The Art of Watercolour (24)

Details: Published: 21 September 2016; Hits: 431

The 24^th issue of The Art of Watercolor makes its international comeback under the sign of water. The Spanish Nuria Meseguer deploys vast aquatic frescoes from her studio in the Canary Islands. At the antipodes, the American Rose Nygaard develops a gestural abstraction, and the UruguayanAlvaro Castagnet travels the world.
The portfolio is that of the Russian Kiril Bozhkov. After these portraits, we meet the British Stephen Berry and David Poxon.
We visit the workshop of the Iranian Kourosh Aslani. After a focus on the Chinese watercolourist Zhou Tianya, a whole file on watercolor artists on travels.
Not forgetting the usual sections (news, revelations and reader's contest).

The News

The Biennial of Sainte-Féréole

Near Brive-la-Gaillarde, Sainte-Féréole welcomes the couple Viktoria and Slawa Prischedko as guests of honor for this 2016 biennial.
Numerous demonstrations by Gilles Brunerie, Fernand Thienpondt, Thierry de Marichalar as well as Paty Becker to name but a few.

Another highlight of the Biennale, the competition: painting the town. No less than twenty-eight artists have crisscrossed the streets of the town.
The award ceremony rewarded Anne Huet-Baron.

Landscape from Viktoria Prishedko

La biennale internationale d’aquarelle de Thessalonique

Carren Sioson Yellow Canna

The only organization dedicated to watercolor in Greece is "Watercolor International", which Georges Politis founded. Its aim is to promote watercolor and water-based techniques in general, both in Greece and abroad..

We have really great artists exhibiting this time around. We have tried to raise the bar even higher by inviting some of the best artists from around the world. Of the three exhibitions, this one will I think be the best.
As long as we are not talking about “pure” watercolor, all water-based techniques can be accepted as watercolor, including gouache, acrylic inks, etc… If these techniques allow artists to create beautiful paintings, then it is perfectly acceptable.
I think what matters is the result, not the purity of the technique needed to achieve it.
Page 14 George Politis

Stanislasw Zoladz, Springtime.

Révélations

Anchoring 1. 58 x 38 cm

French Isabelle Seruch-Capouillez

Between a French mother of Italian origin and a Belgian father, the milestones were laid for me to feel imbued with all these influences. It was in Belgium, in the region of Mons, in a family open to culture, that from an early age I felt the need to express myself, among other things, through drawing. The imprint of Flamingo or Surrealist painters followed me during my artistic studies where I acquired the basics validated by diplomas in plastic arts and graduat in graphic arts.
At that time, I was attracted by Folon's watercolors but it was later, after my arrival in France, in the early 1980s, that I really discovered my passion for watercolors, which I essentially worked alone.
I work with watercolor in all its possibilities, wet, dry, whatever means allow me to translate what I feel. Usually, I do not look for a subject, it is he who imposes himself on me and not always in a conscious way.
The “Anchorage” theme was born following an invitation to India; after my return, I made these watercolors which express my personal vision of this trip where the human is very present. I like to paint outdoors on the motif but without this possibility, I draw inspiration from sketches and shots to recompose what I have in mind. Sometimes it's the colors that guide me but I'm not really a colorist, I rather work on values and I try to be less illustrative, always in search...
Page 16 Isabelle Seruch-Capouillez

The Glowing Bunch

Idian Megha Kapoor

Inspired by impressionism, I see things as an impression of colors. I like to be expressive with my bold brushstrokes and colorful palette. I love watercolor now that I have less time to paint, and its spontaneity has given me the freedom to do it every day. My art is also the witness of my deep connection with nature, with light, with God. I study nature in my studio and also do outdoor studies. I like to paint flowers because they push me to be happy in all circumstances, and they smile forever through my works.
Painting does not mean that you fill the drawing with colors. To be an artist is to let things happen. You just have to plan in your head and at the same time your brush has to go with the flow: that comes with constant practice.
I feel an immense bliss while I devote myself to the act of painting, which for me is like a meditation. I truly believe in the saying that “practicing art is not for making a living, but for growing your soul”.
Page 17 Megha Kapoor

Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 2014. . 60 x 90 cm

Columbian Carlos Ortega Delgado

It was at the age of 8 that he realized his ability to copy everything he saw in detail, especially by means of sculpture. Reproducing geographical maps was also very easy for him. Then he made the portrait of his teachers and classmates.
At the age of 18, during his military service, he maintained his relationship with art by drawing human figures in his notebook, a theme that is still dear to him today.
Released from military obligations, four years later, he began to travel to Ecuador, a neighboring country. To earn a living, he became a street designer, especially along the Malecon in Guayaquil. Nature became his main source of inspiration.
He also worked with a model who allowed him to deepen his knowledge of the human body... and to start selling paintings. Developing his instinct as a painter and perfecting his art, Carlos began to frequent art galleries and there met the renowned artist Oswaldo Guayasamin, who was his teacher at the Guayaquil Academy of Arts. It was there that he studied the painters Luis Caballero, Joaquin Soroya, Steve Hanks, Diego Velázquez, Albrecht Dürer, among others.
He discovered watercolour, which he began to study conscientiously. After a few years, he was able to teach portraits, frescoes, etc. He is now a graphic designer.

Page 18 Carlos Ortega Delgado

Play. 2015. 28 x 38 cm

Le Serbe Endre Penovac

My way of painting with watercolors is similar to what our world is like. The predictable and the unpredictable, what is planifiable and what is not are an integral part of it. What we have prepared over a long period of time never satisfies us as much as miracles, the unexpected. That's why I use watercolor in a way that allows color and water to "work wonders" on paper. The human being is also like that, a mixture of sensitivity and reason. In unequal parts, of course, but which are part of a whole for everyone.
In light of this, the subject of a painting is secondary to me. However, in art, finding something new and magical to say is only possible if you know your subject well. So it's natural; For my part, I find inspiration in my environment.
For example, one of my main characters is our black cat, Boszi (which means "witch" in French). I have been painting in watercolor for decades. I was captivated by its dynamism, and the challenge it represents for the painter. In some respects, there is a confl ict between the painter, the water, the paper and the pigments. If they harmonize, if they understand each other, then it can give birth to a great painting: the painter is able to express his thoughts, the pigments overwhelm the water and together they adopt the benevolent paper .
Page 16 Endre Penovac

Tea Break. 2016. 56 x 38 cm.

Angus McEwan's Favorite Painting

    Tea Break is a moment preserved for eternity, a frozen moment when a person puts their cup and newspaper on their desk and leaves the room never to return. Why didn't she come back? Why didn't she retrieve her coat, clean her cup, or throw the newspaper in the trash?
We have a feeling that the owner of the coat will be back soon, until we realize that there are cobwebs on it. I came across this scene by chance, in an old lumber mill in Scotland; the tools and objects looked straight out of the 1940s. This is something a little different from my usual subjects, but it was an idea that had been in my head for a while.
There is a calm and magnificent atmosphere in this sawmill; I wanted to capture the lightness of the light as it filtered through the old windows. The challenge for me was to make not the textures but the contours, soft and blended.
I painted and repainted a lot of places until I was satisfied with the result. The bottom left part in particular gave me a hard time: it had to be dark enough while still having enough visual clues to make out the different elements.
Additional difficulty, I used honey as a binder, which made some parts of the canvas shiny - which I didn't want. So I had to completely repaint the legs of the chair with another, much more matte paint.
Page 92   Angus McEwan

My last painting

These artists have already been published in the Art of Watercolor, we find their last painting.

Midnight blues
Ona Kingdon
43 X 69 cm

This painting has a very limited palette, but uses a wide range of values to increase the contrast between light and shadow.

The tannin factory 1,
Théo Sauer
52 X 76 cm

The leaves shimmering in the light give this work a 3D feel.

At the End of the Day,
Atanas Matsoureff
76 X 56 cm

The jacket represents the memory of a person's life while being the symbol of our daily lives

Traces,
George Politis
38 X 56 cm.

The emphasis here is on strong diagonals and intriguing contrasts.

Roma,
Patricia Castelao
56 X 76 cm

Respect the gestures of the model as well as the other details without losing the fluidity of the watercolor

Street to Dubar Square
Ong Kim Seng
53x73 cm

Very quickly, the crowd began to gather around me: I couldn't even see my subject!

Antwerp, fashionable villa,
Xavier Swolfs
76x56 cm cm

I marvel at the whiteness of the water and the colors like all the children of a happy couple.

Torg,
Lars Lerin
Light in the East

I attach great importance to the representation of light sources, street lamps or illuminated windows.

