painting aid

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  

American J.W.S. Cox is known for having first "invented" and explored the full possibilities of the wet-on-wet watercolor technique, the technique of painting on water saturated paper. Cox was born on May 18, 1911 in Yonkers, New York, the son of an architect and his wife. He grew up in Bruynswick and Wallkill, New York, and from an early age sketched landscapes. He graduated from Pratt Institute in New York City (1933), while working at various jobs during the Great Depression. From 1928-1936 Cox studied the works of El Greco for composition, Feininger for design, Turner for color and Cèzanne...