LIGHT SHIP SMITH'S KNOLL-A FINE WATERCOLOUR BY RICHARD HOBSON

Light Ship Smith's Knoll- Richard Hobson

This large and impressive 1975 watercolour by Richard Hobson was sold by Anderson &Garland in their Newcastle rooms on 21 March 2017. If I remember  rightly the estimate was somewhere near £1000/£1200 . The hammer price was in fact £4000- and well deserved it was.This is surely one of Hobson's finest watercolours- and for that reason is interesting-let alone the unusual subject.

I have added -with apologies to Trinity House-a photograph of the actual lightship which apparently dates from 1972. At the time they were checking out the possibility of a helicopter platform for delivering crew to the lightship.But if the photo is correctly dated 1972 and the watercolour is correctly dated 1975 then what happened to the platform shown at the after end if the vessel-but not in Richard's watercolour? In the watercolour the ship clearly has a mast and not a platform.Was the experiment a failure or is the artwork misdated to 1975when it should be 1972? And this watercolour perhaps shows the ship in dock and ready for maintenance?

Lightship "Smith's Knoll" with helicopter practising  lowering crew members.

LISMORE AND BENDERLOCH BY ADAM BRUCE THOMSON

Two paintings-the first a watercolour and the second an oil, by the eminent Scottish artist Adam Bruce Thomson, have just been sold by Lyon&Turnbull in Edinburgh. They represent places I know and like and for me they raise questions about artistic   licence. To me they are pleasant  works but they raise the kind of thoughts that chime with Constable's views about painting and what he calls manner. I think that manner is dominant here.I think it is the easiest and most seductive state for artists to pursue. You might call it poetic licence-and I would agree that there is no doubting the charm of Thomson's work.

Castle Coeffin, Lismore: Adam Bruce Thomson

Castle Coeffin,2015.

Caastle Coeffin,by Adam Bruce Thomson 

Castle Coeffin on Lismore is presented by Thomson in his watercolour as an apparently mighty stronghold perched on a towering cliff in what looks like an extremely strong defensive position. A cottage appears below and gives a considerable effect to the scale of gigantism There is a croft nearby but the scale here is extraordinary.If you visit Castle Coeffin the main ruin appears as if sitting on a humpy piece of grassland; you must descend a steep and rough path to get there. There is a croft near the castle but not quite in this position.

From the Mull ferry, for example, you can just see it as a stump, like a broken tooth in the distance. Close at hand it is still not vastly impressive and I doubt if it can have changed much in the decades since Thomson's visit.In the painting it appears as a much more upright and substantial run than it is now. The hills across Loch Linnhe seem to be put in for some kind of rhythm.The colour in the painting is perhaps its best point, it is very harmonious.

The pen drawing once again exaggerates proportions. The cliffs in the distance are rather perfunctory.It is interesting to see the land around the castle has hay stooks.

Thomson's view of the Dun at Benderloch is an equally striking image with richer colour.There are cliffs as you come up from Connel to the village so I am presuming a viewpoint to the west of them It is good in showing the dramatic light and shade effects which you get on a day of rain and sun. There is a rainbow to be seen over the crags and the sky in the east has a lowering appearance which suggests that more rain is coming.The glimpse of sea in the distance and light picks out some rocks above the water. You might be looking towards Loch Etive.

CADELL ON THE WEST SIDE (OF IONA)

F C B Cadell. Watercolour of Iona, looking towards Eilean Didil 

Photo of Iona,Summer 2015.by the author.

This watercolour which was at one time with the Portland gallery shows the rocky outcrop of Eilean Didil dominating the picture.I would expect it to be Cadell's larger 7"X10" size of paper.

 My own photograph doesn't quite match Cadell's viewpoint. If I had gone further down the machair the match would have been better for the horizon in the photo would then have been different and not such a visual solecism as it is here.This comparison is not in Coupe. My review of Philip MacLeod Coupe's book on Cadell and Peploe on Iona is here and another article on Cadell and Peploe-specifically at the North End is here.