N.Meseguer

Light. 2012. 81 x 63 cm.

Nuria Meseguer, A world of dreams where anything is possible

This Spanish artist from the Canary Islands has made a specialty of representing bodies moving in the depths of the sea. Her technique, which mixes watercolor and oil, explores the infinite mystery of the ocean.

It is in the silence of the big blue that I find a feeling of peace. I feel like I'm flying through a mysterious world. During my childhood, I spent a lot of time in my father's office. He was then studying fine arts. When I tried to paint the sea, I could not capture this feeling of infinite weightlessness that one feels there. The results of my attempts frustrated me to the point where it became a personal challenge.

The main subject is Man: his relationship with himself, others and his environment. The sea provides me with the ideal background because it is dreamlike. It is a world of dreams where anything is possible. I also think it is important to relativize the place of man in relation to nature. We still see ourselves as the navel of the galaxy. Nothing has changed since the days of geocentric theory – nothing emotionally at least; science is something else. Everything revolves around our interests and we try to subjugate Mother Nature. This is a big mistake. This “underwater” work is an aspect of my work that I develop in parallel with the orders that allow me to live. It's a way for me to stay calm, a form of moving meditation. We all need, in one way or another, to find moments of tranquility. However, my research has confirmed to me that the real subject is not water, but human nature, which remains a mystery to me.
Page 28 Nuria Meseguer

Try to combine watercolor (for the sea) with oil colors for the skin. That's how When the Sea is Watching You was born and I haven't changed a thing since. These two techniques, which everything opposes, allow me on the one hand to represent the notion of weightlessness and to preserve the infinite mystery of the ocean, and on the other to evoke in a precise way my model, its lights and its shadows. I thus associate two worlds – one known and the other unknown. I have a fairly free approach to the watercolor part. I don't try to guide the colors too much, because anyway they always do what they want. The next day, when the colors are dry, I'm always surprised by the result, but anyway, I adapt to it.

My colors

I still have old oil colors that no longer exist like those from the Pescador and Amsterdam brands, but in general I use Rembrandt or Talens colors; and, for watercolour, pigments that I mix with latex. This one allows me to get small dots, for a "grain of sand" effect.

My palette

Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Glass, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue. For the underwater paintings, I multiply the layers of blue and green.

My paper

Japan paper, Guarro watercolor paper and, for paints, Talens brand linen.

The Creation. 2016. 50 x 60 cm.

Private Family Portrait. 2014. 63 x 81 cm. Collection privée.

Sunglasses.2014. 71 x 100 cm.

A.Castagnet

R.Nygaard

K.Bozhkov

Merry woman, 2016, 76 x 57cm

My wife, Maggie, 2015, 75x56 cm

Plamen, assistant « Carving », 2015, 75 x 56 cm.

Portrait, 2015, 76 x 56 cm

Autoportrait 2015, 75x56cm.

Kiril Bozhkov, Complicity of the portrait

Peintre Bulgare, Kiril Bozhkov n'aime rien mieux que peindre l'âme de ses modèles. Sa technique ? Une maîtrise absolue de l'aquarelle à laquelle s'ajoute un petit grain de folie.

Above all, I seek the beauty and inner strength of my models. The posture should be interesting, as should the light on the model. There is, I believe, something unique in my choice of subjects – all of them must in any case challenge.

Improvisation allows me to give an artistic touch and bring life. But to be able to allow myself to improvise, as I do, you must first master the basics – drawing and color. In a word, I would say that you have to think, work and have faith in your painting...
I have several approaches. Very often, what I see gives rise to ideas. Then comes the reflection. I then mentally sort through the different options. I don't set limits; I seek excitement, passion and the energy of life in everything. Everything else is formality if you are a good professional and work hard. If you love the painting, she will love you too and give you a lot in return.

I start with a precise, very precise drawing. And it is from this classic frame that I allow myself to build and let go, because an image that is too “dry” can become pedantic. I take good sheets – I use French paper; Canson is the best for me, as well as Arches sheets from time to time – and as many different brushes as possible. I always paint in the solitude of my studio. Then I put the image on Facebook and wait for the comments; as the saying goes, “virtuosos expect applause!” ". Recognition is a reward and part, I think, of the artistic process.
Page 50 Kiril Bozhkov

Autumn, 2015, 76 x 56 cm

Reflection, 2015, 76x56cm.

