”
F
For over thirty years I travelled the world, in the company of my wife Ann, lecturing, teaching, judging and painting in 41 different countries. Living in Australia, my native land, means that there are few countries close by, so any travel involves long flights. When we leave our home city of Melbourne and head West to Asia or Europe, we’ve flown for five hours and still have not even left this vast continent of Australia! We had more than 40 trips away, many involving circumnavigation of the globe as we continued on from Europe to USA and Canada, Mexico, Hawaii or New Zealand.
W HAT
DROVE ME TO DO THIS ? I guess that firstly my personal ambition to succeed on the world watercolour scene was my prime motivation. I wanted to prove to myself that I could hold my own elsewhere other than just in my very own local area. Wherever I travelled I contacted artists whom I admired, writing to them months in advance to organise meetings with them and then arranging my final travel plans. Without exception I was welcomed with open arms and from these contacts many lifetime friendships
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KEY DATES 1930 Born in Melbourne, Australia. 1983 and 1985 Elected ‘Artist of the Year’ by the Victorian Artists’ Society. He was elected Member of the Australian Watercolour Institute in 1983. 1983-1993 Exhibited every year at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in London. 1986 Awarded the ‘Advance Australia Medal’ for his contribution to Australian art. 1988 Received the Winsor and Newton Australian Bi-Centenary Award for Watercolour. 2000 Elected Member of the American Watercolor Society. 2003 Received the Medal of The Order of Australia for “his contribution to Watercolour as Artist, Educator and Promoter of Australian Art”. 2008 Elected Honorary Member of the Pure Watercolour Society. > http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rawade/
Thimi Village, Nepal. 51 x 76 cm. “The strong silhouetted figure is placed almost dead centre of the painting and acts as a target to draw the viewer straight to this point. All the other shapes radiate out from this spot. It gives a tremendous feeling of depth and pulls the eye right down to the sunlit square. This filthy, dingy alley was miraculously transformed into something special. The introduction of the glowing reflected light works wonders and all of the cool-over-warm glazing builds up a magical feeling. The figure came from my sketchbooks… see how useful they are? Keep on drawing!!!”
were made. After all these years, I am still in touch with most of these delightful people. Acceptance by my peers in many different countries boosted my confidence to continue my career by exhibiting and teaching overseas. Conducting workshops and painting holidays also gave me the opportunity for plein air painting in wonderful situations, gaining the experience of working outdoors under all sorts of conditions, hot, cold, wet, windy, uncomfortable, cramped, noisy and occasionally a bit hazardous!
A RT
SPEAKS ALL LANGUAGES All great fun, with my students sometimes convulsed with laughter as I attempted a demo under the most extraordinary circumstances, often trying to converse with onlookers who had little or no English or trying to explain to the gendarmes just what this crowd of foreigners was doing cluttering up the sidewalks of their village. Contact with the residents of villages where we stayed and painted was always a very special part of our travels. I believe that most people feel that artists are friendly peaceful characters. They realise that nobody could
care for the environment more than we do! On one occasion we arrived in Chioggia in Italy for a day’s painting. I set up in the entrance to a narrow alley, while my group of 25 settled in around me. I soon had the demo under way, with the owner of a local bistro standing close by to have a good view of what I was doing. “Bella! Bella!” he kept repeating. Then suddenly, he disappeared back into his restaurant only to reappear a few minutes later carrying a large, framed original painting from the wall of his bistro. Holding it up for my inspection and comment, “Ti piaci?” he asked. “Si, mi piace daverro!” I replied. (Do you like it? Yes, I like it very much!) So that started him off and he went backwards and forwards at least another six times as he continued to bring out his entire collection! As my Italian only runs to limited responses, he just kept getting the same reply from me! He went off again and returned a little later but this time he was not alone, he was followed by his wife and family carrying freshly brewed coffee, cakes and biscuits with his compliments! It was a very happy occasion with lots of hugs, handshakes and back slapping. Art speaks all languages, what a great thing for international relationships W ATERCOLOUR N O .2 / M ARCH -M AY 2011
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PORTFOLIO
David
Curtis THE INFINITE ABUNDANCE OF PLEIN AIR PAINTING
WHEN HE’S NOT CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN OR STRADDLING ONE OF HIS MOTORBIKES AND RIDING AROUND THE COUNTRY, DAVID CURTIS PAINTS: PREFERABLY OUTDOORS, AND SEASCAPES IN PARTICULAR. ALTHOUGH (OR PERHAPS BECAUSE) HE IS SELFTAUGHT, HE HAS NO EQUAL WHEN IT COMES TO CAPTURING WITH FINESSE THE ATMOSPHERE OF A LANDSCAPE.