ARTHUR MELVILLE EXHIBITION

This gorgeous exhbitiion is still running at the National Gallery of Scotland-until Jan 17, 2016. I have just visited and one of the things which I particularly noticed was that so many of the paintings are still housed in their original frames, If you are going, make sure to study the frames.The watercolours are exhibited in C19 manner without  any visible mount. Melville's large, broadly painted watercolours (more than three feet along one side in some cases), stand up to this very well. There are roughly speaking two types of frame, a flat gold with many  margins and on rarer occasions  of a coarse unplaned wood which is also gilt. Indeed it is the watercolours without their original frames which stand out here as the unfortunate exceptions. The Bravo Toro from the V&A and the lovely example from the Fleming-Wyfold Collection stand out like sore thumbs in this context.

The sight of so many original frames is a sign that the paintings have been treasured, it probably also means that so mnany of them are still with their original owners.

His oil paintings are a different matter. He uses a lot of oil in his painting medium and his handling can often be rather coarse. The large portrait -The White Piano-from Preston has a background of biomorphic art nouveau  shapes. They are painted very solidly and resemble lacquer. In the lower part of the painting the paint has sunk drastically.

When I get a chance to look at the catalogue I may review it. My post on Melville's highly original watercolour technique can be found here.

PASTE MEDIUM

This is a watercolour study in paste medium. Which means that flour paste rather than water is used as a medium for the watercolour. This results in a slight body and sluggishness in the paint which can be very pleasant to work with.You can also,to a degree, remove watercolour if you wish. The rock like shapes at the lower edge were developed by removing watercolour.

(See my other posts about how to make flour paste which is here and my post about Cotman's use of flour paste in his late works here. This sketch was done with a thin flour paste.

CLOUD PRACTICE

My aim in making this tiny watercolour was to see if I could suggest a large landscape with big clouds-such as you get in Northumberland, and to do it on a small piece of paper. This measures 7.5"X5.5" or approx 19X14cm.

OX-GALL FOR WATERCOLOURS

Yes, that is just what it is, another traditional feature of the British watercolour tradition. And yes, in the past you could have sent someone round to the slaughterhouse to obtain enough to last a lifetime.It is also used by people who make marbled paper. But apart from this gory facet, why is it of use to a watercolourist?

If you use quality watercolour paper you will often find that it is difficult to cover the paper, difficult to spread your wash because the colour will not take and balls up into patches no matter what you do. Watercolour papers are often hard-sized so that the colour stays on the surface and maintains its brilliance.This is what ox-gall helps with. It is a water tension breaker or wetting agent.You can add some to your painting water and see what the results you get.It may only need a few drops.Available from reputable art stores, you don't need to go to the slaughterhouse.

CLOUD STUDIES-A TUTORIAL

Here are the stages in the making of a small watercolour exercise done to practise the visualisation of clouds, one of the hardest of subjects for an artist to imagine.Done on a sheet of watercolour paper with a slightly rough surface. Sometimes I lift  the dried watercolour with a wet brush-no colour.The blue shapes eventually define the white shapes of the clouds.

Haphazard dabs of very liquid blue watercolour

Dark blue starts to define clouds.Orange brown to represent land/horizon

Green band to represent another patch of land. it dries in a puddle with a hard edge. Some blending of sky at lower left.

Further work on the sky near the horizon  where the clouds are blurred by rubbing with brush loaded with clean water.

More blurring of clouds on the horizon and upper right with clean water. Land areas strengthened.

Trees are introduced and the horizon is strengthened.Clouds are blurred with a brush loaded with clean water

Trees are strengthened and some light ochre is added to the shadow sides of the clouds.The clouds are redefined a little at lower right.

A WATERCOLOUR DEVELOPS

If you have looked at other posts on my blog you will know that I am interested in watercolour painting and in the problems painters have in depicting clouds.There follows a discussion of a tiny watercolour sketch-on rough watercolour paper. How did it get from the first  image to the final one?

start

finish

Firstly let me say what I was trying to create. It was my intention to show something of a chain of clouds as they appear in perspective ranging backwards from almost overhead towards a hill on the horizon. I am not sure that I have succeeded, but, at any rate, if you look at the following you will get some idea of how I manipulate watercolour.

