Zhan Yun (China) - young architect-watercolorist

Zhan Yun (China)

I just found this young architect on Insta! Great works. Enjoy!

Zhan Yun (China)

BIOGRAPHY
"As an architect with ten-year working experience, I love architectural design and the city where I’m living, embedding in mind the dream of painting as all the other architects.

In 2016, I accidentally read online an article about a famous watercolor master and his work. Attracted by the medium deeply, I have been studying and painting watercolor since then."

Zhan Yun (China)

"Watercolor now being an indispensable part in my life, I always paint what I see and think with it when travelling, or feeling bored on the train for business trip, or seeking relaxation out of exhaustion after whole-day work. I will keep painting with continuous exploration and improvement."

Education Background: Master of Science in Architecture,
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University
Current Company: East China Architectural Design & Research Istitute Co., Ltd.

Art Experience：

"One night in Suzhou",  Shanghai Watercolor Painting Exhibition 2019
"Lantern", The First Austrlian International watercolor Exhibition 2019 Third place
"Sunset in Anhui", Participated in the 2019 Malaysia Online Juried All Medium Competition
"Sunshine in the afternoon", Accepted for MOWS 2020 International Exhibition
"Sunshine", Accepted for the AWS 153th Annual Exibition
"The coutyard", Accepted for 2020 SWA International Exbition
 

Zhan Yun (China)

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I’m a life-loving person, and probably due to being an architect, I always prefer to choose the themes of architecture, humanity or landscape to paint. City in rain, alley in twilight, village under sunshine, and historic houses etc. are the scenes I love, easily triggering my motion to express my feelings on paper with watercolor.
I’m used to making the paper be soaked entirely by enough water, and the rough paper of 300g/㎡ that I usually choose to paint is thick enough to remain flat.
I always draft roughly the outline or the key parts of the objects with 2B pencil to avoid getting myself bound by too many details to express freely with watercolor.
After setting the tones of the whole painting and creating the bright-and-dark relationship, I usually make some further adjustments when the paper is wet, and start painting the details when the paper is moist. I won’t finish the work until the details of the focus part are attractive enough.
And in my view, the authentic attractiveness of the watercolor to me is the uncertainty of the wet-on-wet brushworks and the fusion of the pigments on the wet paper.

Joe Francis Dowden

Extracts from my upcoming book Konstantin Sterkhov "Masters of Watercolor. All about Plein Air"

See the master`s demo at Lilleshall Hall, Shropshire, UK in May 2020, Tickets are still available at WWW.SAA.CO.UK/MASTERS

Joe F. Dowden has exhibited at prestigious shows as Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Laing Art Exhibition, Chichester Open, British Modern Masters, Royal Society of Marine Artists.  

Joe is an author of books and magazine articles published worldwide. He presents TV, DVD, seminars, demonstrations. He has been a panel Member of the SAA.

"...At six years of age I did my first plein air painting in watercolor. An artist friend of my father took me painting. My family lived near the railway. Locomotives made clouds of steam with incandescent cinders shooting skywards like fireworks. This display of fire and water inspired my work."

 Joe F. Dowden (UK)

"Many techniques get me this fire, or light. Spattering masking fluid with a toothbrush gives sparkling light. Applying it with a hog hair brush gets sun glinting on foliage. Using big contrasts from white paper to intense dark gives power. Understand tradition but don’t let it limit innovation. Try everything. I paint extremes. I use bright color, but value, or light and dark, is number one, not color. I sometimes tell students; “Value has nothing to do with color, but everything to do with how colorful it looks”".

  Joe F. Dowden (UK)

"It is easier to paint open country, wide river or winter scenes. Complex woodland scenes require careful handling. Special techniques include spattering paint into spattered water and letting it merge. Painting into dragged water gives tree texture – I call it water feathering. Multiple layers of paint spatter create lights where paper is left dry. Sable brush spatters form dynamic star shapes similar to leaf shadow patterns."

 Joe F. Dowden (UK)

"I work along the small stream called the River Tillingbourne. It runs for 30km through the wooded Surrey Hills. Once I got very hungry when I was painting. I asked a fisherman to lend me his rod. I had never caught a fish before. He told me to drift the line under a nearby bridge. He said there would be a big fish there, (a trout). That fish tasted great. I don’t know why he didn’t catch it himself."

