Visiting Artist - Richard Taylor
Painting with natural earth watercolours.
26 September 2024
A thoroughly enjoyable, informative, practical workshop, Richard outlined the origins of pigments identified as natural earth colours and went on to demonstrate their practical use.
He explained the process by which the influence of minerals in natural rock create variations in colour that run over time to form lumps of clay. Historically the minerals and clay were ground together and a binder added to create a useable painting medium. The natural origins of the pigment determine that the base colours are therefore not considered as dyes when applied but as granulating water colours creating texture, form and a subtle shadowing as the granules dry on the paper.
The initial sketch of a terracotta pot was smothered with a good amount of clear water using a relatively small brush. While wet the whole area was then washed with a base colour of either choice of yellow ochre or raw sienna . While still wet both neat and diluted burnt sienna was dropped into the base colour allowing the colours to bleed and Richard encouraged a mottled, textural effect by “disrupting” the wet paint using his own descriptive technique of “thumping” the wet area with the paint brush. Ultra marine and burnt umber were ‘thumped’ into the bleed and the granulation process was visibly enhancing the form and texture of the pot at this stage.
With the wet areas almost dry the rim feature was created with use of a fine brush and a mix of burnt umber/ultra marine with a touch of violet. Subtly drawing this darker shade away from the line with just a hint of water to create a soft shadow. Finishing touches of the shadows on the table gave depth to the subject.
Those attending the workshop created our own paintings of pots of various shapes and sizes under the professional, friendly gaze of Richard but he raised a momentary nervous titter, humorously remarking that he would be strict if any “fiddling” was noticed!! Be bold! Keeping the colours very fluid allowed the natural earth colours granular effect to produce unexpected beautiful results. Working with a wet on wet immediacy was the takeaway from the session with Richard’s comment to me, “Don’t be afraid of the water”!
Thank you to Richard for a great workshop.
By Christine Snow
