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Watercolour Painting |
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EARLE BACKEN AM, Vice-President 1998-03 |
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Watercolour
painting has a long and glorious tradition in both Eastern and Western
cultures, and has been a medium practised in Australia since the earliest days
of European settlement. There was a very strong school of watercolour
painting in England, and it is largely from this school that the use of
watercolour developed in Australia. The fine paintings of Conrad Martens are
an example of this and watercolour has continued as an important part of the
painter’s vocabulary until the present day. |
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Watercolour,
as with drawing and printmaking has usually taken second place in importance
after oil painting, but because of its immediacy and its particular
properties it has nevertheless been a medium much loved by artists. |
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The
characteristics of watercolour are many; the luminosity, the sparkle, the
brilliance of colour, and the qualities to be found in the gesture and
brush-strokes, the textures obtained by the different uses of pigment and
water, and the particular paper. |
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With
all the visual arts I personally take a very traditional point of view regarding
the concept of the medium. the visual arts are just that – visual- and it is
through the artist’s medium that his or her statement is made. In Christian
terms it is sacramental; i.e. an outward and visible sign of something inward
and spiritual. The quality of the art work depends on the integration of the
artist’s idea, and its manifestation. Each medium has its own characteristics
and it is through the knowledge and skill of the artist that the particular
aspects of the medium are used to express his or her intention. The
properties of watercolour are many, and have been mentioned. The fluidity,
the nuances of colour and the brushstrokes can produce work that are as
sensitive as the music of Chopin or Erik Satie. Unfortunately the subtleties
of watercolour can be reduced to a weak and insipid image (a student of mine
once called watercolours of this type ‘watery colours’, which seems to sum
them up very well indeed) and sometimes ‘experimentation’ can lead to
unfortunate results. |
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Gouache
or body colour have a very different character to pure watercolour, for they
have an opaque character which permits much over-painting. Gouache is used by
many painters, and is often combined with watercolour. |
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The
strength of watercolour can be seen in its great adaptability, and its use
has resulted in some of the most unforgettable images in the history of the
visual arts. The great Chinese masters are an example of this, but also in
the European tradition, the watercolours of Cotman, Bonington, Turner,
Sargent, Cézanne and others are amongst their greatest works. In this
century, Paul Klee, Morandi, Dufy, Sam Francis and Andrew Wyeth have produced
watercolours that are major expressions in their painting. In Australia we
have a great tradition also, Arthur Streeton, David Davies, Lionel Lindsay,
Hans Hyson, Frank McNamara are afew names of the many great Australian
watercolour painters. In the final analysis the quality of a watercolour,
as with any work of art, depends on the strengths of the artist’s statement.
Brilliance of technique in itself can be a hindrance. The Australian Watercolour Institute endeavours to
foster the use of watercolour as a vehicle for the artist’s expression, and
different attitudes and styles are encouraged but all the artists concerned
are captivated by the magic of working with this beautiful [but very testy
and difficult] medium.
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