Demo: Catherine Beale - Capturing Light in Landscape with Watercolour
A lovely clear demonstration of technique. Catherine has, in many was, a very traditional approach to watercolours. She doesn’t use white paint at all, but instead reserves certain areas to be kept free of colour. This requires planning.
She began her demo by explaining her planning process. First a light sketch using a soft pencil, marking the planned white areas with a clear W to avoid mistakes. Then, using a large flat brush for maximum control, she dampened the areas ready for colour. She used a palette with her regular colours dried in the little wells and added beads of fresh tube colour. She explained that this was both economical and gave her maximum flexibililty: water would soon reactivate the dried colour but she would also have the capacity to apply neat tube colour to the surface.
The surface was watercolour board, rather than paper. This allowed her to apply a succession of layers of colour and water without the surface buckling. Stretched paper tended to buckle under the onslaught of so much water. The beginning of the painting was all about laying down generous layers of paint and allowing it to flow - she usually worked at a tilt and let the paint do what it would under the influence of gravity. Then it was all about looking and reacting to the effects. She preferred to let the paint dry naturally, without the use of the hairdryer. It was a very gentle process, allowing the paint to rest on the surface, dry slowly and avoid pressing it into the paper, because the next stage would involve lifting out some colour, softening hard edges and layering again.
Cathering avoided adding details until quite late into the painting. She switched to a slightly smaller flat brush for erasing and lifting paint (you wet the paint and stroke it away with a clean brush). The creation of light came from the lifting out process. She explained that it was very important to understand the different properties of the pigments. Some were more inclined to stain the paper than others. It was a good idea to experiment. It was also important to use a clean, soft eraser to remove all traces of pencil once the surface was completely dry - pencil could be removed even when it had been painted over.
She used a rigger brush as the best tool for loose, fine marks.
Catherine explained that her workshop would allow more time to develop these techniques. The focus would be light in the landscape. She would provide reference pictures to use as starting points but members were very welcome to bring their own.. She would also bring some pads of paper/card for people to try, along with tubes of watercolour paint for those who wished to try them. The cost of using her materials would be £5.
Contact Jen or book on the website if you would like to join this workshop.