Joe F. Dowden (UK)

"The River Tillingbourne taught me to paint. It features throughout my Russian book, “Water in Watercolour”. The best lesson I learned was to mix plenty of paint, apply it wet and let it flow. Paint reflections vertically, soft focus, and be content with whatever happens. Changing it makes it worse it. Paint it. Leave it. Apply wet pigment in large quantities, let it flow and leave it alone. I invent nothing, only discover. This was my best discovery. "

Joe F. Dowden (UK)

http://www.joedowden.net

Read the whole text in my upcoming book Konstantin Sterkhov "Masters of Watercolor. All about Plein Air"

Francisco Castro

 Francisco Castro. White street. 100x81 cm 2015

What is the significance of watercolor to you?

The watercolor for me is the means to express the

emotions produced by the different moments of life.

 Francisco Castro. Iceberg II. 80x81 cm 2015

Do you prefer painting indoors or outdoors?

I have gone through different stages. I like the outdoors

for taking notes and references, and the indoors for finishing

my watercolors.

 Francisco Castro. River II. 40x60 cm 2017

What is the difference in approach when you paint in studio and on the spot?

When I paint in the studio I think I am more creative

because when I am in front of the motive it becomes too

important, and I become a little bit of a slave to it. In the studio,

having distance from the motive is good for the creativity.

Francisco Castro. Trunk. 40x50 cm 2015

What is your equipment when you paint in plein air?

When I paint in plein air, I bring my palette, a

few brushes, and suitable clothes for the outside.

What paper do you prefer?

I prefer Arches paper.

Francisco Castro (Spain)

Read the full Interview in my upcoming book Konstantin Sterkhov "Masters of Watercolor. All about Plein Air" Release is expected in October 2019

http://franciscocastro.jimdo.com

Konstantin Kuzema - a story

Here is an unusual post. It is a story by renoun Russian watercolor artist that is included into my upcoming book "Masters Of Watercolor. All About Plein Air"

Butterflies and environmental awareness

(a story by Konstantin Kuzema with his paintings that has nothing to do with the subject of his story)

Unlike other stories here you dont smell spirit. Only white spirit, and only in the very end.

I was strolling around Konevets island (quite a small island in Ladoga lake where Orthodox monastery is based) looking for a place to do some watercolouring. The island is not so big and after fifty painters had landed here it became really crowded.
You cound run into a painting-box or easel everywhere - some of us did not bother to take them under roof at night, planning to contunue the neхt day. We could afford to be so light-hearted because of the special attitide that one feels in the monastery: nobody touch the thing that belongs to other person… 

Konstantin Kuzema

I came to sand spit in the southern part of the island. A hare jumped out of nowhere and run towdars old wide-branching pine. I saw sparkling expance of the lake, Pater Gedeon on the boat far away, and several seals near the shore. Pater Gedeon and seals were doing their job - fishing, as usual.

Konstantin Kuzema

When a seal jumped out of the water with a catch, it throwed it up in such a way that the fish flipped over and fell down headlong. Seals opened their mouth wide and the fish fell right in the throat.A seagull flew up and found a part for itself: when a seal threw a fish up the shrewed bird picked the fish before it fell down in the seal’s throat. The seals took this into account eventually and before throwing the fish looked up to check whether the seagull is flying around. The bird also updated its method and tried to keep away of the seal’s sight, staying behind the rocks. 

Konstantin Kuzema

After looking at the seals I came back to my painting and realized that wildlife is getting closer: moths were flying around my head, bees buzzing near the watercolour box, red soldier bugs shuttling around my feet, and a ladybird walking along the haft of the brush I was using. A bug landed on the edge of my watrcolour pad. It moved its whiskers and examined my painting. The hare sitting under the pines was also interested in what I was doing - I could feel it from slight movements of his long grey ears. As if to complete the idyll a big beautiful batterfly landed on my palette. It was sitting, quivering its wings - and her colourful pattern emphasized the harmony of random watercolour stains. 

Konstantin Kuzema

It was going like this until dinner time when we had to go to the refectory. The moths accompanied me for a while.
On the way I run into the easel left by one of us. Next to the unfinished etude was a palette and the butterfly - it had stuck to a clot of oil, that was cut from the pallete with a palette knife. 

Konstantin Kuzema

Again, the batterfly and the paints were in deep harmony - the only difference being that the batterfly had died.

