Nita Engle (American, 1925-2019) was a watercolorist who combined wild spontaneity with a controlled focus.
In her book "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself," she says: "My method of working consists of two parts: a wild, spontaneous phase, in which I aim to create a field of texture that will give the illusion of, say, water, a daisy field, trees, or whatever; and a realism phase, in which I select small areas, usually in the foreground, and add careful detail so the viewer's eye will read the rest as reality."
"In the first phase I apply the water and paint and follow it wherever it leads with no censoring....After the paint is dry, the thinking phase begins."
Book: "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself" by Nita Engle
Stunning work. Really effective execution.
ReplyDeleteThere’s also an 8 minute video on YouTube of Nita doing a demo painting.
ReplyDelete