Second thoughts on why there are so few watercolour paintings in galleries
In my last blog I was commenting on the apparent lack of watercolour paintings in galleries and what I believe may be some reasons for this.
I have recently from Antwerp where I was attending the 7th International Aquarel festival with my artist friend Shirley Trevena, who was invited to exhibit 5 of her paintings. The exhibition was arranged by the European Confederation of Watercolour Societies and is held bi-annually in different member countries. This year the exhibition was at the Galleries of Campo and Campo in Antwerp in Belgium
It was a real pleasure to see over 200 pure watercolour paintings on display (acryllics not allowed - only watercolour!) in many different styles and subjects from artists from many different european countries. An interesting feature of the exhibition was that nearly all the paintings were ‘big’ in size and most were probably A3 or A2 before framing and some were even larger than this.
It is good to know that watercolour painting is being supported well in Europe and that there are many active watercolour societies promoting the media and its methods. In talking to some of the organisers of the European Confederation however, I got the impression that approaches to major British watercolour societies to get them to join the confederation had been rebuffed and that the British Societies had no interest in the Europeans. I think this is a great pity given the obvious interest in the media on the continent and these large-scale exhibitions which would give great scope and encouragement to british painters in watercolour.
Aileen
June 20th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Yes..do agree with the fading issue and think this is why the acrylics (and gouache) are increasingly lazily referred to as watercolours…recently saw a small work labelled watercolour in the Gracefield gallery by Hazel Campbell…who isan excellent watercolour painter…this was clearly gouache..also in march after some three months of searching I found that one of Robin Phillipsons large watercolour tryptichs was held bu Gallery of Modern art..I requested to see it bbbut there was a delay of a couple of weeks to find it…it was with the drawings curator…when we eventually gotit in the store and he took me to see it he explained that bec watercolours are drawn first that was why it was there…the work was huge spontaneous pain of Phillipsons rage at his wifes death and a tirade against god/religion and there wasnt a hint of pencil….any way I cant e too purist about this since I use the multi-media option…another curse or ?saviour of the watercolour genre….