POINT 1
I have said it before, but when thinking about cloud contours you might want to define them by painting in the negative-that is the blue of the sky-when beginning to establish which areas are to represent clouds.

POINT 2
The way I do clouds means that I find the shapes as I work. It also means that I remove paint or use tools to blur or soften contours. That is certainly not an C18 watercolour technique. I use various things to remove paint.A moist hog or watercolour  brush can stroke away a hard edge and a rag or kitchen towel can blot up the paint. The forms of clouds vary considerably and sometimes there is a relatively hard edge whilst on another side the values of cloud and sky are very close and the transition should be delicate. You can achieve this with the technique I'm discussing.

POINT 3
These techniques will not work on poor quality paper, nor in many commercial sketchbooks. Good paper is important and expensive. There is no avoiding this but with quality paper you can make corrections and if need be work on the other side of the sheet. Rough textured paper is important for helping with textures.

Now that I look back on the exercise I think that some of the earlier stages have  more interesting qualities than the finished version. That's life!

ARTHUR MELVILLE-A BRILLIANT WATERCOLOURIST

If you should ask me for the name of the cleverest, most cunning watercolourist of all I would unhesitatingly propose the name of Arthur Melville. This Scotsman who lived only for 46 years and died in 1904, evolved a complex and extraordinarily rich method of working. This can be described but it is difficult to comprehend without examination of the work itself.

Melville is at the  extreme of the nineteenth century  trend to elaborate and more complex effects which earlier masters such as J R Cozens would scarcely have recognised. It isn't difficult to describe the mehanics of Melville's technique. The more important aspects of how he visualised and developed his work is another matter. The certainties and ambiguities which he allows are what matters here. Not everything is painted with overall Pre-Raphaelite evenness-far from it. Blots and pools of watercolour are all part of the process.And so is the lifting or wiping out of colour. Melville is  master of the lost and found contour.

His  watercolour subjects are typically either Scottish landscapes, scenes from southern English  landscape or  Spanish andOrientalist subjects. His brilliant technique is particularly suitable for the painting of intense contrasts of light and shade.

HIS TECHNIQUE

Take a sheet of watercolour paper and flood it with an even coating of white. Let  this dry and repeat the process if you wish.

If you have already painted in watercolour you may be thinking, "What, do you really mean that I should paint on such a surface? Won't the wash become immediately corrupted by the underlying white?" My answer is that will surely happen if you are indecisive and push the paint about too much. But if you are certain and unhesitating in placing your colour, you should not have a problem.This should give you some idea of the deliberateness of Melville's method. Some considerable previsualisation  must be happening here. And  you would be right.You can hardly establish an architectural setting without considerable forethought. The painting of figures and groups of figures and animals is another matter.

A Moorish Procession-National Gallery of Scotland

The human element, often a crowd or group of figures is  treated as a group and not as an assembly of individuals. Once you start to look for individuals you will see the economy with which Melville works. Some parts are vague and appear almost as ghost images do on a photographic negative.In the original of the work shown above the  animal at left appears as a wraith like figure. So too the persons next to it.

The Little Bullfight "Bravo Toro!" Victoria & Albert Museum

This technique  allows the artist to remove or sponge out paint so that a figure may appear as partly solid ad partly wraith like through the trace left behind. Melville exploits this in Bravo Toro where the dust and smoke of a bullring are evoked. He does not paint a dust cloud over figures but rather sponges out something which is already there.Sponging out is a venerable watercolour technique but here Melville is wiping into the original white ground beneath-hence the peculiar subtlety of the blurring effect. Certainty and ambiguity once more.

When the white ground is dry you may work on it.Very liquid washes may be appropriate, so too puddles of very wet paint, also blots and abstract dabs which may meld together in the eye to produce an image.If you want to make a correction you may use a sponge or rag and remove the paint with it. You will be left with a white ground as a blurred, unfocused patch.The white ground gives added luminosity to the
work-all the more essential for these orientalist paintings.

