Tag Archives: watercolour

Between chance and control on sheets of paper

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THE ARTIST BARBARA Nicholls (born 1963) invited us to the opening of her solo show at the Patrick Heide Contemporary Art gallery in Church Street, near Edgware Road. All her creations on display are watercolours on paper. Each of them resembles what looks like a natural phenomenon, but an imagined one. Although her pictures do not depict actual natural occurrences, each one of them is a result of the artist exploiting the unpredictability of the behaviour of the materials she is using at the same time as exerting some control over how they behave. To give some idea of what I am trying to say, here is something written in the notes issued by the gallery:

“Nicholls’ operations begin at times with large-scale sheets of heavyweight paper laid flat on the studio floor. The physicality of her practice is vital; she moves across and over the surface, first guiding water into pools or creating delicate lines with transparent washes. Once water touches the paper, it no longer remains flat, requiring Nicholls to carefully manage the buckling surface as she introduces pigment, experimenting with how much liquid the paper can handle. The drying process can be natural or carefully controlled through appliances like electric fans and heaters, which create microclimates that accelerate evaporation, allowing layers of colour to settle and crystallise over time.”

In other words, the artist chooses the places on the paper  where the pigment and the water can be allowed to act as nature determines, and then lets them get on with it, producing whatever result the conditions permit. Thus, she covers the paper with a composition that is partly her choosing and partly the result of chemical and physical processes within the areas she has chosen for them to occur. The results are colourful abstract images, which are both beautiful and intriguing.

The exhibition continues until 21 June 2025.

A small exhibition of watercolours at London’s Wallace Collection and an artist who was unknown to me

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SEVERAL OF THE GALLERIES within London’s Wallace Collection in London’s Manchester Square, have an overwhelming number of paintings crowded together on their walls. One of these galleries contains several paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), which I doubt I would have focussed on had I not just seen a small temporary exhibition in a room on the ground floor. The exhibition is called “Turner and Bonington: Watercolours from the Wallace Collection”, and is on until the 12th of May 2024. It contains 10 watercolours (of landscapes) held by the Wallace Collection – four by JMW Turner (1775-1851) and the rest by his short-lived contemporary Bonington. Each of the watercolours is delightful and well-executed. Bonington’s watercolours are delicately crafted, but less adventurous than those of Turner. Because they are so sensitive to damage by light, these watercolours are rarely displayed. The last time they were exhibited was 17 years ago.

Watercolour by Bonington

Now, I had heard of Turner and have seen many of his works, but today (the 29th of March 2024) was the first time I became aware of Bonington. He was born near Nottingham and by the age of 11 was exhibiting watercolours at the Liverpool Academy. In 1817, he and his family moved to Calais (France), where his father set up a business. From there they moved to Paris in 1818. During his time in France, Bonington learned painting from French artists and soon became a friend of the French artist Eugene Delacroix. In 1820, he became a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Some of his oil paintings were displayed in the Paris Salon of 1822, and elsewhere. By 1825, he had developed a method of mixing gouache with watercolour, which produced an effect close to what could be achieved with oil paints. After making trips to various parts of France, northern Italy, Venice, and London, he developed tuberculosis. He died in London, where his parents had sent him for treatment. In 1861, many years after Bonington died, Delacroix wrote in a letter (quoted in a Wikipedia article):

“To my mind, one can find in other modern artists qualities of strength and of precision in rendering that are superior to those in Bonington’s pictures, but no one in this modern school, and perhaps even before, has possessed that lightness of touch which, especially in watercolours, makes his works a type of diamond which flatters and ravishes the eye, independently of any subject and any imitation.”

I wish I could have thought of those words, which chime with what I thought after seeing Bonington’s watercolours and some of his many oil paintings now hanging in the Wallace Collection – a London address that no art lover should miss visiting.