Watercolor Art Techniques/Watercolor Discover the Secrets of Masters Legends W Watercolor AND a t e Mastery r c o l o r Late 20th and 21st century watercolor artists have transformed the M art of watercolor and watermedia into a golden phenomenon and one of the most signifi cant movements in the history of art. The lives a and works of the 34 artists represented here display a multitude of different approaches, philosophies and techniques. Each has a unique s perspective and an innovative approach; artists such as Ann Smith, t e Cheng-Kee Chee, John Salminen and many more share their secrets. You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at legends like Robert E. r Secrets, Stories Techniques AND s Wood, Naomi Brotherton, Edgar A. Whitney and Ed Betts, whose 34 Visionary Artists teaching and work contributes invaluably to the aesthetics of the FROM A medium and to their students. N D (cid:129) More than 125 pieces of exquisite art L (cid:129) 18 innovative demonstrations e (cid:129) 34 artist interviews and commentaries g e n Discover proud watercolor painting traditions, new perspectives on the medium, and works of art to infl uence d new generations of artists. Get ready to be inspired with s this one of a kind collection. ““LLiikkee tthhee PPiieedd PPiippeerr,, S Betsy Dillard Stroud artistsnetwork.com ((wwaatteerrccoolloorr)) bbeecckkoonnss aarrttiissttss t r Ideas • Instruction • Inspiration ttoo ffoollllooww iitt ttoo uunnttrraavveelleedd aanndd o u uunnppaaiinntteedd tteerrrriittoorriieess ooff tthhee d US $29.99 iimmaaggiinnaattiioonn aanndd ooff tthhee ffuuttuurree..”” T0491 (CAN $37.99) —— BBEETTSSYY DDIILLLLAARRDD SSTTRROOUUDD IISSBBNN--1103:: 19-7484-013--43450236--35526-6 52999 N A E C P U 0 FnL1 04 0120 01 JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo 02 SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 03 cnVlZ2VyAFYX4MICMTMDMTAwATEFVVBD 04 LUEMMDM1MzEzNjYwMzA2nA== 35313 66030 6 9 FnL1 04 0124 01 JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo 02 SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 03 cnVlZ2VyAFYXzH4EMTAuNAI4MAExBkVB 04 Ti0xMw05NzgxNDQwMzM1MjY2AA== 781440 335266 TT00449911__WWaatteerrccoolloorrMMaasstteerrss__CCMM11..iinndddd 11 22//11//1166 1111::4466 AAMM Watercolor Masters Legends AND 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 11 11//2200//1166 99::4466 AAMM 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 22 11//1144//1166 1111::4466 AAMM Watercolor Masters Legends AND Secrets, Stories Techniques 34 Visionary Artists AND FROM Betsy Dillard Stroud v TATTOO (CROPPED) Betsy Dillard Stroud 30" × 22" (76cm × 56cm) On the previous page: LATE LIGHT ALONG THE RIDGE TRAIL (CROPPED) Stephen Quiller CINCINNATI, OHIO www.artistsnetwork.com 30" × 22" (76cm × 56cm) 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 33 11//1144//1166 1111::4466 AAMM 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 44 11//1144//1166 1111::4466 AAMM CONTENTS Foreword 6 Introduction 8 [10] [120] Masters Legends Miles Batt 12 Mary Todd Beam 122 Judi Betts 18 Ed Betts 124 Dan Burt 24 Gerald Brommer 126 Cheng-Khee Chee 30 Naomi Brotherton 128 Jean Grastorf 36 Virgina Cobb 130 Ken Holder 42 Polly Hammett 132 William Cather Hook 48 George James 134 Kathleen Jardine 54 Tom Lynch 136 Stan Kurth 60 Paul Melia 138 Lynn McLain 66 Barbara Nechis 140 Dean Mitchell 72 Marilyn Hughey Phillis 142 Sebastiao Pereira 78 Millard Sheets 144 Stephen Quiller 84 Morton P. Traylor 146 John Salminen 90 Edgar A. Whitney 148 Michael Schlicting 96 Robert E. Wood 150 Ann Smith 102 Milford Zornes 152 Betsy Dillard Stroud 108 Cathy M.Woo 114 Conclusion 154 About the Author 156 Acknowledgments 159 v Shehrezade’s Secret Garden #39 Betsy Dillard Stroud 30" × 22" (76cm × 56cm) 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 55 11//1144//1166 1111::4466 AAMM 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 66 11//2200//1166 99::4466 AAMM FOREWORD “ The fl ow of water is emblematic of vital force. Watercolor expresses fl ow, life as transparency, the ineffable, the transient ” air, motion, life moving. Watercolor, itself, is a force of nature. — Joseph Raffael, Artist From Ellen Simak's Refl ections: The Water Related In the old Coca-Cola plant in Dallas, in a room where people crammed together like sardines, my life changed. It was 1980, and I was just about to witness the fi rst brushstroke of legendary artist Edgar A. Whitney, often nicknamed, “the Granddaddy of Watercolor Painting.” At that time, Ed was in his late eighties, but he had the energy of a thirty-year-old. His brush slammed into the sopping wet paper, and blue paint spread like a virgin squall beginning to rise. Each brushstroke took my breath away, as blue merged with green, and yellow exploded into the mix. In my excitement, I grabbed my then-husband’s arm so tightly that he looked down at me and smiled. Before my eyes, the blue became sky, the plethora of colors dashed onto the paper became the ocean. It was magic conjured by Edgar A. Whitney, a true aesthetic alchemist. That unforgettable night in Dallas opened my eyes and my heart to a new way of expression. I remembered my fi rst watercolor painting at the age of eight. I copied Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, in recollection a somewhat ridiculous but noble attempt from my tiny watercolor box straight from