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watercolour artists
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Posted
What artist inspired you to start painting watercolours. ?Mine was Alwyn Crawshaw and he only used three colours mostly and sometimes four. I painted for a while doing just that, ultramarine ,yelow ochre and Alizaron ccrimson and sometimes hookers green. He is a great artist and his trees and horses are wonderful . long live Alwyn....Syd
Posted
Mine was David Weston (Leicestershire based). David was a superb artist in many mediums and made his name painting rail stock - his work appears in many collections including Royalty. In his later years he painted landscapes and cityscapes and his annual exhibitions held in the grounds of his amazing studio were always a sell-out. He also published a number of books of which I have copies all personally dedicated.
I worked with David on an NHS committee for the arts as well with the charity Paintings in Hospitals. I became a friend of David (and his lovely wife, Mary) and spent quite a lot of time with him painting in his studio and out in the open in the Wreak Valley in Leicestershire. David taught me so much and it was a joy just to watch him paint, seeing how he mixed colours, how he achieved his fabulous washes - I could go on and on. Sadly David is no longer with us, he was such a patient man and gave me so much encouragement and I sorely miss him.
If you want to get an idea of his work take a peak at the following site:
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:weston-david-19352011
Edited
by MichaelEdwards
Posted
The artist that inspired me was Ashley Jackson, because I have always spent a lot of time in the wild country and on mountains, I liked the way his work showed the moors and upland as they are with no frills just more or less what you see as a walker no great unnecessary amounts of detail that you do not actually see unless you specifically look for it, also the colours are true to what is there.
Posted
Years ago, I saw Ian King on the TV in his programmes "King & Country". I recorded some of them on video and that gave me a kick to try painting in watercolour. I also baught some of his dvd's and learned a lot from his pen and wash technique. I also have dvd's by David Curtis, David Bellamy and Geoff Kersey.
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/artist/MiaKetels
Posted
When I started back to painting seriously about two years ago, I bought numerous books on 'how to' but because flower painting is the one thing I'm happiest painting, I found Billie Showell and Anna Mason really made me excited when looking at their work. I tried some paintings in both their styles and now seem to have developed my own style of working which is sort of between the two using elements of both these wonderful artists.
Syd when you mentioned Alwyn Crawshaw it reminded me that I have one of his books here somewhere which was bought many years ago, I must look for it.
Michael, I had a look at David Weston's work and he really was wonderful. I love the details in his paintings. My hubby is fed up of me painting flowers and would love to have a painting of a steam train! He will have to go on waiting!
Posted
I've been thinking about this since Syd's post first appeared, and I just can't think who inspired me to paint in watercolour, why I started (and it wasn't that long ago, either), whereas I could reasonably easily answer for oil and acrylic, even though this inspiration occurred 50 years ago.
So I tried thinking back to the first book on watercolour I bought - and the one I most miss, when I had to reduce the size of my book collection (I would say library, but you'd imagine me living in a baronial hall with smoking room, gun room, and library attached: and this would - mislead you slightly).
Which leaves me with two books - one by Wilfred Ball (who put me off a bit by his reliance on masking fluid, which I've never cared for), and the other by - Hell: the name has just slipped out of my brain; American born, 1905; I can SEE him now; is this what happens to us, Syd? Hang on, talk among yourselves, I'll be back.
As I was saying, then, Wilfred Ball, and Rowland Hilder..... seriously, that took a full 7 minutes to come back to me. If this is what having too much to drink on Saturday night does to you I'd better pack it in...
Trouble is, he said, recovering himself, neither of these were actually great examples to follow for a beginner, because of the complexity of their techniques. Ball used a very elaborate, layered approach which is extremely difficult to do: he produced lovely paintings (which you hardly ever see these days) but I just couldn't get the hang of the method. Hilder used a totally different technique, employing copious quantities of black ink, Lamp Black, Neutral Tint, and Paynes Grey, betraying his past career as a prolific illustrator for books: his paintings were remarkable, but how many of us get on with black in watercolour? I certainly didn't. So I think my idols actually got in the way of my taking up watercolour, and it wasn't until I saw the works of Ted Wesson, Edward Seago, and James Fletcher-Watson that I thought I might be able (one day) to do something like that.
Posted
I would have to say Ashley Jackson too. I used to watch his programmes when I was small and loved the way the paint worked. Also my dad, who was a very good artist, and tried to teach me how to use them (although his style was too different to mine). More recently my watercolour art has been influenced by Tim Wootton, a wildlife artist living in Orkney who works from field sketches that he brings back to the studio - he has a wonderful style that I have tried to learn from.
