Artists in Action

American Tom Hill was born in 1925 in Texas. Tom is a noted representational watercolorist of southwest landscapes and Mexican and cowboy figures. "A lot of people feel that watercolor is a 'lightweight' medium," he observes, "one that's okay for sketches and studies, but not for major works and one that is not permanent." Tom is a noted author of technique and watercolor lesson books such as: Painting Watercolors on Location, Color for the Watercolor Painter, The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color, and The Watercolor Painter's Problem Book. — Watercolor Masters: Tom Hill © 2010 Greg Conley — Additional Links:...

American "Childe Hassam had the marvelous facility of painting almost every nuance of color his eye could see. Or so it seems. This he appeared to do effortlessly, though it was hardly the case. His technique was formed through the discipline of long years of study, travel, and practice. He was a landscapist in a realist manner who demonstrated a poetic eye for color and pattern. He used many figures in his renderings of the outdoors, but the people he painted, as well as the landscape itself, often became more important as shapes and colors seen in changing or shimmering...

English "Thomas Girtin together with his friend J. M. W. Turner, revolutionized watercolour painting and introduced the romantic style in English landscape painting. (Like Keats and Shelley, he died young.) Colour in broad transparent washes together with precise, exquisite drawing (one can scarcely tell where drawing in pencil ends and drawing with the brush begins) make Girtin one of the greatest masters of watercolour painting." — from Terry Fenton's bio of Thomas Girtin. — Watercolor Masters: Thomas Girtin © 2010 Greg Conley — Additional Links: thomas girtin at tate museum thomas girton at www.j-m-w-turner.co.uk

American Thomas Eakins was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1844. Between 1866 and 1870 he traveled to europe to study under Jean-Leon Gerome and L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Having his own classical skills reinforced, he scientifically structured his paintings with mathmatically precise perspective and unrivaled control of lighting effects and atmospheric detail. Eakin's interest in the dynamics of the human form in space lead to a special photographic study working with Edward Muybridge on animal and human locomotion. As a teacher Eakins was known for his bent on having the human form displayed in all it's glory. Once while teaching a...

German Albrecht Dürer carefully kept sketchbooks and reference drawings and paintings for personal use throughout his career. Dürer's watercolor sketches of "mountains and river scenery anticipated the art of landscape painting." He was highly sought after by the church and noblemen for his skills in portraiture and rendering the human form. The religious woodblocks, engravings and etched prints Dürer sold were prized by his patrons and counterfeiters alike. He was forced to keep careful records of the inventories and copyrights of his printed work. His exacting and careful studies of nature, many done while convalescing in his early 30s, are...

American Phil Dike was born in Redlands, California in the year of the great San Francisco earthquake. When he was 17 he attended the Chouinard Art Institute on scholarship and by 1929 after further studies in New York he was back at Chouinard as a teacher. He became one of the first exponents of a new bold approach to painting watercolors that came to be known as the "California Style." In the 1930s he was a popular teacher and exhibited his work in museums across the country, receiving high acclaim and winning awards. By the mid-1930s he was working for...

Charles Demuth, an American watercolor painter Charles Demuth has been described by author Andrew Carnduff Ritchie as "Elegant, witty, frivolous, dandified, shy, kind, gentle, amusing..." Coming from rather wealthy circumstances and suffering a delicate health and lameness, Charles Demuth grew up with a quiet interest in the arts. After completing studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1910 he went on to study painting at several art academys in Paris. Demuth experimented with the artistic influences of the day including cubism and expressionism. His most memorable personal style is at once intimate and calculating with subtle shadings of...

French Honoré Daumier was a French caricaturist, painter, and sculptor. In his lifetime he was known chiefly as a brilliant political and social satirist and draftsman, but since his death recognition of his qualities as a painter has grown. Daumier's paintings consist of the documentation of contemporary life and manners in 19th century France, with blatantly satirical overtones. Another recurring theme in his works featured Don Quixote as a larger-than-life hero. — Watercolor Masters: Honoré Daumier © 2010 Greg Conley — Additional Links: daumier.org www.cosmopolis.ch getty museum