J.M.W. Turner's watercolours

I went to see the Turner exhibition back in January. I've been trying to in-prove my painting and studying other peoples work really helps. As I've been working with water colours a lot lately, who better to look at than Turner.  

I found his paintings on coloured paper really interesting, the colours of the paint were really bright. Using watercolour on coloured paper isn't something that i've tried, because watercolours are translucent I hadn't tried using coloured paper, as I didn't think that the paint would really show. 

Turner really explored with watercolour, using ink pen to draw onto his paintings. The parts that he's draw on bright out the shapes of the painting. Although he's not added that much detail with the pen, what he has added helps you (the viewer) to understand what you're seeing. 

Another thing that Turner incorporated in his paints was scratching. I've found adding highlights with watercolour is very heard, you have to keep all your highlights white form the very beginning of your painting. Turner discover that he could add white back into he painting by scratching into the paper. This is best shown in The Piazzetta, Venice 1835. 

The Sun of Venice.

This was a study done in Venice on one of his trips, the watercolour is of the fishing boats getting ready to go out. What I like about this painting is how the reflections blend into the boats, laving bark between the boats and the water. 

The colours of this painting are warm but fresh, the yellows and oranges look bright aginst the blue. Unlike most of Turners work this Painting feels quite peaceful, there no crashing waves or dermatic  sky.  It's warm because there no reason for it not to be, he shows the men heading out to sea in the early morning, as the sun is coming up. 

  

The Sun of Venice Going to Sea.

This is the Painting Turner did for the Royal Academy in 1843, three years after he when to Venice. The comparison of the study and the painting shows how he's used less colour, this painting is done with Oil paints. The painting doesn't have the warm and vibrant colours of the other one. This could be because it isn't do in watercolour, and he wouldn't have had the sun on his back, like he would when he was making the first study back in Venice.

I took these pictures on my iPad. After looking at Turners paintings I looked at the people that came to look at the paintings. There were couples, friends and students. It was nice seeing all the different types of people coming to enjoy and appreciate his work.