See his paintings here: http://kuzema.my1.ru/

Geoffrey Wynne

http://geoffreywynne.blogspot.com/

I am working on my new book in series "Masters of Watercolor". This one will be about plein air painting. One of my personal descoveries was this wonderful artist from UK living and painting in Spain for many years. I am happy to share some extracts from his interview he gave for my new book!

What is your Art background?

I was born in Stoke - on Trent, also called the Potteries. At the age of 13 i was selected to attend the small prestigious art school Portland House From 15 years of age i attended Burslem School of Art, to further my training in the arts and crafts.

For as long as i can remember painting and drawing have been an important part of my life and my passion was always for the Fine Arts.At 19 years of age i applied and was accepted at West Surrey College of Art and Design to study painting. I did experiment with watercolors in my last year, working in the style of Emile Nolde` s forbidden watercolors. The first painting i sold was a watercolour.
Later i worked as a designer for Coalport China a member of the Wedgwood Group. In these years I only painted spasmodically. The frustration that i was not fulfilling my passion to paint became to much and at 32 I decided to take the definitive step in my life and dedicate it to painting.To give myself courage I enrolled on the Fine Art Course at North Staffordshire University and for the next three years i threw myself frenetically into trying to find myself as an artist. My true art education did not start until 1987 when i moved to Granada and started to paint watercolors.

This old moorish town with the Alhambra Palace dominating its sky line has held a strong fascination for artists poets writers and musicians. John Singer Sergeant, Joaquin Sorolla, Mariano Fortuny,Arthur Melville, David Roberts, George Owen, Wynne Apperley RI and many more painted here. My first year in Granada i spent most of my days filling sketch books with observations of the daily life, the people in the squares and markets going about their activities.
After a year living in Granada my circumstances changed and it became a necessity to make a regular living. My paintings sold but not sufficient to maintain my new responsibilities. I tried making caricatures in the streets and seaside with some success but the winter months proved difficult. Portraits in pastel was a short lived idea as well.The only thing i hadn’t tried my hand at was painting watercolours. I decided to have a go so i bought some cheap paints paper and brushes and started painting plein air.
So was watercolor painting my choice or did the medium choose me, i would say yes to both, my destiny.

Geoffrey Wynne

Geoffrey Wynne

I decided to sit in Bibrambla, the main square with flower stalls a beautiful fountain, bars, cafes and the cathedral as its backdrop, a daunting theme for my first attempt. After about three hours i felt a little pleased with my results, to my dismay, i didn’t realize I was being observed by a distinguished gentleman. He was a discreet admirer and only after i had finished did he approach me. His first words where that my painting for him was ,love at first sight,or better said in spanish (un flechazo).

Geoffrey Wynne

He asked to buy the painting and invited me to his office when i had more. This gentleman was to become not only a collector for years of my watercolours but a friend, also introducing me to many other collectors.
My first watercolor on the spot opened changed my future destiny as a painter.

Was watercolor your choice or it is the watercolor medium choosed you?

In my case the choice of painting in watercolors was a mixture of destiny, necessity and a certain impulsive trait in my character. For academic reasons in 1985 i visited Granada Spain. I became fascinated with the city and revisited again in 1986.In 1987 i sold up and moved to Granada.

Geoffrey Wynne

Do you remember your first experience of painting on spot?

I bought my paints, paper and brushes and two camping stools, one to sit and the other to rest my palette and water.What i didn’t realize at the time that my future as an oil painter in the studio was finished and i was launching into becoming a plien air watercolour artist.

Geoffrey Wynne

I decided to sit in Bibrambla, the main square with flower stalls a beautiful fountain, bars, cafes and the cathedral as its backdrop, a daunting theme for my first attempt. After about three hours i felt a little pleased with my results, to my dismay, i didn’t realize I was being observed by a distinguished gentleman. He was a discreet admirer and only after i had finished did he approach me. His first words where that my painting for him was ,love at first sight,or better said in spanish (un flechazo).
He asked to buy the painting and invited me to his office when i had more. This gentleman was to become not only a collector for years of my watercolours but a friend, also introducing me to many other collectors.
My first watercolor on the spot opened changed my future destiny as a painter...

Stay turned, my new book is coming this June...

Visit Geoffrey Wynne`s blog http://geoffreywynne.blogspot.com/

My books are available here https://ruslania.com/books/byauthor/83056/sterhov-konstantin?avail=1&language=en

Andrey Esionov - Interview

How did you come to watercolors?   