There are accounts of him placing a sheet of glass over a painting so that he could try out the effects  he was working with. I am a little sceptical about that idea because  glass is not receptive to watercolour. But even if untrue it does say something about the artist's attitude to his craft.

There is little literature on Melville and most is rare and extremely expensive to purchase.The clearest short account is in  volume three of Martin Hardie's history of British Watercolour Painters.

Excellent news: The National Gallery of Scotland is planning an exhibition on Arthur Melville from Oct 10 2015 to 17 Jan 2016.This will be the first substantial grouping of his work in a generation and will hopefully result in a good catalogue with excellent illustrations.

Water-Colour Painting in Britain, Vol 3, The Victorian Period,by  Martin Hardie, London 1968.

FLOUR PASTE FOR WATERCOLOURS

Flour paste is a  a useful medium for a watercolour artist. I don't think it is used much-or known about , but it seems reasonably certain that it was used late in life by John Sell Cotman, one of the finest of British watercolourists. Painting with paste means that you have a medium which gives your watercolour a slight  density or body. Your paint will still be more or less transparent like a normal wash.The paint does not run  like a wash and it can be painted into as soon as you like without noticeable spreading. In this example here the orange paint was put down first and the brush cleaned preparatory to making the purple line. There is no significant spreading of the colour.

paste medium-wet into wet-as dried 

Also the paste medium allows you to remove paint or scratch it away almost from the moment you put it down until some considerable time afterwards.The paste dries more slowly than the normal wash.This allows the making of textures with paste which will keep their shape. This wouldn't happen if you dragged an implement through a watercolour wash.

paste medium-scratching into wet watercolour-as dried

You can paint over one layer with another so that further textures may be obtained.If you have too many layers the under layer will likely be disturbed and pick up when you try to apply one layer too many. Remember to use a decent quality watercolour paper for your experiments.

Here is a little watercolour doodle which shows how scratching into paste can  be used in a landscape.

In the foreground you can see where I have scratched into the paste to give a suggestion of texture to a rough moorland scene.In some areas there is wash over the scratchings. I would presume that a traditional watercolourist will use this medium carefully and not make it too obtrusive. There is some scratching out in the distance also-parallel lines upper left.

RECIPE FOR FLOUR PASTE
INGREDIENTS

14gms plain flour (two heaped teaspoonsful) =0.5 ounces (US & UK)

345 mils water (large mug) =11.66 ounces (US )

(THIS MIXTURE GIVES A FAIRLY THICK MIXTURE WHICH CAN BE GOOD FOR SCRIBING AND SCRAPING INTO. IF YOU WANT A FLUID PASTE THEN HALVE THE QUANTITY OF FLOUR.IF IN DOUBT GO FOR A LIQUID MIXTURE WHICH IS VERY RUNNY. IT DOESNT TAKE MUCH IF YOU ARE A TRADITIONAL WATERCOLOUR PAINTER.)



Measure out the water need into a suitable container. Put about 2/3 of the water into a pan and bring to the boil. Mix the flour thoroughly with the remaining water . You can strain this if you wish but I never do. When the water in the pan is boiling add the flour and water mixture  and bring the temperature  of the mixture up to a gentle simmer for 4 minutes.

When the paste is cooked it will appear quit runny but after some time the paste will thicken-this can take up to 30 minutes.You are aiming for something which is less runny than water.The paste will keep best if covered and in a cool place. You will be able to tell if it starts to ferment when it will probably not be usable. You will likely need to experiment a bit but even-or especially quite runny "paste" can be used.
You may wish to keep the paste in a cool place-it will eventually begin to ferment. It is up to you to decide when it is no longer useable. Experiment!

You can make a thicker paste for gluing paper by making a mixture with three  heaped teaspoons of flour to the same volume of water.To this paste you can add approx 20 to 25% of white glue. This will produce an excellent paste for book arts and collage.It is clean and pleasant to work with. The white glue seems to help preserve the flour paste.But it will eventually ferment.In the UK I use something called PVA Bond which is used to glue wood.

