For their September monthly meeting the Guild arranged for a demo in watercolour by Richard Cave, an artist based in Reading (see his entry with Reading Guild of Artists). The meeting was well attended by members and visitors from other local art groups. Richard has drawn and painted from childhood winning prizes for art on television and at County Art Shows whilst still at school. He discovered a love of watercolours at school and later developed a facility in this medium and in perspective drawing to use in his professional life as an architect. Subject matter includes the natural world with human intervention, marine scenes, still life, industrial and agricultural machinery (which have led to some commissions) but the developing technique of painting in watercolour has been focused on the ability to depict anything with sufficient realism to be understood and yet still recognizably a painting.
Thanks to Joy Burden for the following report on the demo.
Watercolour painting of a Suffolk scene with a sunset sky. Richard uses transparent watercolours mostly Winsor and Newton and primarily the earth colours – Light Red, Ultramarine Blue and Raw Sienna, because these are non-staining and can be easily lifted out if necessary. He always uses Arches paper which he finds a suitable texture and paint can be easily lifted out or scratched out for highlights. Richard started the painting by putting water all over the paper, then used Raw Sienna as a base over most of the paper. When dry he then applied cobalt blue for the sky and a mixture of Ultramarine Blue with Light Red for a bluey grey for the sky and the distant hills.
Richard painted with the paper flat to stop colours running down. (This made it difficult for the audience to see what he was painting but the use of camera and projector certainly helped the viewers). A hairdryer was used to control the drying and speed up the process.
Richard discussed some of the other colours he values in his colour palette and which he went on to use in the demo. He uses a series of 3 Terry Harrison green paints, which were originally made by Daler. (More information at the end of this post). To make a very dark green, he used olive green with Paynes Grey (Richard found this to be a very useful colour, apart from the fact that Paynes Grey tends to stay soluble when other colours are applied over it. So beware.) Fields were painted in Olive Green. He prefers to use green with another colour added for his range of greens rather than making a green by using a yellow and blue mix. Richard uses Neutral Tint instead of black as it has a hint of purple and does not deaden the painting, Neutral tint is very useful for tones on buildings and is very flexible with other colours.
When asked Richard commented that his compositions come mostly from sketching and painting whilst on holiday with his wife, who is also a watercolour painter. This is preferable than taking photographs, but most of his paintings are done on a watercolour block, smaller than he was using for the demo.
The impression of grasses were completed with a rigger brush. He completed the road, fence, grasses and foliage, a large tree painted in a really dark green behind the cottage which made the cottage stand out, and finished by painting the puddle in the road with reflections.
** Richard brought with him his computer screen to enable us to see some of his previous paintings, but it was difficult for everyone to see these examples. It would have been good to see some framed pictures displayed. He did not give us much information, unless we asked questions and most of the time he was painting in silence. He was not as communicative as the audience would have liked, and it would have been nice to see more of his paintings to understand his style.
Further information:
The Terry Harrison paints that Richard used came from a set of three, namely: ‘Sunlit Green’ , ‘Country Olive’ and ‘Midnight Green’. They are no longer available in this format from Daler as far as I could tell. However you can get a set of four 10ml artists watercolours, which include the three mentioned by Richard and also a fourth – ‘Shadow’ – packaged as The ‘Greens & Darks’ Set of 4 X 10ml Artists Watercolour, from Terry Harrison’s website priced at £29.99 – TH Paints
Neutral Tint
Artists have varying opinions about this pre-mixed colour. Neutral Tint is a transparent gray (black in mass tone) that is specifically designed to be neutral: not warm, not cool, not leaning toward any other color. Typically, Neutral Tint is made from a mix of three pigments: PBk6 (Lamp Black), PV19 (any number of quinacridone magenta/pink/rose/purple/crimson shades), and PB15 (Phthalo Blue of some sort). It is designed to darken without changing the hue. But some artists feel that it makes all the colors look somewhat muddy/dirty. For a nicer dark it may be better to mix in a complementary colour to create a darker more neutral tone.
What Others Say
Neutral tint was developed by 18th century English watercolorists as a mixture of light red (red iron oxide) and indigo (or iron blue) with a touch of yellow, such as gamboge or yellow ochre. It was preferred to sepia ink as a neutralizing (desaturating) mixer or a foundation tint because it did not dull either warm or cool paints… The mixture is typically used to dull and darken paints, and to provide a shadow color, without changing the apparent hue of mixtures; it also makes an effective stormy sky color, modulated by added blue or violet. Bruce MacEvoy
This hard-working color can instantly expand the value range of colors you can create with your palette. So if you want to create rich darks, tone down a color, or create colorful neutrals this is the tool for you… Neutral Tint can darken most any specific color while keeping it in the same color family. Whereas, if you try mixing other colors in to make a darker or more neutral version, you end up with a different muddier color altogether. Cindy Briggs
