Ann Blockley - Watercolour Textures

First published in 2007 by

Collins, an imprint of

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The Collins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk

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Ann Blockley, 2007

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Ann Blockley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Editor: Diana Vowles

Designer: Kathryn Gammon

Photographer: Howard Gimber

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Source ISBN 9780007213856

Ebook Edition SEPTEMBER 2018 ISBN: 9780008328245

Version: 2018-09-24

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

I would like to thank all the team who have helped me to put this book together and particularly Caroline Churton for her great support throughout the project. I am especially grateful to Moira Huntly and Shirley Trevena for allowing me to include their paintings.

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page 2: Poppies, 96 80 cm (37 31 in)

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Contents

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Dandelion Clock

37 52 cm (14 20 in)

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Watercolour is most often regarded as a medium used to create delicate, translucent pictures rather than one capable of vigour and dense textures. However, taking such a narrow view of it is to overlook the immense range of expression it offers to the artist who is prepared to explore and experiment, testing the limits of what can be done with it when it is handled with an open mind and a spirit of creativity.

It is the aim of this book to encourage you to discover a textural approach to painting in watercolour, both employing it alone and combining it with other mediums, and even materials too collages are not beyond the province of the watercolour painting. Indeed, my hope is to encourage you to see watercolour as a medium without boundaries, and one which is superb for the creation of paintings that are rich in texture and interest.

About this book

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Ann in the garden of her house in the Cotswolds, where she lives and paints.

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This book is designed for artists who have some experience of traditional watercolour methods but would like to explore further and stretch the possibilities of this versatile medium beyond its normal boundaries. The emphasis is on creating textures by manipulating paint to build a wide variety of textural effects and by also using acrylic, gouache, inks and other materials, both on paper and other surfaces. It is a book for those who want to learn how to experiment and play with paint.

However, the book is concerned not only with practical techniques but also with the thought processes involved in the development of a painting. Before one can paint in a truly creative and liberated manner a certain painterly way of viewing the world needs to be learnt. The looking and thinking are as important as the painting itself. Throughout the book I have emphasized this concept and given you some suggestions as to how you can develop your own ways of seeing.

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Orchid

41 33 cm (16 13 in)

This orchid was painted much larger than life. I tried to treat the flower as a series of abstract shapes, allowing speckled texture to flow within each area.

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I am delighted to be including the work of guest artists John Blockley, Moira Huntly and Shirley Trevena to give you examples of work in a different style from my own. I hope the following chapters will encourage you to practise and explore textures and subjects, thereby developing your own individual painting style.

Throughout the book you will also find a number of practical features:

Explore Further exercises to encourage you to take action and build your confidence

Studio Tips to aid your painting

Projects to help you put the thinking into practice

Demonstrations of paintings shown stage by stage to show you the development of a painting.

Taking risks

The title of the book is Watercolour Textures, but there is a subplot to what this title suggests. The undercurrent theme relates to overcoming the fears that artists experience and to breaking away from the familiar and comfortable. In order to make progress as a painter I believe one has also to develop as a person. The decision to stay still, as an artist as in life, should be due to considered choice and not to fear of change. A change of direction can be scary but may also turn out to be hugely fulfilling and fun.

For me, the development of this book has been a turning point in my painting career which has taken me on a voyage of self-discovery. I have been known as a flower painter for many years. I love flowers and do not get tired of painting similar subjects repeatedly; each time feels like a fresh exploration with something new to be said. However, I had reached a point where there was an element of being so comfortable with my ways of working that the challenges and the rush of adrenalin that come with them were sometimes reduced.

To break out of this territory into new subjects, mediums and techniques has been terrifying. Like most of us, I have a fear of failure and it would have been easier to stick to what I have found success with. In spite of this, I found it increasingly difficult to ignore the many other subjects that attracted me and that I itched to try to paint pantile rooftops and crumbling stonework in Italian villages, stormy skies in Wales, textiles in Peru, mountains in Tunisia and many scenes in everyday life, such as the twisted branches of a hawthorn tree, a church on a hilltop and the patterned china in a friends dresser. Every time something new struck a visual chord I would think how I might try to paint it if ever I got time.

After a while, this became a habit. I felt encouraged when I realized that my interest in many of these new subjects related to particular criteria that were already being explored in my flower pictures. I was not interested in the botanical detail of the flowers it was their shapes, patterns, marks, tones and colours that I painted and the new subjects were also made up of similar abstract qualities.