A L’Anglaise

Watercolor is a tradition in which the English have excelled. So many excellent watercolorists have created a style, or school, or whatever you want to call it, that delights in the countryside. There are so many – too many – to name, both living and gone – who are such a pleasure to behold.

You don’t find such farmhouses and lanes in the US! Our old buildings are seldom stone, usually clapboard houses and red barns of a certain style. Stone walls exist, it seems, only in rural New England or in modern day housing tracts. Because things are old I love looking at pictures of the English countryside or coastal villages. And really, this is for the entire British Isles, not just England, though it seems most are in it.

That said, there is also a time to practice with a master. The above painting was done following a very nice lesson taught by Charles Evans, a painter I just came upon this morning.

I rather enjoyed myself this morning’s project! My painting is not his painting. While I use to weep and wail about not doing exactly what someone did as a demo, I’ve grown past that. It is a lot more fun to do it, follow the general lesson, compromise where necessary, focus on the important points, note what works and doesn’t, and just get on with it.