Looking at Claudia Hutchins-Puechavy (USA, contemporary), I was following advice by my tutor who recommended her watercolours as good examples how loose application of watercolour, where the medium has the room to do something on its own, rather than the painter controlling everything.
And yes, this is definitely a direction that I like and would aim to explore further. I selected more still life watercolours by Claudia Hutchins as a reminder of how the intensity and transparency of watercolours can be brought out in a painting.
I also looked at the landscapes. Again I recognize that lightness in approach, and this is something I admire. I also found that my tutor was right that some of my own watercolours had a bit of this lightness, for example my first attempts at sketching the trees in central park – where I abandoned the scene disheartened because I was completely unsatisfied with what I’d done. So on the one hand, I recognized the particular quality of the light approach, on the other hand there was something which did not satisfy me, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Maybe something like “lack of definition” in what was depicted. It puzzled me that I liked the style so much, but at the same time wondered why I found the outcome less convincing.
It was only a few days later that I came a bit closer to understanding why I had reservations. This was when I discovered John Salmon’s watercolours.
John Salmon (UK, contemporary)
I can’t remember what I was actually searching for but I landed on John Salmon’s Website through a link to tips for framing artwork. I saved that link for reference because I found his recommendations very helpful. For example, he recommends leaving decent space around the artwork, like 3 inches on either side of a 7 x 5 inch watercolour, and explains why it’s important to use acid-free boards.
Then I had a closer look at John Salmon’s watercolours, in particular the traditional style landscapes. They are quite small, mostly 7 x 5 inches or 9 x 12 inches. I was intrigued by the beautiful colours, at the same time I couldn’t help finding the paintings kitsch. This puzzled me, because again there was a technique and style I liked, but the outcome did not really convince me.
John Salmon provides videos of how he paints some of the little landscapes, and I found these very interesting to watch and learn, for example
- For a wet-in-wet technique, soaking the paper and letting it dry a bit until the shine is gone.
- To my amazement, the colours mixed nicely on the paper, they didn’t bleed nor produce water flowers (which happens to me all the time)
- Colour intensity was just right – beginning with lighter tones and getting gradually more intense and using darker tones. Again, mysteriously enough, the darker colours didn’t bleed into the lighter colours, although they were applied wet-in-wet.
- Using really big water containers, like 2 l bucket with low rim – they look like inexpensive potato salad buckets. I love inexpensive equipment! And this is much more appropriate than the small water glasses I use
- He has a sponge next to the area which is used for taking up excess water from the brush
- He uses a rigger for smaller branches of the trees! That’s something I should adopt but haven’t so far. For example, I realized in my Carl Schurtz Park painting that my brush was too big for the fine branches, but it didn’t occur to me that I might use a finer brush…
Now here are some examples for the traditional landscapes. I really like the play of colours, the fading of tones towards the backgrounds, the irregular shapes of the trees, and how organic these paintings look like.
It was while watching the videos that I began to understand why I also had some problems with them.
– Composition. Most of the landscape compositions seem to have been built on the “Some light at the end of the tunnel”-principle. There’s a central, round or oval light area which represents the light, far distance, and it is framed by trees and bushwork which gets darker and darker towards the edges of the painting. This creates something like a tunnel view, with the foreground like a dark ring around the mid-ground in lighter colours and the light background.
The compositional principle is nice to bring out the technique, but it tends to become monotonous and one has the feeling that all paintings are the same, even if the motif and colours change.
– Representation. Then there were the trees – watching the videos I became aware that John Salmon knows “how to paint trees” – the pattern of thicker stems with thinner branches and finer side branches. He just paints them so quickly, without hesitation, and they look indeed like trees. I realized that by contrast, I don’t know how to paint trees – when I look at a tree, I see a confusing wildness of branches running in all directions, and the strong contrasts of dark branches against a lighter background (at least in autumn when there’s not too much foliage).
When I try to paint this, I typically loose correspondence to the branch I was painting as soon as my eyes switch from the tree onto the paper and back to the tree. The difference is amazing – John Salmon’s trees look like trees, but they resemble each other very much. By contrast, my trees don’t look very much like trees…
So if I were to make a recommendation, I’d say John Salmon’s oeuvre would benefit if he’d develop towards tree individuation, to get more overall diversity in his trees and also in his compositions. And for my trees, I think I should
– use a finer brush for the finer branches, or take care to be more delicate when using a big brush
– maybe try to keep my eyes on the branch while painting, and switching views only to make the start for the next branch – this might help to get the branches as recognizable shapes. I’m not sure, will have to practice and try out.
I’m discussing John Salmon’s watercolours together with those of Claudia Hutchins, because they provided me with an idea what I found lacking in Claudia Hutchins watercolours. I knew hers were not kitsch, and I liked her loose and energetic style, but in comparison with John Salmon’s paintings I found her colours at times too faint and the shapes not worked out enough.
In particular, this is something on which I’d improve on in my own watercolours: Increase colour intensity, yet have some more definition in the shapes and “fill the paper” like John Salmon does.
Sources
Claudia Hutchins artist website http://claudiahutchins.com/
John Salmon artist website (see traditional watercolours) http://johnsalmonwatercolours.co.uk/