WATERCOLORS at POSADA
I just painted a few watercolor drawings while
bicycling through the countryside of Posada, at the back of its hill, toward
Orvile. From the same place where I was standing, I
represented the views in four different directions: a dusty path among
cultivated fields, some bushes with violet flowers, a
slope to a ridge of the Posada river (the same name as the town), and
the town itself, perched on top of its promontory,
seen from beside a few tall trees, maybe birches. Then I moved, by
bicycle again, and I made a drawing of another view of
the ancient fortress of the town, at the very top of the hill, from
a closer and lower position.
I was basically painting watercolors in one go, that
is without tracing the pencil outline first. Even though it has been several
years now that I have used watercolors, I had never
happened to paint any coloring immediately, without an initial drawing
by pencil. If nothing else, not on a regular basis as
I have done over the past 2 or 3 days.
Not all the drawings came out very well, some don’t
look too significant to me; others, however, are very interesting. Inde-
ed, in some cases, some paintings turned out to be
much more suggestive that I carried out most of all by chance, or as an
exercise, than others to which I dedicated more effort
and accuracy. Usually, I very much appreciate watercolors painted in
this fashion, so that they hint at the subject
represented, they give a sensation of it, rather than depicting it precisely
and in
detail. Not just the ones that I’ve made myself these
days, I mean, but in general. Just as I have always been fascinated by
drawings barely sketched and roughly outlined, which
however effectively synthesize the object portrayed, or an aspect of it.
I thought, lately, that the reason why I enjoy similar
watercolors could indeed be the fact that there isn’t a linear drawing of
the various traits and aspects of the object, traced
with rationality and a more or less logic thought, to be subsequently col-
ored in its distinct parts. In the initial pencil
drawing a selective analysis of the object already takes place: one
distinguishes
the traits of it, its horizontal, vertical and
inclined lines, straight stretches and curves, which constitute it with regard
to the
eye that looks at it. After that, one takes care of
the colors, the shadings, of the lights and the shades. The operation of dra-
wing and then coloring, therefore, which by the way usually
takes me more time, is more rational, logic and deductive than
the coloring in one go.
In fact, if I start off immediately by dipping the
brush into the water and the watercolour, and I lay brush-strokes of color
on the white sheet of paper, I do far less conscious
analysing of what I am depicting. The lines, the volumes, the colors,
that is the light and the shades which portray nature,
become one in the immediate watercolor. In order to represent a body,
an entity that appears to me in the light, all I have
is colors and brush strokes. If a surface is wide, I will lay several traces,
one next to the other. In order to darken the color in
a shady area, I may make several passes over it, or get the most out of
the doses of water and color. All this while I am, at
the same time, drawing and coloring, in one coherent operation. That is
to say I am representing in color what I am seeing.
That is, maybe more precisely, at least with regard to the other operation,
I am producing a sensation of what I see. A
watercolour painted in this fashion is more felt than thought of. It is a
sensation
more than a thought.
In a watercolor drawn out beforehand, and then colored
in, I may very much admire the accuracy of the outline, the precision
of the trait in detail, and the integration of this
linear analysis with colors, which give reality, depth, and further information
a-
bout the representation.
In a watercolor made in one go of brush strokes, I may
admire the istinctive synthesis of the view, which communicates an
emotion much more than a thought; if it still implies
an analysis, it is a non-linear type, but one that is comprehensive, total,
unconscious, and on several levels
simultaneously.
I believe, eventually, that it is about two different
types of practices, which pursue different goals, to a greater or lesser
degree,
at disposal of the one who may want to take advantage
of watercolors in order to portray nature.
Posada viewed at the foot
of its hill
The town seen from a path of
the countryside, toward the sea
The hill seen from a path of the
countryside. This watercolor View of the
is one of the few, of this
occasion, in which I traced an outline. church
From the beach
The hills behind Posada, toward the hinterland , and a pond
The “breast” mountain viewed from
the pond Some
green by the road side
Some green on a ridge of the Posada
river
Another watercolor with an
outline
A country path among the
fields
Slope to a ridge of the Posada river
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