Two different Artists               Two different Styles

                Greta Bridge by John Sell Cotman                                                                                                                    Norham Castle by JMW Turner   

                                                      

In the late 1700's & early 1800's the market for watercolour paper was comparatively small. Artists therefore experimented with different kinds of paper until they found one they were happy using.

The famous English watercolour artist, John Sell Cotman painted many watercolours on a wrapping grade paper whilst Turner preferred to use a Whatmans writing paper for his studio paintings.

Contrast the soft, smooth, translucent appearance of the Turner watercolour above with the crisp definition of line & colour separation achieved by Cotman. These effects depended very much on the intrinsic properties of the paper.

There are many fundamental differences between the 19th C. papers & modern watercolour papers. The older papers were much lighter in weight & the colour of the sheet was more subtle. The way in which the paper was sized was different too & this affected the way in which the paper "took" the paint and the overall strength of the sheet.

The cheaper grades of paper could only take three or four washes whereas the best of the fine papers could stand repeated applications of paint. 

Did they need stretching like many modern handmade papers ? Not necessarily ..it rather depended on  whether the artist was more comfortable with a taut surface. Surfaces tend in the main to be NOT or CP.

 

Thomas Girtin & John Sell Cotman  - Paper & Paint in Perfect Harmony

by Father Stephen Horton of Prinknash Abbey & Christine Gibbs

 Before the mid 18^h century, watercolour was mainly used as a tinting medium to enhance topographical views where the drawing was all- important & the colouring secondary. But at the end of the 18^th C. watercolour was emerging as a medium in its own right. Part of the struggle the watercolourists faced was to convince the Royal Academy of this fact.

It was Thomas Girtin, (1775 – 1802) above all, who developed watercolour as a full-blown medium for artistic expression.

Looking at the work of the great early English watercolour artists, such Girtin & Cotman () & Turner (1775 – 1851) one is struck by many things.

The relatively portable nature of watercolour meant that it could be used in the field for en plein air painting. In the hands of a great artist fleeting glimpses of light could be captured with a fresh immediacy impossible to capture in oil.