Inspiration from Artists Wk 107 Bonus Artis Geoff Butterworth.

I really like your selection Paul, the "real life" subject matter really appeals. Please, what is the difference between watercolour and "pure watercolour"?

Another fine painter.  Seriously, you wouldn't think it possible, would you?  The man's range is incredible, his draughtsmanship extraordinary! Sandra, I have reservations about the distinction between watercolour and "pure" watercolour, but what is usually meant by the term is that it's watercolour without the use of body colour, e.g. gouache, or Chinese White.  Use of masking fluid, wax and other resists, would also disqualify a work as being pure watercolour. In practice, many of the Victorian watercolourists used Chinese White (Zinc White) but in the most refined examples you would be doing well to detect it: it was often used to give strength, and very subtle opacity, to yellows, which are notoriously hard to make sing in watercolour (yellow on white - you can see the problem).  That's one reason why I have reservations about the term, but another is that there are a good few tubed/pan watercolours which already contain body colour - e.g. Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow, LIght Red, Venetian Red: painters who use such colours would still, probably, claim to paint in pure watercolour; but I think that's a bit mischievous of them.   A great exponent of pure watercolour was James Fletcher-Watson - another was Ted Wesson; did they never sneak in a bit of white, I wonder...  I don't THINK either of them used masking, but I could well be wrong.   Usually, but not always, Alan Owen - still producing a painting a day and s howing on YouTube: sometimes more than one painting a day - paints in pure watercolour: he is of course a disciple of Ted Wesson.   I've sometmes watched three or four of his videos end to end - still mesmerized by the results he achieves whatever the paper; there are some w/c papers I just can't paint on at all (and anyway: as I always say in self-defence, it's not my main medium!).  Anyone wanting to know how to paint in pure watercolour will find him a great example. 

Agree with Sandra, it’s his choice of ‘real life’ scenes which makes his work so appealing.  I particularly like the one with the barge.

I like his washing line pictures, especially the brickwork on the first of those. Would that I had patience! I never go to art group without a tube of white gouache in my pencil case.  Someone always needs it. ;-)

Reference pure watercolour and Robert’s analysis of which I happen to agree…. It’s worth noting that Turner himself used body colour, including white, on many (in fact most) of his thousands of sketchbook and finished watercolours - I need say no more! 

Thanks Paul, this is one of my own examples from my ‘Learning from Turner’ feature which appeared in a 2023 edition of The Artist magazine. Obviously it’s impossible to get anywhere near his standard, because he was a genius… but we can learn so much from his thousands of sketchbook studies nonetheless! I’ve used a similar tinted handmade paper to Turner, and areas of body colour plus white.

Butterworth's paintings are superb. It is an interesting conversation as with regards to the pure watercolourist. I never use white in watercolour but occasionally will use a masking fluid but prefer leaving the paper untouched if I can. When using Eastern watercolours, this differs as white is sometimes used over colours. The consistency of Eastern watercolours is very different from Western watercolours. Many of the well known Western artists have been studying Eastern art for hundreds of years. I think what matters, is the image produced. So when doing Chinese brushwork, I have no problems using white. 

I did mention Andrew Barrowman as a possible inclusion a while ago - did we ever follow up on that?  I know you did respond, but I don't think I responded to your response.... things came up, I think. We've done quite a few over the last year, so many that I know you've forgotten now and then that we've already covered someone, and so have I - we DID do John McCombs, didn't we?  Nina Scott-Langley would be worth a look; Cavendish Morton (we may have been there already!), Ivan Repin, Egon Schiele, Gwen John, Augustus John, Andrew Tischler, Andrew (?) Tozer, Mark Rothko, John Bratby, Daumier, Dufy - well, there's a regiment of painty dabblers for you to take a look at!  Mostly men, I notice - add Gentileschi, then; Paula Rego ... I'm just more familiar with male artists. On your "pure watercolour" point: I can't pinpoint the time when some began to talk airily of the "pure" - I don't know that there was always a snobbish or pejorative connotation (here I am again, in dictionary corner) but I did get a whiff of that in some commentators, and I did get peeved with the condescension - it's one thing to prefer to use the paper to give the highlights; probably many of us do; but it's the way it could be said sometimes, eg, "of course, we NEVER use white in watercolour", "you CAN use gouache, but it is cheating, hmm?" that led one to reach stealthily for a serviceable weapon ....  If the greatest watercolourist used body colour, as we know he did (so did Constable, not perhaps to the same degree) one is surely on very shaky ground to assert that it shouldn't be done.   Ray Campbell-Smith, whom devotees of the magazines will remember fondly, did use pure watercolour, and spoke of it, as did Fletcher-Watson: but neither artist made a snobbish fetish out of it.   Rowland Hilder used just about everything he could lay his hands on with watercolour - wax, ink, body colour, pastel.  Again, good enough for him - surely to God good enough for the likes of us...... I respect those who restrict themselves to using only the white of the paper, and use only transparent, single pigment colours: The late Thea Cable, who was a regular here, made a point of this.   But I don't respect people who sneer - who nit-pick - who wrinkle their noses and utter little moues of distaste if someone should do something which isn't quite, my dear, comme il faut.  Genteel watercolouring, often with far more water than paint, is just annoying - and I'm being unwontedly polite there.  We don't paint to be proper, we paint to make pictures - or should.