Advancing with Watercolor: Winter Light “Solitude”

About the Author

Gary Tucker started painting with life long mentor and artist, Anita Fahs. She introduced oil painting, the impressionists, and the value of working from life. Soon after, Gary decided to make art his life path. Eventually he was drawn east to Boston where he met Professor Kaji Aso at the SMFA. Professor Aso introduced eastern aesthetics, Calligraphy and Sumi painting. Gary quickly graduated to watercolor and found that he could achieve much more subtlety and expressiveness through this temperamental media.

“Through the media of watercolor and my process of painting I find power through brushwork, and subtlety through transparency.”

“Watercolor differs from other media in that there is a performance aspect to it. The fine pieces come out in one sitting and very often like a classic performance, something happens, a fusion of mind and subject, an improvisation that cannot be duplicated” –

– Gary Tucker

Line, Shape, Color, and Edges, the building blocks of every art piece - We work to develop a fluency with these elements while developing the technical aspect of watercolor through drills and studies.The goal is to entice the student to think a bit before painting. Classes are 2..5 hours - presented in a combination live/video format over Zoom - documented in depth with pdf files, source materials, and further reading. The Review Session is a new feature during which I give a review and mark up selected student work.

Creating a feeling through our painting is one of the most satisfying results that artist can achieve. This feeling when it is felt by others is perhaps the most profound quality. This week we look at visual clues in the design of ”Solitude” that create this sensation.

In this piece the single most important part of the design is the balance of large space against the small trees and house - The space being made up of relatively quiet areas of foreground and sky - make up more thaan 3/4 of the painting. Also these areas are painted in a quiet manner using slow changing gradations of color and soft edges throughout. The small homestead feels alone - like a ship at sea and we feel this sensation and identify with it.

There is also a dynamic between the near shape of the cabin and the trees against the opening between the clouds

Other parts of the design are muted colors, soft edges, and a low key tonal structure. All considered before picking up the brush.