My post on Cotman's use of paste is here

COTMAN AND PASTE MEDIUM

Here are some examples of late Cotman watercolours in the British Museum. His use of paste is mostly to give body rather than the opportunity for scratching out. But  scratching out can be seen in this first example at lower right foreground and in the tree trunk on the right.

At Whitlingham

It is commonly said-on the web-that Cotman used rice paste rather than flour paste but older authorities such as Kitson says that it was the liquid from rotting flour paste-or possibly something involving egg. Stainton has said that it may be flour paste or size. Rice flour would surely work-it is used inJapanese printmaking-but from practical experience I find that flour paste works well. Why use rice flour when every household had plain flour to hand? Everyone at that time would have known how to make flour paste. As I have never seen a chemical analysis of the medium used by Cotman-and doubt if I ever shall, I am sticking to my idea of flour paste as the most likely. I have not yet seen a reputable source suggesting that Cotman used rice flour.

Cader Idris

The Cader Idris above is surely painted with flour paste.There is a grainy look to the paint quality which is found in paste work.

A Mountain Tarn

This one also seems to have the characteristics of paste medium. I think that there are traces of scratching in the highest blue mountain and that it is possible that the posts in the water were made by removing paint-by scoring into the medium when wet.They would then be reinforced.

I have just done a post on how to make flour paste and use it in watercolours.The post is here.

LORDENSHAWS AS SEEN

I thought it might be curious to show different depictions of a scene I know well. It is the entrance to the hill fort at Lordenshaws, just south of Rothbury in Northumberland.The views are all taken from slightly different angles.  Diferent times, different methods.

From Upper Coquetdale by DD Dixon-who also made the drawing circa 1900

Recent photograph by myself

Watercolour by myself-painted circa 1995 on the spot. 

WATERCOLOUR SKIES AND CLOUDS-THINK NEGATIVE!

Watercolour study on rough surfaced watercolour paper 

I have said before that I'm not keen on books which claim to tell artists how to paint this and that-usually quickly and in an easily learned way. But here I am writing a post about the painting of skies and clouds.It will be something of a summing up of what I have learned and am learning.In the examples I give I will show what I think are the faults as well as the good points in my example. None of your unrelenting optimism here! Art isn't easy.If this is helpful please let me know.You can see my post about the history of cloud painting here.And I will soon be posting further thoughts on the subject of how to observe clouds.
If you would like to see more of my landscapes including cloud paintings done from observation then go to my website.

The illustrations  which follow are of an improvised sketch-not done from direct observation or from a photograph.  If it shows understanding of clouds I'll be happy.Think of the subject as a moorland scene with clouds.The viewpoint is  looking to the west so the  light source comes comes from the left of the picture.I have not developed the landscape to any degree.

On rough watercolour paper measuring only 24cm along its longest side.That's about  8 inches.

Colours for the sky are Cerulean hue and Cobalt hue; for the shadows,Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Violet.A neutral grey would also have been a fair choice for the shadows-and in a way more realistic. All from the Winsor and Newton Cotman range.

Brushes were a watercolour brush and a 2" decorator's brush.

Paper was an old scrap of English watercolour paper with a rough surface.Watercolour paper is expensive but can take a lot of working and reworking if necessary.Thin paper such as you find in most sketchbooks will not stand up to the processes mentioned here.

 Stage 1

Clouds and landscape dabbled in very quickly with a loosley held brush.The rough texture of the paper allows the broken textured effect appropriate to the kind of cloud I'm trying to paint.Note the puddled effect top centre which dried with a hard edge.This is  an error but at this stage it doesn't matter.In this example I have an attitude of finding out and working towards a goal rather than copying something visualised in my mind.The cloud shapes emerge BECAUSE I WAS THINKING OF THEM AS NEGATIVE SHAPES.I painted the blue of what we think of as background to define the basic  cloud areas. I painted the warmer, shadow side as a definite area.There is no pencil work although a little would have been acceptable.

