36 artistMarch 2020 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
TAWATERCOLOUR
T
he fi rst 20 years of my artistic
career were spent in London
as a freelance illustrator in
advertising and publishing.
Towards the end of this period I
specialised in architectural perspectives
of new projects, restorations and
all things architectural. I think this
established my direction.
As an 18-year old trainee my tasks
were to deliver the work of fi ve artists
around London, clean water pots and
buy sandwiches; the studio was based
in Soho where I watched and studied
the artists who helped and guided my
development. A wonderful talented old
hand offered these words of wisdom:Street life
In the fi rst of three articles, Brian Smith demonstrates an
atmospheric street scene and how to suggest people going
about their daily lives
‘Learn to suggest people and fi gures
and the phone will always ring’. He
was right; this became the basis of my
artistic direction and the phone rang
for 20 years. My work now focuses on
people going above their daily lives
wherever I fi nd myself.How I work
The reference photo is only the starting
point of my journey. When I walk around
an area the surroundings either drift
past the eye unnoticed or form the
essence of a painting subject. I produce
an ideas sheet on a half-imperial sheet
of paper which will have between 8
and 12 ideas that may become larger‘Learn to suggest people and gures and the phone will always ring’
paintings. Each study will take between
15 minutes to half-an-hour. The purpose
of the ideas sheets is to develop ideas,
and they can also be used to fi ne-tune
skills.
It is important to remember that
pigment can be the consistency of semi-
skimmed milk through to butter, and
your paper can be anything from very
wet to completely dry. The results are
the essence of the watercolour medium.
I use only artist-quality tubes, and
generally mix pigment on the paper, not
in the palette. For this painting I used
a half sheet of Arches 140lb (300gm) HP
paper, taped to my board with brown
framer’s tape, not stretched. My butter knife and tube
paint squeezed into my palettet MY REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH
A recent trip to New Orleans, USA, with its 24/7 street
life, its architecture and iconic street names – such as
Bourbon Street – provided all that I look for in order to
create a piece of work. I wanted to capture the balconies
and the ironwork, which are iconic reference points of this
charismatic city of the deep south.
On this occasion the light, the truck and the chairs were
my starting point. The painting has sombre tones with
touches of red and turquoise to create key colour and
interest. I have tried to create a narrative to give the
painting depth and interestDEMONSTRATION Getting By