painting aid

English "John Sell Cotman was born in Norwich, the son of a shopkeeper who turned from hairdressing to haberdashery. He came to London to further his artistic education in 1798, and soon became a leading member of the circle of watercolour artists gathered around Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), despite having little formal training. Soon after 1804 he returned to Norwich, where he became a popular teacher with a huge 'circulating library' of his art for his students to use in their studies. Cotman's popularity surpassed Turner's for most of the twentieth century. He was appointed Drawing Master at King's College School...

Mexican/American Mario Cooper's painting style was based in playful design with a modern southwestern twist. Born in Mexico City, he was raised in Los Angeles and ultimately studied at Columbia University and the Grand Central School of Art in New York. A highly regarded illustrator and fine artist, Mr. Cooper's illustrations appeared over the years in magazines like Collier's, Esquire, and Cosmopolitan. Although his sculpture and illustration skills were in high demand, he excelled in watercolor painting, composition and design. He was president of the American Watercolor Society (AWS) from 1959 to 1986. Mario Ruben Cooper was a member of...

French Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence, France. While in school, he had become an intimate friend of fellow artist Emile Zola. After a failed return to law school he spent the next twenty years dividing his time between the Midi and Paris. He briefly attended the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro. Cézanne also had long friendships with painters Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Cézanne's watercolor technique relied on subtle overlapping washes incorporating the white of the paper as in integral element in the piece. His method of work was to apply his colors pure with...

Charles Burchfield, an American painter known for his passionate watercolors Watercolorist Charles Ephraim Burchfield was one of America's most original and visionary watercolor artists. Best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, Burchfield developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature and man's relation to reality as received through all the senses. Burchfield was born on April 9, 1893, in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio. Five years later, following the death of his father, his family moved to Salem, Ohio, where he graduated from high school as class valedictorian in...

American A gifted watercolorist, Rex Brandt hailed from San Diego, California. A year before graduation from UC Berkley in 1936, his influential work was recognized by the publishers of Who's Who and the International Index of Artists. Brandt was part of a regional group of like-minded artists enchanted with the unique light, color and landscape of southern California. Together in 1937 they formed a traveling group exhibition called "The California Group." The group introduced America to the exuberance, color and creativity of this new rogue band of western watercolor painters. Among Brandt's friends in this "en plein air" group of...

English English poet-painter William Blake, a reclusive and visionary artist, produced and published his own books with engraved texts and hand-colored illustrations. Themes of obscure religious and mythical stories and man's quest for the divine permeate all of Blake's writings and paintings while elements of Michalangelo and the Mannerist school and pre-Rennaissance book illuminations are evident in the content of his work. Blake had no use for the visible world around us, relying on his own "inner vision" and inspiration, denying reason as being ultimately destructive to this own "inner vision". — Watercolor Masters: William Blake © 2010 Greg Conley...