2008 Statement

Recently I rediscovered a postcard that I bought a few years ago when visiting Ruskin’s home at Brantwood. Again I was forcibly struck by the organic quality of Ruskin’s sketch. In fact you can hold it anyway up and it still makes sense – either as a chasm, a waterfall, or a rushing torrent. The same natural principles of movement, erosion and stratification that apply to nature work at all levels of scale: from macrocosm to microcosm.

It seems to me that there is something of an organic or elemental principle to the medium of watercolour. You apply a stain of wet colour and watch it spread like lichen, a moving cloud, or silt suspended in a stream. You can never quite control watercolour – maybe you tame it, harness it perhaps – but, for me, the best watercolours retain that restless state of flux embodied in line, rhythm and stain. The way in which water moves is governed by an elemental principle that unites both nature and watercolour painting, and the same forces are inherent in the weathering of rocks and movement of clouds.

Another artist whose work has recently excited me is Chang Dai-Chien. His beautiful and breathtaking paintings are the perfect example of the organic potential of watercolour.