I first came across Winslow Homer through another note in the Jackson’s Art Supplies Blog at the occasion of the artist’s birthday. Winslow Homer was an American Painter, he lived 1836-1910. The blog featured a beautiful painting of a peasant working, standing in front of a wheat field in a burning deep yellow orange tone.

I briefly looked at some other paintings and read the wikipedia article, but did not find the time to post to my watercolour blog. Maybe this was because in that first encounter, I couldn’t detect a direct relationship to my watercolour practice.

This changed recently when I made a brief tour to the Barnes & Noble Arts and Craft book department, in search of some books on art quilting. I was already on my way out when I saw the book “Winslow Homer Watercolours”, A4 landscape format, presented on a table.

Stunning watercolours inside. The seaside, boats, blue skies, palm trees, women, wildlife nature scenes. Bright and intense colours, watercolour chance effects yet clearly defined shapes. And there is so much light in them. I loved these.

I selected some for inclusion in my blog. There were so many more I liked. Those I selected had something I found important for my current learning. I have been doing this research while working on the Preparation & Practice project of Part 3. A recurring theme is the style in which I apply watercolour – from dense and opaque to very light. I found the dense and compact style not  appropriate for watercolours and am in the process of learning how to achieve intense colours, but maintain the fluency and lightness of the medium. Another topic is shape. In Winslow Homers works I found a mixture of defined shapes and areas where the colours flow in an impressionistic manner. Somehow this holds the painting neatly together and contrasts to other artists, for example Emil Nolde, where the flowing of colours in a wet-in-wet technique is clearly dominant.

Scenes in the woods

What I found important

– the clearly defined shapes in front of the more impressionistic and loose background, for example the hunter figures and the edges of their little boat on the water. Or the two boys before the loosely painted greenery, but it is also in the scene with the hunter.
– the inclusion of very dark tones, as these make the lights come out so brightly
– the oak trees, for their depiction of foliage masses in lighter and darker tones without painting leaf details

Water and seaside

The boat on a lake (Sketch for “Hound and Hunter”, 1892): The strong contrast of light and dark on the water surface, clear shapes of the boat, impressionistic and very dark background

Bahamas Hurricane: Captured how powerful the wind torments the palm trees, and the shapes of the houses are so nicely painted: They are set together as clearly defined shapes with softly varied tonal structure. Interesting change of palette colour to intense green tones.

The sailboats (Nassau II): I love how the shapes of bones and cannons are painted, with clear outlines but fluidity of tone within the shape.

The water and sky (Incoming Tide 1883 and Salt Kettle Bermuda, 1899). I find them masterly painted and just want to look and see what I’ll say when it comes to making my own first attempts.

And then

– The new novel (1877): The reclining girl reading a book so focused as if nothing else in the world existed. This intense orange-red before the dark background, and the soft traits in the face.

– A Wall, Nassau: The red flowers of the bush and how they contrast to the soft blue sky in the background. The clean shapes of the wall post tops and the wall contours, with flowing colour variations within the wall shapes.

 

 

Concluding remarks

To summarize, I’m totally enthused by these watercolours, as they seem to combine everything I’ve discovered as elements that I like in watercolour paintings: Intensity of colour, fluidity, strong contrasts, clear shapes but not finicky with details. This gives a lot of direction for what I will be aiming for in my own works.

Actually it didn’t surprise my that Winslow Homer was said to be one of the most influential American painters. What surprised me was that I hadn’t known anything about this painter before.

Sources

Winslow Homer Watercolours, by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. (Ed.), Universe 2013

National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.)
http://www.nga.gov/feature/homer/homerintro.htm

Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/homr/hd_homr.htm
(not the most interesting paintings here)

Complete image gallery of works
http://www.winslow-homer.com/