Drawn to Simplicity

Drawn Even with a camera to hand, sketching a scene can be a valuable part of the painting process as it helps you focus on the key elements, as GRAHAME BOOTH explains

- GRAHAME BOOTH

Most watercolour painters who favour a looser technique also seek to produce a final painting that is very much simpler than the original subject. By “simpler”, I mean a less cluttered and detailed appearance – something that is often quite difficult to achieve in practice.

Creating a simpler composition is not simply a case of leaving things out (although this may well be part of it). Instead, it is the much more nebulous idea of painting a chosen subject so that it appears to be very quickly and economically executed, while still suggesting the detail that is effectively no longer there.

As I will show you in this article, one sure way to help this process along is to use a pencil sketch of the original subject, drawn in situ, as the main resource for the painting.

On the rare occasions when I travel to any of the London airports, I always try to get to the city for a couple of hours painting and I usually head for the River Thames where I can be sure of finding something interesting.

On my last visit I enjoyed a morning’s painting around St Saviour’s Dock and after lunch I crossed the river, ending up outside the Tower of London. It was quite crowded, a light rain was starting to fall, I needed to get back to the airport fairly soon, and the subject didn’t immediately inspire so this provided me with four good excuses not to set up my easel again.