Expressive bodies

The Paradox of the Nude: As public nudity is socially condemned and sometimes legally repressed in Europe in most circumstances of everyday life, the license for artists to depict naked bodies has come under scrutiny. huge number of comments.
Most often, attacks on the nude appeal to notions supposedly known to all, such as decency or, on the contrary, obscenity or debauchery, while the defense of this "artistic licence" provides more complex arguments , variable according to the time and according to the state of morals, articulated around the notions of form, symbol, art, echoing the various meanings which at that time were commonly associated with nudity and art.

Wikipedia

The color of human skin is one of the most complex there is. It changes completely depending on the light and the shadows are very delicate. It is a complex mix with very subtle semitones.

Atanas Matsoureff

I try to represent nudes that tell the truth: imperfect women but real women, with sweet curves above the hips, greedy on the lower back, chiaroscuro and poetic women. When a woman looks at one of my paintings, I sometimes have the impression that, for a few seconds, she thinks that the roll on her stomach has a lot of charm after all.

Frank Perrot

One face, one soul

What should take precedence in a portrait: the resemblance or the general atmosphere? Everything is important! The resemblance to the model and the general atmosphere. In my opinion, the two cannot be separated: if you choose to paint a particular person, it is because they have inspired you. And your task is to give your painting an overall atmosphere.

Anna Ivanova

The key element of a great painting lies in the emotion it conveys. Even if the figures depicted are not in every way similar to the models, an artist can nevertheless express his affection for them and his feelings. Loving Mother is not just the portrait of my mother, for me this painting symbolizes maternal love, which manifests itself in kindness, frank simplicity and devotion to her household chores.

Chen-Wen Cheng

Details changing the meaning

The idea of beauty in everyday life is not a new concept, but it pushes me to help enlighten people who don't see the pleasure one can feel in front of an old door, whose paint is peeling and fading; its chipped or rusted wooden surface that slowly erodes with time and weather; the stone or plaster that now resembles the surface of the moon, with its cratered, stained textures and faded color.

It is thanks to a constant work of layering, splashing and depositing fine points that my watercolor evolves into something more sophisticated.
I spend some time considering the “gestalt” of the painting because it is important that the final image can be read as a single entity. If not, then I failed. When I start drawing, I force myself to generalize and see the big shapes.
From there, I can place information and details in the right place, with confidence. At the very end, I take a step back to stare at the painting, squinting. This allows me to judge its effect from a distance. If something stands out too much, I mute it. On the other hand, if something needs to be highlighted, I give it more presence.
I try to make a painting that remains understandable when seen from a distance, while also being interesting in close-up – hence all these details. For me, there is nothing more disappointing than a painting that has nothing more to give in close-up.

Angus McEwan

>Walking away from figuration

My compositions are complex. I don't specifically try to make them complex, but that's how I envision the different shapes and objects when I paint them. Sometimes I even think I'm going a bit too far, but most of the time it works. The way the eye circulates within the composition is something very important to me: I don't want the viewer to simply look at my painting. I want it to stay there and be taken to one side and then come out of the paint on the other.

Rose Nygaard

Artistic elements (line, shape, texture, value, color and shape in a space) become the subject. It is an intuitive painting, but an intuition based on nearly 50 years of painting experience. Addition of paint, subtraction of paint (most of these paintings are executed on Yupo, a plastic paper which facilitates the addition and especially the subtraction of paint), evaluate the whole and start again.

Mark Mehaffey

Combination of watercolor and other medias

My end goal is to deliver a painting that people like when finished. Sometimes I succeed and other times I don't. I am always experimenting. In particular, I use Ph. Martin's inks, watercolors and liquid acrylics to create differences in textures. I also started to introduce elements of collage into my paintings. And color is always at the service of expression.

Rose Nygaard

When I started watercolor, I followed the courses of the great American artist Valfred Thëlin, a real living encyclopedia of the different styles and techniques of watercolor. He did not hesitate to mix it with a small amount of acrylic medium, effectively obtaining watercolor with acrylic. He used this variant when he needed the paint to stay in place while he applied heavy washes and glazes. This allowed for flawless edges, even layers, and to prevent some watercolor anomalies.