Child. 2015. 75 x 55 cm.

S.Berry

Kauai Clouds at Kaelia Beach. 56 x 38 cm

Stephen Berry Exploring is a source of pleasure

While he painted and drew a lot as a child, which gave him a good foundation in drawing, it was not until his thirties that Stephen Berry returned to art. Virgin of any academic training, he learned a lot during evening classes and workshops with Joseph Zbukvic, Alvaro Castagnet, Chien Chung Wei and Bjorn Bernstrom, not to mention the many hours of practice in the workshop.

The main advantage of working with water is the speed of execution. It allows me to stay spontaneous, simplify things and keep the essence of what I want to express. But the fact is that the traces laid on the sheet are difficult to remove. It is very easy to ruin a painting by overworking it. You should instead accept mistakes and incorporate them into your final painting.
From a physical point of view, I like the process of water, gravity and pigments. Working with water is like dancing. We are two partners, I add pigments and they react in different ways, clumping or flowing depending on how I angle my board and how wet the sheet is. There is an element of surprise which is very exciting and requires concentration.
Once dry, the sheet retains the traces of all gestures, like vestiges: drips, traces of the brush and granulations. Water is very volatile, so painting is done quickly, but that's part of its appeal. The best paintings are not laborious, they are the ones that stay fresh and are done with sure gestures. The transient nature of water reinforces this approach.

Most Common Mistakes: There are significant technical mistakes, like not having shadow shades dark enough or not knowing how to draw, but the main problem is not painting enough to improve.
Of course, painting more develops your skills, but how you accept failure is more important to me. Chess generates strong emotions, so many beginners do not take risks in watercolor. They do not try to exceed their limits, which would allow them to learn by failing or on the contrary to produce beautiful works. But the more you paint, the more mistakes you make, and the less they matter.
You know you're going to fail a number of times, so you don't hold back in your experiments. Instead, you take the problem head-on and go for it. Unfortunately, when they fail, many newbies don't look critically at their work to identify what needs to be changed.
It is essential, in order to progress, to learn more from your mistakes. This is my second point. Of course, it helps if you have people around you who can give you their criticisms…
Which brings me to the third point. Do not paint in your corner. Many beginners paint on their own, and it is very difficult to learn without a teacher or colleagues to guide you along the way.
Page 52 Stephen Berry

Garland Park Path. 38 x 56 cm.

Diving Hawk Speckled Grass.38 x 56 cm

Owl. 56 x 76 cm.

Step by step : Kalihiwai Sunrise

The blue sky: I start by placing the horizon, this allows me to paint the sky more freely, wet on wet. I paint it in negative using phthalo blue in the middle part and a mixture of phthalo blue and dioxazine violet in the top part. I let it dry.

I moisten the lower half of the sky, where I want soft outlines, corresponding to the most distant clouds. I start at the top with a pale wash of cadmium orange. I then paint the orange clouds on the horizon line, taking care to leave the blue areas of the sky clean.

Water: the next step is to bend slightly and remove the adhesive strip, placed in the lower third of the sheet. I apply a quick wash of diluted phthalo blue, to represent the sea, with a few spots of orange to show the reflections of the clouds in the water.

The rocks: once the water dries up, I launch myself into the dark shapes of the rocks in the bay. I want these to be incorporated into the sea, so I wet a ten centimeter strip under the rocks. Thus, the dark tones diffuse in the water, which gives me subtle reflections.

The beach: I mix it with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. Working wet on wet, I gradually darken my values, while taking care to preserve the line of the horizon. Once this wash is dry, I add flecks of phthalo blue to represent the waves.

The details: using a finer brush, I add the wet-on-dry details: dark brown on the beach (mixture of ultramarine blue and Van Dyck brown) and final touches of blue in the water to represent the waves. Finally, a few touches of white China represent the crest of the waves.

D.Poxon

David Poxon, my life as an artist

We no longer present David Poxon and his instantly recognizable watercolors.
With his experience as an international artist, he seemed to us to be the privileged interlocutor to share with us his knowledge of the world of watercolor, and on how to trace his path there.
David Poxon was born in the industrial heartland of England, but now lives in rural Shropshire. He is an elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and also sits on the committee. He is a signing member of the National Watercolor Society of America, and served on their jury in 2015. He is also the author of two books on drawing technique and his watercolors have been published in numerous books and journals throughout the world.

