A bit of a departure from my normal type of video here.
This one is a watercolour artist doing a seascape. Have you ever tried your hand at watercolours? Some years ago I did a residential panting weekend with a friend. We went to West Dean, the most stunning house nestling in the Sussex Countryside (about 40 minutes from 'home'). We had a lovely weekend. We stayed overnight so we had a taste of the grandeur of the house from it's hey day of Edwardian house parties etc.
Anyway we tried watercolour. Neither of us kept it up, but this was at least 10 years ago, before I really became an artist. So now I am quite tempted to try it again, and I do have a small travel palette. It is not so much that I want to paint pictures, but I want to master watercolours for sketchbooks, especially travel sketch books.
Anyway, completely by accident, I found this.
The guy is so generous with his technique. It is fascinating to watch just for itself. There is almost an alchemy to watercolour. The colours don't always feel 'right', yet they work so well, and as the artist says himself, it is about the 'suggestion'.
I might watch this again, and take notes for my sketch booking.
And by the way, West Dean is a bit like Missenden Abbey and also has a fabulous range of Textile related short courses too. And it does full time arts courses, including a lot of conservation. But West Dean is possibly best known for its Tapestry. Follow the link and have a look. They do some breathtaking work.
That was not only interesting - nay, fascinating - it was timely. I just tried working with watercolors for the 2nd time this year and could tell I had no idea how to do it - even to get paint on the brush! I know I did a lot of watercolor painting as a kid but now I can't seem to make it work. This answered some questions and was so helpful to be able to watch the way he worked the brush - rinsing, blotting, mixing from the pans. The additional info about reflections etc was gravy - something that I should be able to apply to more than just landscapes and more than painting. Plus - who could not be soothed by that Irish brogue/ Thanks!
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