If the truth be known, my real love is watercolor. Don’t get me wrong, painting with oils is very satisfying and there are many really great oil painters both past and current. As most of you know by now, I paint in both. People often ask me which I prefer and I have to say watercolor. So you may be asking why I paint in oil when my real love is watercolor? Fair question. There are several answers however.
First off is that oil paintings sell better than watercolors. Plain and simple, which is really too bad as most artists will agree that watercolor is the more difficult medium to use. Oils are cheaper and easier to frame…for the most part. Paint the painting, stick it in a frame with a wire to hang it and there ya go. Done. Watercolors are better framed with a mat and glass so conseqently one has the cost of the matting, glass and backing board in addition to the frame. Those of us painting professionally use acid free matting, backing and a UV filtered glass, all adding to the cost.
So let’s go back to the statement that oils sell better than watercolors. Why is that? From my experience and research I would say that watercolors are not held in very high regard out west here but are better received the farther east you go and enjoy the best popularity in probably England. This is a shame as the level of skill required to execute a properly done watercolor is far greater, in my opinion, than that needed to do a nice oil. Both require a superior knowledge of the medium to execute a satisfactory outcome.
Let’s look at how each is used. To begin with, the method of painting is completely opposite of each other. essentially watercolors are laid in with the lightest pigments first and painting the darks lastly. With oils, they are usually started with the darks first and then the lightest highlights added lastly. Additionally, in oils, one has the option of rubbing or scraping out an offending area of the painting, or simply setting it aside to dry and then painting over the wrong. In the use of watercolor, one has to be fairly well committed to a course of action when brush is put to paper. Watercolor requires more forethought. It is much more difficult if not impossible to fix a watercolor that has gone bad. Minor adjustments can be made but nothing of any significance as a rule.
I admire the loose qualities of watercolors, the natural, inherent luminescence caused by the transparency of the medium and the white of the paper and the somewhat unexpected results and the spontaneity, at least in the way I try to paint with watercolor. I will show you two paintings I just recently did in watercolor to show you what I mean.
This water color I did a couple of weeks ago in Jackson Hole. You can scroll back a couple of posts to read about it. What I like about this one is that it has the spontaneity I like and the white of the paper helping out as well as the suggestiveness of a plein air painting. This suggestiveness comes from the fact that you don’t have a lot of time to fiddle around. There is the matter of changing light conditions, bugs and the threat of bears to deal with so one must not tarry. This is as about as close as I can get to what I think is and ideal watercolor. However I can easily contradict myself with the likes of Joseph Alleman, Dean Mitchell, Winslow Homer and any number of others.
This watercolor I did just a couple of days ago at the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park at the invite of his son Rick Weaver for their annual paint out. While this painting is OK, the problem I have with it is that it isn’t as loose and spontaneous as the first one. I started out that way but then I lost control of what I was doing and began to try to “fix” it with more detail. I finally decided I better leave it alone before I totally ruined it. The best “brakes” I have is my wife Kathy who sitting a distance behind me can say “STOP”. She wasn’t there for this painting.
My question to you good folks is this. Which painting do you like, and if you can, what is it you like about it.
Next time I’ll tell you why I love oil painting.