Brammer’s ten-cent store, with its brush of one or two stiff black hairs. Between Whitney’s masterpiece and my childish attempt, I intuited a startling segue, a daring glimpse into what could be accomplished if I worked hard. That night I was hooked. My future shimmered before me like a shiny wet, road, a road where my brush would travel for the rest of my life. This book is the result of my love affair with watercolor and watermedia, the great artists I have learned from, my admiration for some of my most inventive colleagues and my desire to make something that was “writ in water,” a lasting homage to not only the painters represented in the book, but to the watercolor and watermedia world itself. As artists we are aesthetic alchemists, and instead of turning objects into gold, we make the invisible visible, the ordinary extraordinary as we explore the pixilated magic and eloquence in the symbolic language of watercolor and watermedia. v Serenade in Blue and Gray Ed Whitney (Photo courtesy of Naomi Brotherton.) 15" × 22" (38cm × 56cm) 7 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 77 11//2200//1166 99::4466 AAMM 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 88 11//1144//1166 1111::4466 AAMM INTRODUCTION If you are reading this book, you, too, have been lured by the magic of watercolor and watermedia. If you are reading this book, you are either an artist, aesthete or fl edgling who longs to pick up a brush. Or perhaps you haven’t picked up a brush in a long time, yet there is a strong, intuitive desire to get back to it. For, once hooked, one is forever in its embrace. You won’t be disappointed, for in this book, we are those who have devoted our lives to this fi ckle medium, so idiosyncratic and demanding. We have followed its meandering ways, loved its eccentricities, intoxicated with its ability to show us who the real master is. We gravitate toward it, trying to unravel its mystery. As a result, this book comprises many approaches and many artists— both legends and masters. Whoever you are, remember this: All the artists in this book took risks to develop their art. They strove to fi nd their individual expressions, which you will see in their myriad images, and they generously shared their wisdom. Art gives us a glimpse of the world we can’t get any other way. It is the visual zeitgeist. Because art is visual, it is a universal link to all mankind, a linchpin that unites hundreds of thousands all over the world. Despite the glorious works of Joseph William Mallard Turner, John Cotman and Thomas Rowlandson, despite the seascapes of Homer, the genius of Prendergast, the expressive John Marin and the myopic look at American life through the eyes of Norman Rockwell, watercolor remained the foster child of the arts. Then in the 1950s, something happened. Something changed. That change came from all directions, especially westward from the California School. By the next decade, watercolor societies popped up. Well-known artists became peripatetic, wandering far and wide, and sharing their expertise and their mastery with students. They are some of the many who blazed a trail for us. Like wildfi re, news spread, and like the Western watercolorists, great teachers and artists from the North, the East, the Midwest, the Southwest and the South came up with their own inventions, their own desire to solve the mysteries of watercolor. With new watermedia products on the market and an improvement in acrylics, an explosion took place—a visual explosion of such diverse and intriguing methods that it has changed the course of art history. There are many great artists and teachers who are not in this book, and that is why I limited the artists to those legends I learned from and/or have kept connections with over the last thirty-some years. I can never repay the debt I owe to them for their guidance and encouragement. The masters are colleagues I chose because of their inventiveness, their creativity and their devotion and mastery of the medium they work in. Many are already legends but chose to be put in the master category. For those who don’t know, watercolor is the oldest medium. Cavemen dug mud and sand, and mixed it with water and possibly blood to paint the totemic images in Lascaux and Altamira. The Chinese experimented with soot and water for their Sumi-e paintings. In Egypt we see the remnants of color on their walls and tombs. And it was probably on Cleopatra’s palette and perhaps her lips and cheeks. There is evidence that the Greeks painted their statues, and of course, it was with water-based paint. After 1950, watercolorists opened the door to a new way of looking. They introduced us to technical approaches and experimentations that make them an integral jewel in the tesserae of the sparkling mosaic—the watercolor and watermedia world of today. That world is uncompromised in its excellence and in its beauty. Like the Pied Piper, it beckons artists to follow it to untraveled and unpainted territories of the imagination and of the future. We are all artists who choose to follow the medium wherever it takes us, especially, as Scott Peck would put it, “on the road less traveled.” k Betsy Dillard Stroud Phoenix, Arizona | August 12, 2015 v The Painted Veil Betsy Dillard Stroud 30" × 22" (76cm × 56cm) 9 000011__000099__TT00449911__FFMM..iinndddd 99 11//1144//1166 1111::4477 AAMM