Six years of study in Republican specialized music and art boarding school, specialty graphic artist, six years of study in Tashkent Ostrovsky `s State Theatre and Art Institute on poster department, at both Alma Mater the subject of the painting at the department of graphic was taught only in watercolor. So this is how I came, but first not to the watercolors, but via watercolor to oil. At the end of training I shifted to easel painting. I returned to watercolors 5 years ago.

Andrey Esionov

How do you select a subject?

The plot is built according to requirements of a classical composition, ie, I select a theme and I work through searches, sketches, sometimes trial washes. The work includes preliminary sketches without fail, if we talk about watercolors based on complex composition.

Andrey Esionov

Which colors in the palette are necessary for you?

Currently, no more than 12 colors: cadmium red, kraplak, ocher, iron oxide, Naples yellow, cadmium yellow, umber, blue, ultramarine, indigo, yellow-green and black.

Andrey Esionov

Is there a preference in the choice of paper, paints, brushes?

Paper by any manufacturer of 600 g. rough. Paints "White Nights" (Russia) in pans and any paints by European production in tubes. Squirrel brushes by any known manufacturer.

How do your individual features are manifested in your watercolors?

If you do not copy off from other artists' works, and stay yourself, your personality manifests as your personal painting style.

Do you think that the easy "incompleteness" only benefit watercolor work?

I do not like the word "incompleteness". If you mean, conscious use of paper white, untouched by paint, why not? If - it does not interfere with the integrity of the picture, or the composition solution, or just intuitively "delicious." If we go on the impressionistic style of writing, so watercolor in my opinion is very thereto.

Andrey Esionov

Full version of the interview read in my new book in series "Masters Of Watercolor" - "On Both Sides of the Great Wall".

Sterkhov Interview on Chinese TV

Hello my friends,

here is my interview on Guangxi TV in China. I am sorry for all kind of inperfections in my English that is not my native language.

https://youtu.be/3AKyRcbLHOE

Cheng-Khee Chee River Li

See a lecture about a beautiful painting by Cheng-Khee Chee:

https://youtu.be/lZlnzpuZOuI

Master Z in St. Petersburg

Was great to meet master Z in our city this summer. Master made a beautiful and exclusive sketch in my Album Of Masters (I promis to tell more about it later when the collection is richer). It was fascinating to see how the master whose paintings of other parts of the world are so famouse is depicting my own city`s sights! Sharing for you here...

 Joseph Z at the river Neva.

 Joseph has just painted Kazanskiy Cathedral in St. Petersburg

Z with my book featuring him (out of stock now)

Visit Joseph Zbukvic web site

http://www.josephzbukvic.com/

Donated Works Exhibition

After the workshops en plain air in Chonburi and Ayuttaya every participated artist selected 2 of his works created during these days. The process of selection was also spectacular but the exhibition of those paintings was excellent! It was an additional show to the main exposition.

 Chien Chun Wei (Taiwan) and Konstantin Sterkhov (Russia)

 Ong Kim Seng (Singapore)

 Stanislaw Zoladz (Sweden)

 Barbara Nechis (USA)

 John Salminen (USA)

 Liu Yi (China)

 Joe Francis Dowden (UK)

 Igor Sava (Italy)

 Keiko Tanabe (USA)

 Yuko Nagayama (Japan)

 Ali Abbas Saed (Pakistan)

 Michal Jasevicz (Poland)

 Stan Miller (USA)

Direk Kingnok (Thailand)

Zbukvic, Castagnet and Pekel Painting Together!

Best entertaining for watercolorists!!! Must watch! Z + Alvaro + Herman = Big Picture! 
Check a brand new BIG PICTURE for downloading here http://www.apvfilms.com/show_product.asp?id=324

You will like another 2 BIG PICTURES at http://www.apvfilms.com/show_product.asp?id=324

VOTSMUSH Interview

Inimitable and unlike anybody else artist Alexandr Shumtsov/Votsmush deserved a genuine recognition of intellectual part of the Internet audience although he has no art page of his own. Staying indipendent from official art institutions his Art keep gaining popularity and more fans.

Alexander, why did you take a nick name?
Because when I studied at the Theatre and Cinema Academy we lived at a student hostel. We were 4 people in the room. I would fix a notebook to the wall and announce that it would be a ship`s journal. Everyone would draw his portrait and write his nick name. I wrote my name conversely.

