So…
It’s been a while since my last post, so I thought I’d start today’s addition by stating the obvious. I apologize for the delay, but sometimes things happen and we’re forced to cut some endeavors for the sake of others. I am starting back a little tentatively and hope to have this project flying again at it’s regular altitude soon. I may be posting rather infrequently for now, but the hardest part is getting started and I wanted to begin that process instead of dreading it later.
I was perusing through a book written by a well known watercolorist and came across the following passage;
“Somewhere in the history of watercolor instruction, there was a diabolical plot by someone to ensure that watercolor would be perceived as a minor medium. In a single statement, ‘Watercolor should be like your golf game, the fewer strokes the better.’ The plan was set in motion and thousands of victims became part of the conspiracy. Fortunately, enough painters knew that art, and not watercolor, was their goal and they have reversed the plot.”
I could go on, but I’m a bad enough typist as it is, and the gist is there in the quoted paragraph. As I stated before, this is a well known watercolor artist, so to avoid offending admirers of this guy, I will keep his identity private and call him…um…Mr. X. Has a nice espionage-y ring to it.
To start with, Mr. X and I fully agree on one thing; there is something almost surreal how the medium of watercolor is delegated to an inferior slot in the institution of art. I have always been completely befuddled by the lack of representation of watercolors in the respectable arts, that realm of highbrow “fine” art for the wine-and-cheese crowd to be discussed using four syllable adjectives and an encyclopedic understanding of 20th Century art and philosophy movements. Instead, it seems to flounder away in a cesspool of children’s portraits and seascape sunrises. I’ve seen great watercolors of children’s portraits, and seascape sunrises, and children’s portraits within seascape sunrises. And God knows if I had to paint a good child’s portrait or suffer a bullett to the head, well, you might as well go ahead and pull the trigger, buddy.
But here’s the irony; out of the various mediums I have worked in, there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that is as difficult as watercolors. Not even close. The thing about watercolors is this; it is a direct statement of the moment in which it was created. Unlike other mediums, there is no room for adjustment, there is no room for correction, there is no room for tweaking or piddling of any kind. You do it and you live with the consequences.
So here’s where Mr. X and I must part ways. Maybe I am misunderstanding him, but the notion that a watercolor done correctly should be an involved and labored process is perhaps the most retarded statement on watercolors I have ever heard. I will agree with him that, as he puts it, “enough painters … have reversed the plot,” because I am forever confronted with labored and over-worked watercolors that lack spontaneity and inner sparkle. And for me, that spontaneity is the absolute core of the medium. Can I express this quickly, deliberately, and…yes…with as few strokes as possible?
It takes a master to do this well, and I can only hope that I will get there someday. To me, the epitome of watercolor is John Marin on a New York corner, throwing down his pigment boldly and without compromise, walking away an hour later with the energy of that moment on the page for generations to empathize with.
So today’s post is for Mr. X. It’s not a John Marin. Hell, it ain’t even very good. But I played it like a golf game, and that is exactly where I think it does succeed.
