18 Watercolor artist | AUGUST 2019
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
it’s always ourselves we fi nd in the sea.”
—from “Maggie and Milly and Molly and May” by E. E. CummingsLiving near the water’s edge all his life, Australian artist David Taylor has
forged a relationship with the sea that brings a reverent, deeply personal
feeling to his paintings of harbors and coastlines. “Every time a piece of
my work is sold or goes to a collection,” he says, “a large part of me is
there with it.”WATER WATCHER
Raised in Melbourne, Taylor grew up enamored with the sea. It was during
camping holidays on the east coast of Victoria that the artist fi rst experi-
enced the alternating calm and fury of the sea, observing how the weather
can change quickly, dramatically and frequently. “Th e sea carved patterns
in the sand, and the salt air created beauty and atmosphere,” he says.
Taylor has been painting and teaching in watercolor since the late ’60s,
after an extensive career in graphic arts. His curiosity about fi ne art
began years before that, however, when as a young boy he noticed the
watercolor paintings hanging in his grandmother’s home in England.ABOVE
“I couldn’t wait to paint this,” says Taylor of Resting
in Deep Shadows, Venice (watercolor on paper,
22x30). “The boat, nestled by the Venetian wall in
evening light, was like a special portrait,” he recalls.
“Here was life in simple terms: raw and majestic,
historic and breathtaking.” He pushed strong colors
in the boat and used darker values in the shadow
areas to gain maximum depth.RIGHT
Taylor lives near the rocky shoreline that appears
in Fleeting Moments, Bushranger Bay, Australia
(watercolor on paper, 28x41), and it has been his
subject for many smaller compositions before this
larger one. “It has fascinating light and shade
effects,” he says, “and wonderful vegetation
adorning the surrounding cliff edges.”PREVIOUS SPREAD
Perfect timing resulted in the peaceful pause that
led to A Day to Refl ect, Weymouth, UK (watercolor
on paper, 26¼ x38½ ). “I was there just as the harbor
became bathed in an evening glow,” says Taylor.
He loved the life surrounding the harbor walls and
made studies of various compositions before
choosing this one. “Because of its large size, the
washes needed to be applied cleanly and freely,
and paint applied more liberally. Freshness was so
important, but I also wanted to maintain serenity
in the moment.”