A. Votsmush

Do you identify yourself with your nick or your real name?
Lately with the nick name.

All right, then Alexander Votsmush. When watercolor medium entered your life?
Perhaps when I was attending a kindergarden, when I saw it the first time… Then consiously at the Art school, then even more consiously in Art college… I also was painting with watercolor when I was in army. But I really understood what it is all about in 1994. Then I knew where to go.

A. Votsmush

You live in Sevastopol, Crimea. Far away from the capitals of Art life. How have you become well known?
Have I? Probably there were some exhibitions, people liked them, someone even bought some pieces… There were many exhibitions, especially in 1990s, beginning of 2000s. And then Internet… my friends help me to post my pictures, they also write something…

Meeting with Alexander Votsmush for the interview

Are you consciously don`t use Internet?
I want to do it very much but it has been out of reach so far. I have to get into it, reply the letters… Perhaps I will have to come to it some day.

A. Votsmush

Where do you get your ideas from?
Actually everywhere. When I was a little boy, perhaps from fairytales and cinema, then from told stories, then I would start telling stories myself. Then we had a team of mates who would tell stories when they come together. …and the world around.

A. Votsmush

Do you prefer to collect material by your camera or by sketching?
Both.

…or you store it in your head?
All together. It is all interacts, then divides into components and then works. Everything is there already. Then you do something and you succeed… or you do not.

A. Votsmush

How do you get such saturation without overloading the paper? What paints do you use?
German paints from tubes. It`s very good when there is a large volume of liquid mixtures ready to paint. Just to take it with a brush and through to the paper.

What kind of brush?
Starting from broad flat bristle brush for wall painting to a simple pencil. Watercolor pencil is also good. Then adding hands, nails – all is in action…

A. Votsmush

Does it all happen spontaneously?
In impuls, in gust of dance with watercolor…

How do you get the precise white areas?
There is a masking fluid. Or you can also paint around. This is how I used to do, now I am using the masking.

A. Votsmush

What supplementary tricks do you use?
Masking, nails scratching, watercolor pencils…

Do you work on composition in advance or the drawing is born right on a paper?
I presumably know the principles of composition. First I am making a small draft with a gel pen or a pencil to avoid then unnecessary movements on the paper.

A. Votsmush

Do you consider your approach in watercolor more as painting or graphic?
I don`t know how to call it, more important that it should work for myself and the viewer.

I saw a spectacular edge of a sheet of your painting. How did you do that?
Just cut with a liner but not to the bone. Then tear slightly, cut and… everyone says oh! It`s a miracle, how did you do it?

A. Votsmush

What size of paper is most attractive for you to work on?
The largest possible. The largest I have done so far is 145x145 cm – it is very inspiring. That`s what is needed!

What kind of paper do you use?
Mainly the one with a smooth surface. There used to be a good paper – soviet Gosznak. Also I like a common drawing paper, Italian is better, it keeps the color. Arches satin is good but the color is fading.

A. Votsmush

The drawing paper is rather thin. How do you work on it – do you fix it?
I fix it on a boad. The largest size 145 (the width of a roll paper is 150 cm).

What do you stress in your work with student?
Maybe they have to remember the time when they were children, first impression of everything, when they were surprised by everything around… first emotions should be combined with the present experience, they have to drop all unnecessary, that disturbs… to combine the qualities of an adult person without extra gloomy attitude, with the state of mind of a child when he was surprised the first time.

A. Votsmush

How important is imagination in work of an artist?
For me it`s important, for someone it`s difficult. Imagination can be developed or you have to be born with it.

What is more important for you – the process or the result?
50x50. For instance you are cooking a cake, prepare the components and thinking, what a wonderful cake would it be… When you are ready with it everyone likes it… or doesn`t, if you didn`t succeed.

A. Votsmush

Do you follow the art life? Are you interested in art of your artist fellows?
I am very interested. Today you gave me your book, and there were artists I saw in the Internet, I like them very much… but I don`t follow, perhaps I should be more interested…

Do you need to integrate into the Art life or his or her creativity is sufficient for an artist?
It`s rather cool to participate in worthy events.

Do you have any rules?
Of course, some, I think.

Are those rulesinvented by you?
Probably those rules are convenient for me.