Have you ever tried painting on coloured paper? It can give your work more contrasting values and greater colour interaction. Blue seems to be the flavour of the year, with exhibitions at two of the world’s most famous galleries: the Courtauld in London and the J Paul Getty in Los Angeles. (Details below.)
Watermill tutor Mary Padgett muses on blues in her latest newsletter, telling how Venetian artists, in particular, took to the colour enthusiastically. Not least among them was Tintoretto, whose father was a textile dyer and so had knowledge of, and access to, the raw materials coming into the city from the East.
Another fan, says Mary, was “the queen of pastel, Rosalba Carriera, who painted portraits on blue paper with the blue becoming a background wash underneath the applied pigment.” Above is her pastel painting, A Muse, from the mid-1720s, done on laid blue paper.
Mary will not be returning to the Watermill until 2025 (4-11 October to be precise) and although we haven’t officially opened the course, we’re happy to take bookings now, at 2024 prices. If you’d like to come, just let us know via the Watermill contact form by clicking here. I am going to persuade Mary to bring some blue-tinted paper so you can all have a go.
Exhibitions:
Drawing on Blue: European Drawings on Blue Paper, 1400s-1700s
January 30 – April 28 J Paul Getty Museum LA
Drawn to Blue: Artists’ Use of Blue paper
2 Oct 2024 – 26 Jan 2025 The Courtauld, London