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Inspiration from Artists Week 65 Featuring Artists Rowland Hilder and Alphonse Mucha.

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Alan Bickley

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Just to add… he continued his bold illustration style of drawing Into his paintings. Generally, he starts off by dropping in all his darkest areas, using black Indian ink or Lamp black watercolour. The mid-tones follow using neutral tint watercolour… then he looks at adding colour.

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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Railway carriage paintings  I love looking at them , I suspect like a lot of people my interest in painting comes from seeing such great landscape in those old carriages. My dad was I’m the RAF  we traveled a lot by train I used to sneak a look in other empty carriages when I had the chance, how we took them for granted at the time. I really like the Lavenham painting Lew posted such a beautiful place , unfortunately I did not paint when I lived  six miles away . 

Tessa Gwynne

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Just to add… he continued his bold illustration style of drawing Into his paintings. Generally, he starts off by dropping in all his darkest areas, using black Indian ink or Lamp black watercolour. The mid-tones follow using neutral tint watercolour… then he looks at adding colour.
Alan Bickley on 29/05/2023 06:33:43
I know little about watercolour technique but don’t watercolourists usually start with light colours and tones and work towards darker? 
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Most watercolorists do start of with lights and work towards the darker colours . I suspect I picked up the habit somewhere along the line of putting in some of the shadows as I find it helps to shape the painting, I do this more with ships, buildings, vehicles etc than I  do with landscape. I did have several of his books years ago so maybe that’s when it started as I was learning (well I  still am at ) the time . 
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Robert Jones, NAPA

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The normal practice in watercolour is light to dark, oil paint dark to light; but Hilder didn't use a standard watercolour technique; his work was almost an extension of pen and ink work - and of course, he did use ink in many of his watercolours.  He established his shadows first, and strongly, then build up an image around them, sometimes including white chalk, or gouache, charcoal, carbon pencil, pen.  Alan B will have a more fundamental understanding of his process, as he's written about him, studied him, even met him.   He didn't like to use fugitive colours - hence a preponderance of Lamp Black, Neutral Tint, Paynes Grey, earth colours like ochres, siennas, and umbers - Hilder painted the way I'd love to paint if only I were good enough!  But he could lay a Lamp Black glaze over a largely viridian sea, and make it work: I tried that; it looked like something very nasty you might find at the bottom of a ditch, only without any possibility of anything living in it. He could and did produce delicate work, but when I think of Hilder, my overriding impression is of strength, in colour, line, and composition.  

Tessa Gwynne

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Thank you gents for the info- very interesting. I will have a look at more of his work. My dad was a big admirer of RH and I remember seeing his work probably back in the 60s and 70s.
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Lewis Cooper

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He also did War posters.  Here's a few... I love his pen and ink work (and the rest, of course).

Alan Bickley

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I believe Robert has summed his working style up nicely… an extension almost of his pen and ink work. That’s pretty much what it is, and we haven’t mentioned his draftsmanship skills. There’s a watercolour of Knowle House where this is so evident - I’ll see if I can find it!
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Lewis Cooper

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Here's another poster I meant to include, it think it clearly shows the technique Alan and Robert described.

Alan Bickley

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Knowle House. He does a demo of this in one of his books, a complicated subject!

Norrette Moore

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This helps me understand why my local authority adult ed. tutor is keen on us trying dark to light. He's a fan of Hilder and had us copying one of his Oast house pictures last term. I studiously ignored the advice and wondered why my tones are, let's say, less than distinctive. I like the Knowle house picture, which seems much brighter than some of his work.

Alan Bickley

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This is Hilder’s style of working, there is no right or wrong way as we always say! Wesson and Seago for instance, approached watercolour in a totally different way - and with stunning results!
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