This picture was painted on the spot as a demonstration during one of my painting holidays at the watermill. My only drawing was the dominant tree to left centre (then only a few marks!) The tree was left blank until the end. The picture was painted all in one go on a grey wash of French Ultramarine and Burnt Umber.
The bright areas were New Gamboge and the greens were New Gamboge and Paynes Grey. The demonstration was pure 'wet-into-wet', the effect achieved by dropping in suggested detail at the appropriate moments in the drying process. It was very fast (the initial wash was still wet when the picture was finished).
Colour note: I do not take a separate palette to Italy, merely use my familiar colours differently, e.g. with an emphasis on French Ultramarine. My colours are Winsor & Newton. I cannot achieve the desired effects with other makes. I always use a big French Polishers' brush and a big palette area.
A high ridge on the north side of Dartmoor. Granite outcrops and autumn colours. The picture was prompted by the suggestion of a grassy track (along which John had been walking with his dog) taking the viewer to the ridge and distant tor. The picture was made by the broken sky and the strong clouds.
It took about 50 minutes. It is now in California.
This was also painted on the spot as a demonstration during one of my painting holidays at the mill.
The technique is again 'wet-into-wet'. Sky, mountains, foreground were washed in mostly with French Ultramarine leaving the building and the posts in the vineyard (foreground) blank. The details on the mountains, the house and posts were put in when the rest was dry. The buildings were simplified and the red washing placed strategically to draw the eye.
The mill was bathed in hot sun – almost too hot. This time some careful drawing was needed and I sat for too long facing the sun (my preferred approach), the paper shielded from the glare by the raised lid of my box, which serves as a board. The bight sun-kissed walls were treated with Cadmium Orange and the roof tiles with Light Red and Burnt Sienna.
Course dates
14 May - 21 May 2011
John Christian is known as a ‘traditional watercolourist in the pure watercolour tradition’ but is very much a teacher as well as an artist. Although he is an avid exponent of painting (and sketching) on the spot there is a richness and strength of depth in his work – inspired by Seago, Haslehust, Merriott, Wesson, Trevor Chamberlain among others – and the results are exciting, pure, clean and spontaneous. His favoured subjects are from nature – woods, rivers, moorland, hills, and skies.
John’s favoured method is spontaneous and loose, merging his washes, working quickly with few brush strokes from a limited palette with a big brush. He believes that a picture should express mood and emotion more than fact and detail and makes much of light in his work.
John has been painting for a great number of years. He is an experienced and popular tutor, teaching much by demonstration. He contributes to Leisure Painter and has held numerous one-man exhibitions. For some 16 years he, with his wife Teresa, organised residential, tutored painting holidays from their home before ‘retiring’ in 2003. His studio is in Devonshire, England, on the edge of Dartmoor.
