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Inspiration from Artists Wk 130 Featuring Artists : Matty Burnham and Ernest Dade
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Posted
MATTY BURNHAM is a British illustrator, originally from Cumbria, now living near Leeds in Yorkshire. His main focus is on North Yorkshire’s beautiful landscapes, especially the distinctive fishing villages along the east coast.
His art story began during the pandemic when lockdown provided him with more spare time, and he thought he’d try a new hobby. “In my naivety I decided on watercolour, and so a very challenging and perilous journey began!” About six months later he discovered line and wash which turned out to be a turning point for him, and his work began to take on a more illustrative quality. He is drawn to detailed and quite complex scenes.
All his work is painted on Arches Aquarelle Rough 300 gm 100% cotton, and he uses Schminke Horadam artist quality watercolours, with paintbrushes locally handmade by Rosemary & Co.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Excellent, I love all of these. Good find Jenny. 
Posted
I recently came across Matty’s paintings on Instagram. I really like the way he lays down colour, the clean ink lines and how each painting feels full of light. Funnily enough I saw a big selection of his paintings on his stand at Art in the Pen at Skipton recently, and they look even better in real life.
Posted
There's some lovely work here - but started in lockdown? I'm finding that very hard to believe - not merely because of the technical proficiency, but you don 't acquire that understanding of design, the play of light, nor even the granulating abilities of watercolour - you can achieve granulation with Ultramarine plus Burnt Sienna and Light Red, and with various other colours (avoid Pthalos...) - in a matter of months or even a few years. Unless perhaps he's swallowed a whole library of instructional books, of a very high quality.
I would imagine he's using a granulating medium, as well as exploiting the natural qualities of the paint and paper, but anyone can do that: not anyone can place the colour so accurately to achieve the results in these paintings: take the penultimate one, above, the placement of that blue spot on the building: you have to know what you're doing to achieve that, even using the best quality pigments and cotton-rag paper. I almost HOPE he's not telling the full story, because if he can achieve in a couple of years what it takes others 50 years to do, he's touched by genius.
Perhaps the extensive use of granulation might not appeal to everyone - there are those, though I find this strange, who go out of their way to avoid it; but it certainly appeals to me, and nowhere has his colour become muddy - it sings!
Posted
Depends to a large extent where he’s getting his ideas from… as in ‘is he copying others compositions etc’, because it’s relatively easy to make a good copy, even for a novice!
The lining out in pen and ink first is nothing new obviously, but it works better on some of the images than others. Too much detail on windows etc isn’t good. Then it’s knowing where to place the colours, and he’s done a decent job, and relied heavily on granulation to which Robert alludes to. I like granulation and usually try and achieve it in my skies. I use ultramarine and light red, never fails (with a bit of rocking) and much better than the granulation fluid that is available.
Tonally, it’s lacking on some, better on others …
But they don’t excite me, just a reasonably accurate representation of buildings etc, sticking rigidly within the demarcation lines he’s drawn, but drawn with some confidence it has to be said!
Posted
A useful bit of Bickley balance, there.
The detailing inherent in pen and ink work can strike one as being too pernickety; it usually is, when colour is applied - incidentally, using rough paper, as Burnham does, I'd find those precise lines hard to do; the pen is likely to sputter and catch on the ridges of the paper; this technique is rather more common using a NOT or cold-pressed surface - but if this is a problem for him, those are the paintings we don't get to see; we all have those....
However, while it's true than pen and ink line work, with added watercolour, is not in itself unusual; nor is it being over critical to find this style of work very "tidy" - the awkward realities of life tucked away - I have to say I still think this exceptional work of high quality; and one of the reasons for that is the clarity of colour, and the skill of its placement; it does help that I'm always attracted to rich blues - we had some work by a cartoonist on the Observer (Chris Riddell) the other day: and it's his use of strong blue, very typical of his cartoons, that first drew me to him: the intricate details of his drawings came second to his use of colour: with which I wish I were less literal, by the bye.
They DO excite me, but then that's all part of life's rich pageant! We're all drawn to different things - I'm currently listening to a work by Miloslav Kabelac, a (now deceased) Czech composer - which I know many will hate; whereas I think him a genius; well, there you go - give him a listen and see what you think...
Posted
Depends to a large extent where he’s getting his ideas from… as in ‘is he copying others compositions etc’, because it’s relatively easy to make a good copy, even for a novice! (Alan Bickley)
That, of course, is very true - worthy of further investigation.
https://www.mattyburnham.com/art-supplies
Instructive on the paints, paper, and ink.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA