Water-colour Painting

 

Water-Colour, a method of painting whereby the pigment is diluted with water instead of oil, hence the term Water-Colour.

The paint is applied thinly, and built up in layers from light to dark, which allows the paper to show through, creating a luminosity by allowing the light to reflect back off the paper beneath. White is therefore seldom used, the whiteness of the paper is left untouched to create brilliant highlights.

A form of Water-Colour painting was used by the Ancient Egyptians for painting the plaster on their tombs, Water-Colour was also used by Medieval illuminators, and many botanical illustrators and flower painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Water-Colour reached its height in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the most famous British Landscape artists being Turner and Constable.

I enjoy using Water-Colour for its soft, gentle, atmospheric effects created by the building up of washes and using darker brush strokes to create the image.

Water-Colour is almost always unpredictable and can be difficult to work with but, well worth the trouble and effort !

Examples may be seen on the Inspired by Nature Gallery page.