My friend Simon may not thank me for publishing this 1973-ish portrait sketch, which I drew not two hundred metres from where I'm now writing. Anyway, for me, it brings back memories.
Simon, like me, lives in France. He settled, with his wife Julie, in a beautiful small hill village to the North West of Montpellier, where his studio is based.
Only very occasionally do I attempt the use of watercolour, and then it's usually as a monochrome sketch over pencil. It's a difficult medium that requires proper study, and I haven't had the patience. Simon, however, has made this his life-long work, and I recommend anyone who is specifically interested in the medium to look at his web site.
http://simonfletcher.eu/
That's just how I remember Simon, Cro. He has a good website too, eh? My absolute favourite watercolours are Rodin's dancer series, where no attempt is made to erase misplaced, drawn hands, etc. Were it not that all Rodin's later carving was executed by Antoine Bourdelle, I would have said that watercolour has the same 'one chance only' limitations as carving, which is why Rodin described them as the culmination of a lifetime's work. The other potential problem with watercolour is the danger of stylised, happy accidents being accepted as intent - something that Turner did not seem to allow to happen.
ReplyDelete'Slickness' is always a danger, in just about anything. Rodin; yup, those drawings are fabulous. They're works that I look at very often (in book form, sadly). The drawings are 'throw-away', but, as he said, they took a lifetime's study.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right, Cro - they are more coloured drawings than watercolours. I've seen a couple in the flesh. Every bloody one of them are stamped with the embossed 'Musee Rodin' stamp, sometimes over the image!
ReplyDeleteWhy do they do that!!! It also happens in studios after a death. Some administrator comes along and stamps everything with a huge 'Studio of...' stamp. It's apalling.
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