In watercolor, artists paint with colored washes made of extremely fine particles of
pigments dispersed in water. Watercolor is usually transparent and allows the white of the
paper underneath it to affect how the color appears, and this gives it its beautiful
luminosity, as in this sheet by J.M.W. Turner.
Joseph Mallord
William Turner
(British,
1775-1851)
Detail from Fluelen,
from the Lake of
Lucerne, 1845
Watercolor with
gouache,
scratched away in
places, on cream
wove paper, 29.2
x 48 centimeters