Pitfalls to avoid & other disappointments

Even if you have done your job well and your paintings have arrived safely at the exhibition site, things can still go wrong! When you first walk into your venue, you want your work to be well presented, in a beautiful space, and displayed on the wall in its best light. What you don't want, however, is to see your paintings hung upside down, or the wrong way up, or placed at knee height. After all, if you've put a label on the back, applied the correct mounting system, sent the pictures to the organizer so that he knows which way to hang them, and the subject is quite easy to understand, visually speaking, you can expect the person installing them to know how to put them the right way round! Also, if you're doing internships, it's good to get paid at the end and not have to chase the organizers for weeks… For some strange reason, these kind of unscrupulous characters seem to be unaware that artists communicate each other and share their experiences! Page 58 David Poxon

The reasons for its success

Networks are the key. Being visible allows you to receive invitations and, equally important, to return the favor to fellow artists. It is of course very pleasant to receive invitations from all over the world; unfortunately, it is simply impossible to give a positive answer to all of them, or even to visit them all. It has been many years since I dedicated myself to watercolor painting; after doing my apprenticeship and going through some ups and downs, i am now in the enviable position of being relatively famous. Watercolor is truly an obsession and I still haven't lost my excitement for the technique.
I think my enthusiasm is kind of contagious and art for me knows no boundaries. My philosophy is this: if you love what you do, eventually you will get good at it, and eventually someone will pay you to do it!
Page 61

Tapdancers, 2016

Techniquement parlant, cette peinture a été difficile à mettre en place lors des premières étapes. Réussir à représenter le labyrinthe métallique de manière cohérente m’a demandé toute une journée de travail ! En tout, cette aquarelle m’a demandé un mois entier de labeur. Beaucoup d’éléments différents m’ont donné du fil à retordre…
Page 59

Venice Rendezvous. 56 x 76 cm.

Après une séance de peinture complexe, j’aime me lancer dans quelque chose de compliqué et sur une petite échelle.
Plus je zoomais sur cette cachette pour petits animaux, et plus je pouvais discerner des choses : les textures du bois, les ferrailleries en métal rouillé, des mélanges d’ambre et d’essence de la terre. La nature travaille à reprendre ce qu’elle nous a généreusement donné. Je ne me lasserai jamais de peindre ces petits moments pleins de signification.
Page 61

Sanctuary. 20x20 cm. 56 x 76 cm.

K.Aslani

Alighapoo Palace in Esfahan, 56 x 76 cm

Kourosh Aslani Water stories

Iranian artist Kourosh Aslani has had more than 50 individual and group exhibitions during his career. He has also received numerous awards. Kourosh Aslani has been teaching watercolor for eleven years. An 80-page book showing his latest paintings will be published next October. Its launch will coincide with an exhibition dedicated to him at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Isfahan, the city where he resides.

I grew up in Isfahan, which is the artistic capital of Iran. The architecture of the city is magnificent, and most of its inhabitants are considered artists! Watercolor has existed in Isfahan since it was imported by Armenian artists who lived in Iran. I was able to admire their work when I was younger and later I fell in love with watercolors. I admire the works of Zbukvic, Alvaro Castagnet and Trevor Chamberlain, as well as the painting of Turner. It also goes without saying that I respect and admire anyone who paints. My father also painted and that is why I spent a large part of my childhood painting and drawing.

What I like is that the painting takes shape depending on the amount of water and colors that I bring. The colors move according to the fluidity of the water and take up as much space as possible on the sheet. I like that I am in control – to some extent – of this phenomenon.
Page 62 Kourosh Aslani

Emarat-e-Baharestan, Teheran, 35x70 cm

Demonstration: Isfahan Bridge

Even if not every creative process can be dissected in a few simple gestures, it is possible to synthesize the creative process of Kourosh Aslani in four stages:

Start with a pencil sketch.
Apply background colors.
Add lights and contrasts
paint the final details and finishing touches.

The drawing.During the drawing phase, I sketch the outline of my subject in pencil, the mountains and the bed of the river. All the rest will be brought by the play of the touch of the brush and the colors on the sheet.

The sky. I turn off my ultramarine blue a bit – using a little white and black gouache – and I start by painting the sky starting from the top of my sheet. Once I reach my horizon line, I finish my sky using cadmium yellow and orange.

