“See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo.” Arthur Conan Doyle
On Sunday an international audience of students of watercolour painting gathered online to revel at the work of Australian Master watercolourist, Chan Dissanayake sharing a 1 hour FREE demonstration of painting clouds.
I was delighted to be invited to co-host the session, managing the Zoom side of things while Chan focused on his painting and sharing his insights into the process of creating a lasting impression of clouds. Chan explored how to search for and incorporate ‘lost and found’ edges, tones and perspective as well as composition and design always allowing for this extraordinary medium of watercolour to do its magical thing.
I was particularly enthralled at learning of and seeing, for the first time, the compelling work by Edward Brian (Ted) Seago (1910-1, 974), the self-taught English painter and his paintings . His paintings of clouds were magnificent and moving. o
Chan reminded us of the importance of artists using their senses to capture and translate impressions of nature, not copying purely what we see, but rather always considering what we feel, sense and desire to come through in our work. All in all a super practical and unique demonstration, with important lessons for how optimise the sponaneous medium of watercolour.
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