Nicholas Simmons

The art of composition

For me, a still life is a part of the world that I try to make sense of according to the story that I represent. When I paint juicy fruits or fresh flowers, and if the composition allows it, then I will try to insert a snail, a butterfly, a bee, a bumblebee or even a lizard because they are living elements of nature and it gives my painting a sense of life and movement. Thanks to them, I think my still life is more alive and it helps the public to better smell my flowers and taste my fruits.

Elena Bazanova

The still life was installed in a sunny garden, on a round table covered with a green cloth. The amaryllis and lilies were placed in a glass vase. I chose various objects for their shape and colors. Positioning these objects took me a while. I don't start by drawing my composition: I start painting right away, so it's important that each element is in its place. The detail of the garden bench comes from a photograph, as well as the part in the upper left corner. Most of my paintings always have a somewhat hidden element: here it is a dove in the lower border of the painting.

Shirley Trevena

Nature interpreted

I feel the atmosphere clearly and work intuitively to try to replicate it. But I should anticipate a little more. For example, I need to learn more about the intelligent deployment of the various factors that create an atmosphere.

I tend to work on a purely visual level, letting the mood set for the viewer. I'm actually more interested in light and visual impact.

This is something I identify as a weakness in me. For me, Joseph Zbukvic's painting personifies the atmospheric landscape, using ambient color as a matrix around which all others revolve, then using a spray bottle to blend colors and forms between them, in the wet.
I also discovered the painting of Boonkwang Noncharoen, who tends to paint in this way.

Joe Dowden

Perspectives and points of view

My work is the result of a clever mix between hyperrealism and the poetry of the place represented. I hope to be a sensitive and precise observer of nature and the city, careful to account for the slightest variations in light. My watercolors of urban scenes restore the historical beauties of Paris or Venice, but also their unusual and mysterious sides.
The views of Paris allow me to represent atmospheric perspectives, misty horizons, silhouettes of buildings that stand out against the backlighting. Conversely, Venice offers me, with its canals, gaps of bright light which contrast with heavily shaded foregrounds. In both cases, it is the background, which is furthest away in the image, which will bring the poetry and project the spectator inside the work itself.

Thierry Duval

If public transport breathes life, then the metro acts a bit like the arteries; the pipes and cables are like veins and lungs, all around us, hidden in the ellipse of the spiral staircase.
This is Tottenham Court Road tube station, the day it closed for renovations: its secrets, its viscera unfolding in the unknown.

Mark Elsmore

Perspectives et points de vue

There are relatively few watercolourists who take fantasy, or science fiction as inspiration. In all, I have found few, and I will have to search again.
But I found an artist in Belgium who meets this category, ultra-represented for example on digital medium.

     Although I appreciate the Plastic Arts in all their forms, my practical passion is expressed in the figurative image, whose abstract aspect interests me as much as the anecdote, without any particular message. I try to create an atmosphere where the fusion between the everyday and the cosmic evokes adventurous emotions. Sometimes I work on a specific plan, sometimes I improvise... but above all, it is the evolving image that guides me towards a result that can surprise me as much as the viewer.      

Jef Bertels

Plusieurs couleurs en une seule

Pourquoi ne garder qu'une couleur lorsqu'elles sont toutes disponibles ? N'est-ce pas aussi absurde que de jouer au piano avec une seule note ?

Et pourtant c'est un genre qui a ses maîtres. Sur du noir et blanc, ou sur une seule couleur, le monochrome est un genre virtuose, mettant en avant l'équilibre des valeurs, la composition et le dessin. Les techniques d'aquarelle demeurent, avec des fondus, les textures des pigments qui vont à la rencontre de celle du papier.

Vous trouverez sur le site quelques-unes ou uns de ces artistes qui nous enchantent avec une gamme de couleur résumée à une seule note.