HARBOUR STUDY, ISLE OF MAN 28.5 X 39 CM
EXPERT ADVICE
PLAYING WITH CONTRASTS Frank Webb FOR FRANK WEBB, ART IS AN ESCAPE FROM THE MUNDANE AND SHOULD TRANSCEND REALITY. IT SHOULD SHOW OUR WORLD FOR WHAT IT IS: BEAUTIFUL AND LUMINOUS. HIS FLUID AND TRANSPARENT WATERCOLOURS SING THE PRAISES OF LIGHT. PALETTE My palette includes no earth colours and generally favours the most transparent paints. I use American Journey paint which is available in 37 ml size tubes. My blues include: Phtalo, Ultramarine and Cerulean. My reds include: Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose and Opera. My greens include Viridian, Hooker’s Green, Dark and Phtalo Green. My yellows: Quinacridone Yellow, plus a warm bright yellow and a cool bright yellow of any brand as long as its made with arylide. So all three of my yellows are transparent. I use as a dark orange, Burnt Orange Quinacridone. I use Payne’s Grey to darken any of my cool brights when I do not wish to change their hue. I mix my own bright oranges when needed.
OPAQUE AND TRANSPARENT COLOURS I am not interested in opaque paint as such, but enjoy using Cerulean Blue. Although it is opaque, I welcome its granulating properties: the same is true for Ultramarine and Viridian. Having worked as an illustrator, I am well practiced in opaque media, but I find now that art thrives on limitations rather than extensions..
ADDITIVES I include no other solvent or medium with my paint and use few, if any gimmicks to produce paint texture. I limit myself to the purest, most transparent procedures although, I appreciate great work by others who work diferently.
CHOICE OF COLOURS I give very little attention to local color and often give short shrift to local tonal values as well. Although I always plan tonal values and shapes
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on a small sketch before painting, my colour comes intuitively. I agree with Van Gogh who said that “My colour comes from the palette and not obsequiously from nature.” This attitude toward colour is consistent with my overall approach. Although my paintings always start with nature, I make up my own shapes, tonal values, sizes and colours.
BACKGROUND AND DEPTH I seldom try to paint atmosphere and clouds. My distant shapes are often handled as simple combinations of close-valued shapes. I marvel
at how Cezanne’s Mont Sainte Victoire is painted in almost the same way as the shapes in the foreground and yet is forty miles away.
THEORETICAL IDEAS Since my art school days I have studied colour theory and have done countless experiments, but I have never held a color chart in one hand as I paint with the other. I think we need to know colour theory, and perspective too... so that we are free to embrace or eschew those theories as our art requires.
KEY DATES Frank Webb, A.W.S. (DF), N.W.S. is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He also studied at the Fleisher Art Memorial and with painter, Edgar Whitney. He became a senior partner in an advertising art studio until 1980, when he left to become a full-time painter and teacher. He has taught workshops in 50 states and worldwide. In 2007, he was included in the top 20 great teachers in an article in American Artist. He has lectured twice to the members of the American Watercolor Society. Webb is the author of three books, five DVDs and has contributed to 30 publications. 1976 Bronze Medal of Honor, American Watercolor Society, New York. 1983 First Award, National Arts Club Open, New York. 1984 Pleissner Award, American Watercolor Society, New York. 1988 Dana Memorial Award, Philadelphia Watercolor Society. 1989 Walser Greathouse Medal, American Watercolor Society, New York. 1995 Gold Medal, Audubon Artists, New York. 1999 Grumbacher Gold Medal, National Water Color Society. 2000 Stary Sheets Award, National Watercolor Society, San Pedro, CA. 2003 Best of Show, Aqueous Open Pittsburgh Watercolor Society. 2006 Special Merit Award, Transparent Watercolor Society, Elmhurst, IL. 2006 Alan Chiara Memorial Award, American watercolor Society, New York. 2006 John Young Hunter Memorial Award, Allied Artists of America, New York. 2007 Lori Fronzak Memorial Award, Transparent watercolor Society. 2008: Hardy Gramatky Award, American Watercolor Society. > www.artshow.com/webb
The strengths of the colours and the contrast they provide draw the viewer into this painting. The people are only hinted at with coloured silhouettes and the buildings with graphic and geometric rhythms. Warm and cold colours cohabit in the different areas of the painting. All this gives the feel of a lively urban scene. Taxco, Mexico. 127 x 91.5 cm.
In this painting (left), the sense of shape is given by the colours. The shadows are painted bright blue and the faรงades of the buildings in the full sun are left white. Funchal. 56 x 76 cm.
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