The cityscape. Using a few strokes on my sheet, I render the skyline of the city of Isfahan.

Working in the wet. The lower part of the sky is always wet. Using the remaining colors of the sky, I add the mountains and create light effects, bringing contrast. It allows me to give depth.

Reflections and depth. Using a spray bottle, I moisten the trunks and lower parts of the trees, while trying to render their reflections in the river. I also decide to darken the lower part of the river, using a wash based on Prussian blue.

The details. I bring a little more detail to the Khaju Bridge using yellow ochre. The green spaces on either side of the river are defined with a few quick strokes of the brush. Using a dark green, I also paint the trees. At this stage, I use as little paint as possible. In this last step, I add the final details.

Z.Tianya

Tibet Bride, 2012, 41x31cm

Zhou Tianya, Expand the horizons of watercolor

Zhou Tianya graduated from the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts. He taught art at Jingchu Academy of Technology after graduation. He currently lives and paints in Shenzhen, while curating the Luohu Cultural Center. Zhou Tianya is a signatory member of many watercolor and art societies, including China Artists Association (CAA), American Watercolor Society (AWS), National Watercolor Society (NWS), and he is also an honorary member of the Australian Watercolor Institute (AWI).

I mainly paint Tibetans and other Chinese minorities who each have their own cultural specificities. I also paint landscapes with Chinese characteristics from time to time. I believe in inspiration, but I don't think it really matters. I consider myself a rational and relatively precise person and I choose to express myself in a powerful and expressive way.

I am not a full-time painter, since I am also an exhibition curator and I organize artistic events for a government cultural center.
Chinese watercolor is above all realistic and figurative and the style is sometimes too traditional. With the inauguration of the biennial, I wanted to show international works in China with a more diversified style, in particular through experimental and innovative watercolors, and thus open the artistic horizon, and in particular that of Chinese painters. At the same time, we were able to promote our excellent Chinese watercolor painters. Our motto is: "Introduce international watercolor in China and promote Chinese watercolor in the world." As curator and organizer of the exhibition, all the work was done by my team and myself.

One of the most magical things about watercolor painting is that you can't always control the flow of water. Sometimes, with the help of what looks like scribbling done in an unconscious way, we obtain a perfect and unexpected result! Even though most of my paintings are challenges, I try to achieve a perfect harmony between Man and nature – and I am not always satisfied with the result! But once I look at my works with a little more objectivity, I don't find them so bad after all.

See Tibet Bride: I spent a lot of time on the design of the bride's face, but even after many hours of work, I couldn't find the tone and the effect I was looking for. In spite, I grabbed a paintbrush and drew a blue “X” on my sheet. And it was exactly the color I was looking for! So I applied a light blue wash all over my face, and my paint found new life!
Page 68 Zhou Tianya

Mother, 23 x 28 cm

Hyazinthe 1,2016,76 x 65 cm

Prayer,41 x 31 cm

Warm sunshine in cold winter, 55 X 75 cm

The Water Village in South China, 55 x 75 cm

Travels

Return from trip

3 artists share their experience

Geoffrey Wynne in Morocco

How did I come to paint Morocco? I was watching a documentary on television about Marrakech. I was impressed by the colors of this ancient city, its spice market, its inhabitants in their traditional costume, and especially the Jemaa el-Fna square, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A city so rich in colors and textures could only be a wonderful source of inspiration. The first trip was the start of a love affair with Moroccan themes, including trips to Fez, Tangier, Chefchaouen and Essaouira.

MY EQUIPMENT WHILE TRAVELING: All my equipment should fit in a small backpack, and my sheets and drawing board should fit under my arm. My other equipment: a light plastic palette, Escoda martens nos. 8, 10, 12 and 14, a drag brush and a large squirrel. I use 5B pencils, a ruler, plastic pots, rags, masking gum and paper towels to clean my palette.
Page 80 Geoffrey Wynne

The Sunshine of Aosta. 2016. 36 x 27 cm

Chien Chung-Wei: around the world in three scenes

    When painting on the pattern, one of the most important decisions to make is whether you are going to do just a quick sketch or a finished painting. And very often, the time allotted to you gives you the answer. I try to keep my imagination alive when looking for a subject. If a landscape catches my eye, I will quickly imagine in my mind how to render it in watercolor. And I will start the painting process only if the image thus imagined appeals to me. However, from time to time, I experiment with an artistic approach or technique, whatever the scene I have in front of me

PREPARATORY RESEARCH Like a tourist, before going somewhere, I will do research on my destination, and especially its history. Of course, you should never overlook museums and galleries, because they will give you strong emotions and great inspiration when you decide to set up your easel. Back in your studio, when you look again at the photos and sketches made on site, you will find that your impressions of the places you have visited will have gained in depth.