Stage 2

The clouds are beginning to appear and have the light and airy look of a summer day in the UK.I have blurred the edges of the puddle top centre with a wet brush.In some ways I could have left it as it is. You can see the cerulean in the lower part of the sky and the cobalt above.The shadows on the clouds are painted with a mixture of violet and burnt sienna.

Stage 3

The intensity of the sky is emphasised and the cerulean lower down is strengthened. The shadow colour of the cloud is also deepened. some of the colour where the shadow sides meets the blue of the sky was removed with an old linen tea-towel.Again one might regard this as a possible final stage.

 Stage 4

I think that I may have pushed the colour and definition too far here.Perhaps this needs more work! The photo exaggerates a little. You can see the harder edge of the cloud catching the sun and the similarity in values between the right edge of the clouds and the sky behind.You will often see this in skyscapes.You can also see the change in values between the lower and higher sky.

Stage 5

I did think that the blue of the sky in stage 4 was too intense so I proceeded to stage 5.All that happened in stage 5 is that I held the sketch under some warm running water for a couple of minutes and then stroked it gently with a big  decorator's brush. Because the paint was loosened it was removed  most noticeably from the upper sky and from the landscape below.You should be able to see the white speckled effect in both areas.

Stage 6

I

You may be glad to know that this is likely to be the final stage! There was very little work done here.For the sky I ran some cobalt hue over the upper area to lessen the effect of the white speckles from stage 5.I would say that the speckles give some effect of airiness and atmosphere to the sketch. Where the cobalt meets the cerulean I blended it in with a little clean water on the brush.I also subdued the whiteness of the long patch of cloud at lower left-it was too white.I also diminished the speckled area in the landscape with a very slight wash.

In Conclusion

Paint freely-defining the background to help you get the cloud shapes.

Do not worry about definition too early in the day.

Be prepared to experiment with blending colour-either with a wet brush or by smudging it with a rag.

You need really clean water to preserve the quality of the sky colours. Two jars of water would be fine. Use the first to clean the brush and the second for the actual painting. Be consistent.

Use good paper.

Gillies observes

West Highland Gate-Willie Gillies

To Edinburgh on Wednesday to see the Turner watercolours.This is becoming something of a habit now. It is certainly a habit which Edinburghers have taken to.There are always 15 or 20 folk looking at the small but exceedingly choice group of works which are only displayed in January.

In fact I almost didn't go but the discovery that there was a chance-the last chance almost to see a show of Gillies watercolours clinched it. I had to go! It promised to be a treat in itself, and so it was. Most of the Gillies subjects were promised-the Highlands, the fishing villages of the East Neuk, farmyards and Temple itself.

I once  knew someone who had seen Gillies drawing and he told me that the artist was as liable to hold the drawing implement at any odd angle or with any grip other than as if writing.A pencil might be held near its base and pushed up the paper.That Gillies' line is fluent and free is obvious. His use of watercolour is very striking. I thought that quite a few of the works at the Scottish Gallery tended towards a fairly liquid gouache rather than watercolour.I wonder if he ever bothered with aquapasto. I'm thinking mostly of the freer more painterly works such as Rosebery near Temple.It seems to me that Gillies is at his best in the drawings and watercolours. I remember the big retrospective almost 20 years ago at the RSA as being rather disappointing when it came to the large oil paintings and  I certainly feel that he was easiest and most natural in the lighter medium.

It was  thoughtful of the Scottish Gallery to make the catalogue of the show available online as a PDF and you can download it here.The work I'm illustrating will have a resonance for anyone who has ever been in the west of Scotland.It is a small pencil sketch.I like it because it says something about the crofting, small farming way of life there.It reminds me of the accounts of crofting life in that poignant,matter of fact,unsentimental,witnessing found in Night Falls on Ardnamurchan by Alsadair Maclean. Maclean has something to say about the make do and mend lifestyle of his father who had to cobble together shelter for his beasts from whatever  materials could be found or collected. The gate is just the sort of thing you find where farmers have to bodge things together. There are an odd number of verticals and one of the cross pieces seems distinctly rickety.The whole thing seems fragile and possibly held together with a prayer and a bit of string.