Painting is, and must be, a sacrifice of less significant truths in order to obtain truth as a whole. How can we, with our poor pigments, represent the luminous and the infinite gradations seen in nature, either of light and dark or of colour? Black and white, for instance - the pigments which represent for us the extremes of light and darkness - what relation has white paint, seen in the subdued light of room or gallery, where pictures must be seen, to the bright light on the rolling cumulus in the summer heavens; let alone the sun, the source of light, or its reflection on streams or from polished surfaces? Or black, to that intensity of darkness when from sunny daylight we look into some deep cavernous gloom? The same may be said of all pigments which represent colour; they all are sorry substitutes for nature's hues.
- Samuel & Richard Redgrave, A Century of British Painters, 1866
My watercolors tend to be fairly small and immediate. Most are done on the spot with an intuition that can be lacking in my larger, more "finished" work. Beliefs about good painting versus bad can, potentially, morph into an abandonment of instinct, if one is overly conscious of them. The beliefs aren't wrong, just potentially cumbersome. It is terrible to discover your best efforts leading you away from where you want to go. In painting, theory and intent can be your compass or your ball and chain.
Currently, I am at work on a watercolor painting that measures about 19 x 27" - - - the largest I've worked in watercolor. I want to see what I am inclined to do and am able to accomplish at this size. When it is finished I will post it - - good or bad. In the meantime, I don't want to show it "in progress".
The images I included here today are some watercolors I did this summer. Two were done on the spot. The other, the Brooklyn waterfront viewed from lower Manhattan, was started on location and finished in the studio. I'm pretty happy with it. It has a crispness and accuracy that I wanted without losing a sense of atmosphere and ease. I may do a larger version of it later.
