watercolor painting

watercolor painting

watercolor painting in its wider sense, refers to all pigments mixed with water rather than with oil and also to the paintings produced by this process; it includes fresco and tempera as well as aquarelle, the process now commonly meant by the generic term. Gouache and distemper are also watercolors, although they are prepared with a more gluey base than the other forms. Long before oil was used in the preparation of pigment, watercolor painting had achieved a high form of sophistication. The oldest existing paintings, found in Egypt, are watercolors. The Persian artist Bihzad (15th cent.) produced exquisite miniatures of great complexity. Gouache was employed by Byzantine and Romanesque artists. In the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts on vellum used watercolor to produce their flat, brilliant effects. In this same manner watercolors were used during and after the Renaissance by such artists as Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck to tint and shade drawings and woodcuts. Dürer in particular colored landscape drawings in a manner not unlike the modern method.

In the 18th cent. the modern aquarelle grew from the simple wash coloring of a drawing into a technique of complete painting. This technique became particularly popular in England, where its greatest masters were Constable and J. M. W. Turner. Rowlandson, Cozens, Girtin, Bonington, Cotman, and John and Paul Nash were also celebrated for their use of the technique. Many 19th-century painters also used watercolor extensively, mostly for landscape paintings and sometimes for portraits, but it was no longer commonly used for miniatures. The French artists Daumier, Delacroix, and Géricault, and later, Cézanne, Signac, and Dufy, employed aquarelle to a large extent, for both preliminary sketches and finished works. The American John Singer Sargent became well known for his aquarelles. Other painters in the United States, including Homer, Whistler, Prendergast, Marin, and Sheeler, painted noteworthy watercolors.

The advantages of watercolor lie in the ease and quickness of its application, in the transparent effects achievable, in the brilliance of its colors, and in its relative cheapness. Aquarelles have a delicacy difficult to achieve in oil and are equally flexible, lending themselves to immediate expression of a visual experience. Their handling demands considerable skill as overpainting of flaws is usually impossible. Watercolor was traditionally a comparatively perishable medium, vulnerable to sunlight, dust, and contact with glass surfaces, but the use of modern pigments has made it much more stable.

Bibliography: See G. Reynolds, A Concise History of Water Colors (1971, repr. 1986); C. Fince, Twentieth Century Watercolors (1988).

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watercolour

watercolour. Term that can, in its broadest sense, be applied to any paint bound with a medium (generally gum arabic) soluble in water. Its use has been widespread and varied over a long period, embracing ancient Egyptian papyruses, Chinese paintings on silk, the decorations of illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, and Elizabethan portrait miniatures. In normal parlance, however, the term ‘watercolour’ usually refers specifically to a type of painting in which the lighter tones are obtained not by mixing white pigment with the colours (see gouache) but by diluting them with water so that the paper or other support shows more strongly through the thinner layers of paint.

Watercolour in this more restricted sense was sometimes used in the 16th and 17th centuries (memorably by Dürer and van Dyck, for example), but it was not until the 18th century, in England, that it became a major medium, particularly for landscape painting, in which it lent itself to rendering subtle atmospheric effects. By the 1780s watercolours were being manufactured in small cakes of the type still used today, making them very easily portable for outdoor work. At first the medium was used mainly for topographical scenes, and the technique consisted essentially of tinting an underlying drawing. Around 1800 a transition was made to a bolder approach in which the colour was used freely and directly. Girtin and Turner (both born in 1775) brought watercolour to its greatest heights, Girtin being the consummate master of the classic broad technique and Turner achieving unequalled variety of effect and intensity of expression. In the wake of Impressionism, the capacity of watercolour to achieve spontaneous expression was more widely appreciated and it ceased to be so much of an English speciality. Among the modern artists who have been great exponents of the technique (in their very different ways) are Cézanne, Dufy, Grosz, Klee, Nolde, and Sargent.

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IAN CHILVERS. "watercolour." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

IAN CHILVERS. "watercolour." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 9, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-watercolour.html

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watercolour

watercolour. Term that can, in its broadest sense, be applied to any paint bound with a medium (generally gum arabic) soluble in water. In normal parlance, however, the term ‘watercolour’ usually refers specifically to a type of painting in which the lighter tones are not obtained by mixing white pigment with the colours but by thinning them with water so that the light is given by the paper or other support showing more strongly through the thinner layers of paint. It can thus be distinguished from other kinds of painting, such as gouache, that use water as a medium but are opaque. Although there are isolated earlier examples of leading artists making memorable use of watercolour (Dürer and van Dyck, for example), it was not until the 18th century, in England, that it became a major medium, particularly for landscape painting, in which it lent itself to rendering subtle atmospheric effects. In the wake of Impressionism, the capacity of watercolour to achieve spontaneous expression was more widely appreciated and it ceased to be so much of an English speciality. Among the modern artists who have been great exponents of the technique (in their very different ways) are Cézanne, Dufy, Grosz, Klee, Nolde, and Sargent.

