Traveling Watercolor Journals By Mary Ann Boysen

Those of you who know - journal, sketch or source book it. This artist has some very nice examples of her books on line at http://www.watercolor-painting-tips.com/watercolor-journals.html

Francis Towne watercolor landscapes

Lake Albano with Castel Gandolfo (July 1781, "morning light from the left hand"

The Source of the Aveiron, Mont Blanc in the background. 1781

Lake Albano, the sunrise in the Rocca del Papa. 1781

Francis Towne (1739-1816) began his artistic career as a coach painter. He later moved on to landscape painting. His watercolours are very simple but striking. He painted this watercolour in Switzerland, where he stayed on his return to England after a trip to Italy.

According to Harold Barkley" Francis Towne was probably the most original artist working in the water-colour medium in the 18th century. He regarded himself, nevertheless, as primarily a landscape painter in oil and deeply resented a dismissive contemporary description of himself as 'a provincial drawing-master'. His water-colours were virtually unknown for a century after his death, most having remained with him until bequeathed to friends and thus remaining in private collections, apart from his Italian drawings which - as he desired - were given to the British Museum.

Although trained in London with his life-long friend William Pars, his roots lay in Devonshire and he spent the major part of his working life in Exeter, although he exhibited regularly in London and frequently spent long periods there. He was apparently a diffident and unworldly man who was satisfied to cultivate his Devonshire friends and patrons.

It seems likely that he originally used water-colour as an aid in the development of his oil compositions, but by 1777 he was using the medium characteristically, albeit still somewhat tentatively, to record impressions of a tour in Wales. The turning-point of his career as a water-colourist came in 1780, when he paid a visit to his friend Pars in Rome and in the course of his stay there considerably developed his technique. The present drawing belongs to the remarkable series of majestic studies of Alpine scenery made by Towne on his journey home through Switzerland in September 1781. Towne's view owes nothing to the 'Gothick' romanticism of Horace Walpole and his friends thirty years earlier.
He banishes all extraneous 'picturesque' elements such as wayside shrines and ruined bridges. His vision is of the greatest severity and his presentation austere in the extreme. He achieves the expression of his fascination with the geometry of Nature by the most economical means, reducing everything to the simplest terms and achieving a noble monumentality by his skillful arrangement and lighting of inter-reacting planes. This subject reveals Towne's preoccupation with outline and pattern in the highest degree as well as his subtle use of delicate washes to achieve his desired ends.

In due course, with the advent of the vision of Cézanne and of the Cubists a century after his death, Towne’s vision became more widely comprehensible and there is now due appreciation of the originality of his contribution.

Picturesque to Pastoral: British Landscape Prints from The Huntington’s Art Collections

July 31–Nov. 1, 2010
Huntington Art Gallery, Works on Paper Room

Many of the greatest practitioners of landscape painting in Britain also were actively engaged in printmaking. “Picturesque to Pastoral” explores the graphic side of landscape in British art from the 18th through the 20th century. From the rustic countryside depicted by Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) to the visionary dreamscapes of Graham Sutherland (1903–1980), this focused installation of about a dozen prints showcases the variety of techniques the medium affords—wood engraving, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and mezzotint—as well as the many ways the view of landscape changed over time. In their shift from rural to urban subjects and from poetic description to interior vision, these rarely seen items from The Huntington’s art collections reveal how artists reworked this subject matter to express their own sensibilities.

Wooded Landscape with Herdsman Driving Cattle over a Bridge, Rustic Lovers, and Ruined Castle, c. 1780
Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727-1788) Soft-ground etching. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Gift of Norman Baker of Evans, Pierson, & Co.

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A Summerland (Ploughing in Suffolk), 1831. David Lucas (British, 1802-1881), after John Constable (British, 1776-1837) Mezzotint. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

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March Morning, 1933. Paul Drury (British, 1903-1987) Etching. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Gift of Russel I. Kully.

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Pecken Wood, 1928. Graham Sutherland (British, 1903-1980) Etching. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Gift of Russel I. Kully.

Drawings by Joseph Basil Girard, American, 1846 - 1918

Benicia Arsenal, California Mount Diablo in the Distance























A Large Pine Tree near the Edge of a Lake























Amalfi















http://www.huntington.org/

Sanqing Mountain in Jiangxi Province

Shen Zhou, 1427–1509, China, Ming dynasty,

Xie An’s Excursion on the Eastern Mountain, dated 1480.

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 66 9/10 x 35 inches.

Wan-go H.C. Weng Collection.

http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_exhibitions.aspx?id=3674

Sanqing Mountain in Jiangxi Province, although not very well-known to many people today, was regarded as a sacred place for Taoists in the Tang Dynasty period (618-907), when Taoism was at its most popular. The mountain remained very popular among people seeking immortality until the 18th century, when Emperor Qianlong preferred Buddhism to Taoism.

The mountain is shrouded in mist for about 200 days each year. On misty days, dense fog envelops the mountain completely and makes you think you are wandering in the clouds. Once in a while, wind blows away the mist, and a stiff, imposing peak suddenly appears right in front of you. Sometimes you can even see the fog creep up on you, gently penetrating the pine trees on the cliff.

About 80 percent of Sanqing Mountain is covered by primeval forests. More than 2,500 kinds of plants exist here, most of which can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine.

These mountains and paintings of these mountains have been very influential for me and the way I approach my landscape painting and drawings. I will post more examples later.