Try painting in watercolours
Above all a technique for the open air, it can be done just as well from a window
TO THOSE WHO spend their days working with pens and keyboards, a watercolour paintbrush can induce a faint anxiety. Its very lightness and delicacy suggests that great skill is needed to deploy it. Names of the master watercolourists rise troublingly to mind: Cotman for his wooded hills, Ravilious for his cliffscapes, Audubon for his birds. The amateur who merely wants to while away long hours can easily feel inadequate to the task. No matter, for even the attempt to paint in watercolour brings many rewards.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Try painting in watercolours”
Culture April 25th 2020
- Readers across the world are finding solace in “War and Peace”
- The enduring grip of the men—and mindset—of the KGB
- The story of coffee is a parable of global capitalism
- A prizewinning poet’s haunting debut novel
- “The Shining” is perfect quarantine viewing
- Try painting in watercolours
- Covid-19 might not change cities as much as previous pandemics
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