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gouache

gouache. Opaque watercolour, sometimes also known as body colour. It differs from transparent watercolour in that the pigments are bound with glue and the lighter tones are obtained by the admixture of white pigment. Its degree of opacity varies with the amount of white that is added, but in general it is sufficient to prevent the reflection of the ground through the paint and it therefore lacks the luminosity of transparent watercolour painting. It is, however, easier to use, as trials and errors can be painted over. The colours sold as poster paints by commercial colourmen are usually a form of gouache.

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gouache

gouache. Opaque watercolour, sometimes also known as body colour. It differs from transparent watercolour in that the pigments are bound with glue and the lighter tones are obtained by the admixture of white pigment. Its degree of opacity varies with the amount of white that is added, but in general it is sufficient to prevent the reflection of the ground through the paint and it therefore lacks the luminosity of transparent watercolour painting. It is, however, easier to use, as trials and errors can be painted over. The colours sold as poster paints by commercial colourmen are usually a form of gouache.

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watercolor

wa·ter·col·or / ˈwôtərˌkələr; ˈwä-/ • n. (also watercolors) artists' paint made with a water-soluble binder such as gum arabic, and thinned with water rather than oil, giving a transparent color. ∎  a picture painted with watercolors. ∎  the art of painting with watercolors, esp. using a technique of producing paler colors by diluting rather than by adding white. DERIVATIVES: wa·ter·col·or·ist n.

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gouache

gouache / gwäsh; goōˈäsh/ • n. a method of painting using opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a gluelike substance. ∎  paint of this kind; opaque watercolor. ∎  a picture painted in this way.

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aquarelle

aquarelle(Fr.). Water-colour; sometimes musically applied to a piece of delicate texture, as in Eric Fenby's arr. for str. (1938), as Aquarelles, of Delius's 2 wordless chs. ‘To be sung of a summer night on the water’ (1917).

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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "aquarelle." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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gouache

gouache Watercolour paint made opaque by the addition of white. It lightens in colour when dry and cracks if used thickly. Popular among manuscript illuminators in the Middle Ages, gouache has been used by 20th-century artists.

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aquarelle

aquarelle. The French word for watercolour; it is sometimes used in English to distinguish ‘true’ watercolour painting—in transparent washes—from gouache, which is opaque.

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aquarelle

aquarelle The French word for watercolour; it is sometimes used in English to distinguish ‘true’ watercolour painting—in transparent washes—from gouache, which is opaque.

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watercolour

watercolour Paint that is made from a pigment ground up with a water-soluble gum, such as gum arabic, and also a painting that is rendered in this medium.

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aquarelle

aquarelle XIX. — F. — It. acquerella watercolour, f. acqua :- L. aqua water.

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T. F. HOAD. "aquarelle." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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gouache

gouache water-colour painting with opaque colours. XIX. — F. — It. guazzo.

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aquarelle

aquarelle : see watercolor painting .

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gouache

gouache : see watercolor painting .

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aquarelle

aquarelleAdele, Aix-la-Chapelle, aquarelle, artel, au naturel, bagatelle, béchamel, befell, bell, belle, boatel, Brunel, Cadell, carousel, cartel, cell, Chanel, chanterelle, clientele, Clonmel, compel, Cornell, crime passionnel, dell, demoiselle, dispel, dwell, el, ell, Estelle, excel, expel, farewell, fell, Fidel, fontanelle, foretell, Gabrielle, gazelle, gel, Giselle, hell, hotel, impel, knell, lapel, mademoiselle, maître d'hôtel, Manuel, marcel, matériel, mesdemoiselles, Michel, Michelle, Miguel, misspell, morel, moschatel, Moselle, motel, muscatel, nacelle, Nell, Nobel, Noel, organelle, outsell, Parnell, pell-mell, personnel, propel, quell, quenelle, rappel, Raquel, Ravel, rebel, repel, Rochelle, Sahel, sardelle, sell, shell, show-and-tell, smell, Snell, spell, spinel, swell, tell, undersell, vielle, villanelle, well, yell •Buñuel • Pachelbel • handbell •barbell • harebell • decibel • doorbell •cowbell • bluebell • Annabel •mirabelle • Christabel • Jezebel •Isabel, Isobel •nutshell • infidel • asphodel •zinfandel • Grenfell • Hillel • parallel •Cozumel • caramel • Fresnel •pimpernel • pipistrelle • Tricel •filoselle

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gouache

gouachedémarche, gouache, harsh, marsh, moustache (US mustache) •Saltmarsh

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watercolor

watercolorcolour (US color), cruller, culler, medulla, mullah, Muller, nullah, sculler, Sulla •doubler, troubler •bumbler, grumbler, stumbler, tumbler •bundler • muffler • juggler • bungler •suckler • coupler •hustler, rustler •butler, cutler •puzzler • swashbuckler • technicolor •multicolour (US multicolor) •watercolour (US watercolor)

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watercolour

watercolourcolour (US color), cruller, culler, medulla, mullah, Muller, nullah, sculler, Sulla •doubler, troubler •bumbler, grumbler, stumbler, tumbler •bundler • muffler • juggler • bungler •suckler • coupler •hustler, rustler •butler, cutler •puzzler • swashbuckler • technicolor •multicolour (US multicolor) •watercolour (US watercolor)

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