by Norman Stratford

Created on: November 21, 2011

The author of this article went to a demonstration of watercolors given by Arnold Lowrey at North Bristol England. He was very good at demonstrating how he paints using tubes pigments, though there are also pan paints as an alternative.

He was using tape around the paper and usually it was of a heavy weight and when he sponged the water onto the surface, he was using the technique called wet on wet. 

 He was in the main teaching to the amateur and retired person and created a large painting very fast of a nature scene. Most of the people were fascinated by what he was doing and in the process he would talk about basic aspects while painting.

Colors can be mixed before or one wash put over another. If they began to run together or in the downward direction, then it was possible to stop this by having a dry sponge, tissue paper, or a brush without water to absorb the water.

Trees are usually done with vertical strokes and not horizontal movement across the page. Twigs and smaller branches are achieved by making upstrokes and with smaller brushes. The brushes that were first used would cover the whole surface as fast as possible with equal amounts of water.

Pigment colors when mixed give certain brilliance and color variation and he suggested trying to keep this system of having many paints to a minimum. Basic knowledge of mixing would tell you that yellow and blue would make up a green. Some people would buy a green instead of mixing, but after a while the learner would soon choose by experience.

Lemon yellow and blue would give you a certain type of green. There are many variations and it is best to keep trying what combination works for you.

The composition would emerge from his efforts and then if he wanted a sharp white line or white effect, then he would use an instrument to take away the dense pigment. Reflections in water could be made by lifting off some of the color and would add to observing nature with the eye. Shadows are also required in most naturalistic  compositions to add to the realistic rendering of figurative painting.

In the demonstration time is an issue and so the picture is not so detailed, but if the picture dries off a little, then paint could be added to where detail is required and smaller sable brushes could be used to finish it off.

Mr Lowrey took a few questions after his demonstration. One question was about grey and how it was obtained, replying that anyone can buy it in a shop and adding that there is no reason

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