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Inspiration from Artists Week 29 : Om Kim Seng and Chris Forsey.
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Message
Posted
Wellcome to this weeks thread the featuring artists are: Om Kim Seng and Christ Forsey. I will introduce Om Kim Seng today and Jenny will present Chris Forsey on Wednesday. Hope you enjoy the work of both artists.
Om Kim Seng was born in Singapore in aJuly 1945 and had been a full time artist since 1985. Om has exhibited in most countries throughout the world including the UK. He work plein air and uses watercolour.
A selection of his excellent work , it was difficult to choose just these few . 
Edited
by Paul (Dixie) Dean
Posted
These are breathtaking watercolours - as close to perfection as it's possible to get: I shall never be this good with watercolour, but he gives me the incentive to keep splashing away - very good work usually has that effect, if it doesn't make you furtively snap your brushes and give up, that is.
PS - worth adding another thought, I thought! If you want to get this good, obviously you/we need to keep practising like a fiend: but if this painter has a secret, it's his study of light and its effects - the throwing of shadow, the brightness of sunlight. All of the paintings shown have this masterful eye for light and shade - that's what brings a painting in any medium to life, and it is not easy to achieve.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA
Posted
Wishy-washy watercolour, more water than colour, is indeed to be avoided - I suspect that sort of watercolour has put many people off; but you see above what watercolour CAN do - in the hands of a master of the medium, anyway. I think an issue is that some brands of watercolour are so weak that you just can't get good colour out of them. Naming no names, because brands change over time and some of those I've found weak and insipid may well have changed over the years. Sticking to Winsor and Newton's professional grade; Jackson's ditto; Daler Rowney Artists' Grade; and even Cotman, which is low-priced but still very good; White Knights; Rembrandt; Shin Han; Michael Wilcox School of Colour, if you use his 12 colour max system, will serve you well. I've also read good reports of Daniel Smith - although their range does seem excessively large to me - and Aquafine, but have used neither as yet.
I don't want to have to struggle to achieve strong colour - very little, apart from bad quality paper, frustrates as much.
Posted
I have used most of the watercolour paints you named Robert and have not had a issue about there quality.
I have used a cheap paint's as a exercise and some where like using the dried blocks you have for children to use ( not my grandchildren they use mine) and some the colours did not match any of the descriptions either darker of lighter .
I had one set of Chinese watercolour paints that I wish I could get again, the best I have ever used unfortunately it wax from a little shop in Hong Kong, the guy sat painting whist you shopped , then stopped to have tea with you and chatted.
He almost gave me the paints to try, I really should have trusted my instincts and bought a shed load .
To the current artist I find his work so refreshing and have seen very similar in real life , the Chinese have used watercolour far longer than we have and certainly know a thing or two about it.
Posted
I paint in watercolour and now buy mostly Daniel Smith and some Daler Rowney, both really good brands. I think the problem, especially with beginners, is that they buy pan sets and it’s very easy to produce wish-washy watercolours with these. To get a decent strength of colour you really need to buy tube paint. I started out with pan sets and pretty soon discarded them.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
Agreed, Jenny - pan colours can be one hell of a struggle, as you struggle to extract any strength of colour from them. And Paul - yup! You should have bought those Chinese watercolours! The Chinese have been painting in watercolour for thousands of years - long, long before our own 'civilization' took root. I must say in defence of some pan colours, though, that they can be absolutely fine - I do prefer the tubes, they do tend to yield colour far more quickly, but I have a rather nice Cotman set (won in a competition here on PoL!) and some W & N pans. I'm not overly impressed by W & N oils these days, sadly: but their watercolours and acrylics are still just about top-notch; and Daler-Rowney, while not as responsive as they could be, are still producing high quality paints through all media. We mustn't take these for granted, either - the bottom line tends to take over the more these historic companies are swallowed up by big conglomerates.
I must try the Daniel Smith colours - I'm on an oil paint kick at the moment, but am bound to return to watercolour sooner or later. I've got great faith in Daler-Rowney, for their oils - the professional quality ones that is - their acrylics (Cryla is at number one - just about the best there is - and System3), and their solid, basic watercolours - nothing quite like a Daler-Rowney Cadmium Red: revel in its luxury!
Posted
I’ve just picked up 12 x 12 gsm tubes do Daler - Rowney watercolour paint for just under £8 I could not leave them there for that price . It was a damaged box set , don’t like the three brushes but the grandchildren can use them.
My eldest daughter bought me a wonderful wooden box set of W&N half pans years ago still used them occasionally now and still some original pans . I was this that started me watercolour painting , very rich paint blocks , I changed to tubes ax I needed more paint due to doing bigger paintings. When I lead workshop the advice that they always buy the best paint , brushes and paper they can afford at the time or buy better as you get better.