Original Watercolour Paintings

Watercolour as a Medium

Watercolour paint is essentially made up of pigment particles. These particles are suspended in a water-soluble binder. This is the adhesive substance, and the binder is usually made out of gum, glucose, glycerine and wetting agents. Watercolour art is usually done on paper. This means that, as watercolour is semi-transparent, the white of the paper will tend to offer the washes of colour a beautiful natural luminosity.

Beautiful Original Watercolour Artwork

Watercolour can be used in various ways depending on how much water is added. You can use a wet-on-wet technique, or a wet-on-dry technique, for example, to produce different effects. Where there are white areas of the painting, this is often left unpainted to expose the paper. This is where you also get a beautiful variety of textures in an original watercolour artwork that would be harder to see in a print.

Colour and Light

Pioneering watercolour artist JMW Turner in particular is one figure who represents a high point of what can be achieved with this wonderful method of creative expression. He used the transparency of the medium extremely effectively. This is so much the case that his awe-inspiring pieces are now said to represent what is the 'true art' of watercolour. This legacy is still felt today. In particular, many present-day watercolour artists engage with the question of natural light in a way which can very much be tied to Turner's approach. Watercolours are able to capture the subtlety of atmosphere created by light in nature, and these nuances of light create a dynamic artwork overall. Explore what is being done today in watercolour and you will see that this tradition of exploring the delicate effects of light and colour is very much still alive.