32 Watercolor artist | OCTOBER 2019
I lived and worked in
Saudi Arabia in the 1970s
and 80s and spent as
much time as possible
exploring and painting in
both the desert and
mountainous regions.
I found the landscape
absolutely compelling.
Modern communications
and increasing prosperity
had brought huge
changes to the region,
but there were still
Bedouin (nomadic
peoples) and camels
in the desert, and it
sometimes seemed
that little had changed
for centuries. This studio
watercolor, The Trail
From Sa’dah, Yemen
(watercolor on paper,
15x23), is based on
sketches and photos
from my time there.hours later it may look completely diff erent. Th e sun
will move around and the shadows with it. It can be a
great frustration to see a view you’d like to paint, wait
a few days, and then fi nd that the colors have moved
on, leaves now cover trees that were bare last time you
saw them, or a golden stubble fi eld has been plowed.
If circumstances allow, I’ll make a color sketch, either
with pen and watercolor or, less frequently, with colored
pencil. I use a retractable brush, a small 12 half-pan
Winsor & Newton Bottle Box (so-called because it has
a built-in water reservoir) and PITT waterproof pens
from Faber-Castell. Th is combination is the ultimate in
portability. Everything slips comfortably into a pocket
alongside a ring-bound sketchbook.Crafting the Image
Composition is vital—it’s the diff erence between
a painting that’s OK but not special and one that
stands out. A painter has to understand that painting
is all about producing something that looks good to the
viewer rather than a topographically accurate rendition
of the scene. In other words: Be prepared to cheat a
little. You don’t have to paint a row of pylons just
because they’re strung across your subject; leave them
out if you prefer it that way. Similarly, if there’s a herd
of cows under a group of trees, but it’s out of your line
of sight, that doesn’t mean that you can’t put it in to
enhance your picture. Ultimately, what matters most
is the painting.First, I determine why I want to
paint a particular scene; I decide
what’s important and look for a central
feature from which to build a composi-
tion. In a landscape, this could be a
group of trees, a distant church, fence
posts or a herd of cattle. I’m a great
believer in the golden- section
approach to composition, which, in its
simplest terms, means that the point
of interest should be roughly one-third
of the distance from the left or rightEquipment Tip
Whenever possible, I work
sitting on a Walkstool, a
three-legged collapsible stool
that sits higher than the
average stool and which
I find very comfortable. It
allows me to work with the
painting on my lap and the
paint box on my left arm,
with a water container on
the ground. This approach
iscomfortable enough that
I can work for hours at a time.