PAINT FAST… It is often mistakenly thought that increasing the speed at which you paint increases your chances of failure, but this is not the case. Personally, it is not the speed that can be the cause of failure, but rather the fact of forcing yourself to paint without being inspired. Interestingly, some successful works appear more exuberant because I consciously decided to paint more quickly.
Increasing your speed allows you to avoid the trap of dwelling on trivial details.

STRICTLY MINIMUM EQUIPMENT Believe in my experience, having too many brushes or colors will only complicate things. Try to keep your hardware to a minimum. For example, you should not have more than 15 colors and 10 brushes. “Quarter sheet” format sheets (23 x 33 cm) are the most suitable. Of course, an easily foldable easel is also essential. I also take two sketchbooks… one in each pocket!
Page 78   Chien Chung-Wei

Everyone has his own Golden Pavilion. 2015. 27 x 36 cm.

Paint on site in Moscow. 2016. 27 x 36 cm.

My initial quest is not related to painting… but to the desire for discovery! I want to run the world! !

Sonia Privat at Zanzibar

If I had only one advice to give to an artist who has gone to the end of the world, it would be to keep your eyes wide open! Enjoy every moment, every encounter, every atmosphere.

It was on a street in Stone Town, while my interns were drawing some doors, that I met Haruna. This handsome boy looked so sad! I asked him if I could bite into it, he said it was okay for 2,000 shillings. I explained to him that I didn't pay to work... When he came back to see me, he explained to me that, during Ramadan, it was hard, especially when you didn't have much to eat in the evening.
After a few minutes, I gave him the money, which was less than a euro. And there, he took the pose for ten minutes, without moving and with a sweet smile which, when I showed him the result, grew even wider. I finally gave him a few hundred shillings more...

TRAVEL EQUIPMENT: The less loaded I am, the more comfortable it is! I learned during my travels to lighten up. In my pencil case, 2 pencils, one dry, one oily; a pen, a marker; 4 or 5 brushes, a reduced watercolor palette, sheets of different papers connected or not by a spring, pliers and a solid cardboard support, glue and scissors...
Page 76 Sonia Privat

Contest

Result of the competition The Art of Watercolour 23

Mathilde Arragon, winner of the competition

I mainly use monopigment colors, but for each work I choose as few as possible. The chapter “The World of Color” in the book Eau Créatif by Jean-Louis Morelle was a revelation for me. With my background, it did not seem complicated to me, quite the contrary. Finally some basics to find your way around! I use her color triangle daily to choose the most suitable pigments for the work in progress. Sometimes I make several versions by changing the range. The result is amazing. I also use a palette where all the colors are present, always arranged in the same place and logically, which allows me to gain in efficiency.

With perseverance, I ended up understanding that watercolor allows gradations of values and hues without effort, since it is the water that does the work. This is for me its essential quality. The result is often even more subtle than expected. The other side of the coin, watercolor is demanding, “difficult”; you have to manage everything at once and often in an emergency. Page 88 Mathilde Arragon

The roofs of Saint-Michel seen from the garden, 21 x 34 cm

Nest, 2015, 62 x 37 cm

Véronique Sustrac, laureate

The judge's opinion:

Most of the time, it is paintings with strong colors and values that catch the eye of the jury, but this time that is not the case.
It is rare to see an artist who shows such a strong coherence in his ideas. The choice of a limited range of values and colors creates a soft atmosphere highlighted by the softness of lines and contours which lends itself perfectly well to the choice of subject.
All with a harmonious, logical, touching and good level result. Kudos to the artist!

The red vine, 2008, 42x55 cm

Jean-Louis Thibaut, Jury's favorite

The judge's opinion:

What I like about this painting is that the subject is original but especially seen from this angle. The dominance of the different reds for the leaves in the light and in the shadows creates a strong atmosphere.