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Thursday, 13 December 2012

Water Color Artists Of Note

By Celia Hall


Water color artists contribute significantly to culture because they practice a difficult art. Pigments that are dissolved in water can wash about on a paper surface rather meaninglessly. However in the hands of a skilled artist the inexpensive materials can be composed in wonderful works of color and form. The use of light is particularly important in some of the most important works in this genre. Traditionally paper is use for the color white.

Chinese paintings are the consequence of two techniques known as ink and wash and 'gong-bi'. The term 'watercolor' is not used for linguistic reasons but oils are not used and ink or paint is applied in brush strokes. Although many of the greatest works were plundered and destroyed by the British in the nineteen century exquisite works remain, some done on silk and dating back many years.

Contemporary Chinese artists take very well to water color techniques which are so similar to traditional Chinese styles. However, in Western art more attention is given to perspective and these elements of style are becoming more popular in contemporary eastern art. It is evolving in the best sense of the word. What is fine about traditional style is retained but new forms are incorporated in an evolutionary manner.

Thomas Gainsborough is a very famous landscape painter who worked in the eighteenth century in England. He was fashionable in his time and this meant that many patrons wanted portraits which filled the role occupied by photographs since the nineteenth century. Gainsborough bowed to demands but really loved landscapes. In an era when the countryside was seen as something of a nuisance this was unusual.

. M. W. Turner may come after other great artists chronologically but as an exponent of this method he is considered by many to be preeminent. He lived from 1775 to 1851 and produced many great works being a productive and well loved artist during his life and after it. Hundreds of his works hold pride of place in national galleries.

Turner enjoyed steady patronage throughout his life. This enabled him to develop his talent unhindered by the problems that afflict some other artists, such as poverty. An important work was exhibited by the Royal Academy when he was only fifteen, in 1790. He continued to work steadily throughout a long and productive life.

In the eighteenth century the environment was not viewed as it is in the twenty-first century. It was not viewed as something benign that is under threat but as a violent and destructive force, an obstacle to mankind. Turner captured this perspective of the natural environment. He seemed to be fascinated by the power of natural forces and as he developed this fascination was expressed largely by means of light.

In the era of globalization there many water color artists who draw on traditions of both East and West. Important exponents of the method such as Cheng-Khee Chee exhibit online and in local galleries. Their works often include elements of style that seem draw from the traditions of both East and West. Such developments are exciting because the melding of the two styles result in unique but impressive works that are both traditional and innovative.




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