"When dawn spreads its paintbrush on the plain, spilling purple... ," Sons of the Pioneers theme for TV show "Wagon Train." Dawn on the mythic Santa Fe Trail, New Mexico, looking toward Raton from Cimarron. -- Clarkphoto. A curmudgeon artist's musings melding metaphors and journalism, for readers in more than 150 countries.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

"Watercolour," Brit artists and social media

British influence in  "colour," trial watercolor, 8 by 6, 140 # d'Arches
Today's painting above has an international story with it, thanks to "social media." Notice I spelled "colour" the British way, for a reason.
Social media has made the world much smaller and more fruitful as I've met and contacted new people and old.
Thus it is that recently, someone in the UK favorited one of my paintings earlier this month on twitter, and we've begun following each other.
We have much in common. He's Ian McKendrick from Cambridge, U.K., and he's a watercolour artist and student, in addition to being a social media guru for business...fitting in with what I teach in journalism these days. His web site Ian McKendrick for his watercolours is really sophisticated. I'm envious and have been prodded to develop my own site, separate from this blog. 
I've noticed that his favoriting of my paintings added much to my blog traffic, and I've also favorited his paintings. 
He showed a painting, he calls them "projects," from another Brit painter's book, and so I ordered three of the books. One of them arrived today, and inspired this experimental painting.
What I gained most from the book "Landscapes in Watercolour" was new combinations of "colours." Oh, here's the link to this painters page, and his name is Ray Campbell Smith.
I do notice that much of his work has much more atmosphere and moisture in the air than we have here in Oklahoma, and certainly in my beloved West, where the landscapes are more dramatic. In addition, I've been experimenting more and more with brilliant color, but still I think anyone who is painting in watercolour is always a student, always learning. Thus this painting today.
And here too is Ian's web page as a Social media guru. His twitter handle is @watercolourJrny.
I hope to meet him in person when we travel to the UK this summer, but in the mean time, we'll certainly be sharing more and more. Now if this were really "British style," the comma would be outside those quote marks and in the following. I love the spelling of "watercolor," but though a direct descendant of King Edward Longshanks , the tyrant in "Braveheart," (ironically now married to a Campbell), I'm firmly an American (not a Yankee though) journalist, and periods and commas always go outside quote marks--over here in the "colonies."
Isn't it great the stories behind paintings? So much to learn.

4 comments:

  1. Wow Terry, your post has quite simply blown me away, thank you so much! I'd love to see if we can meet up in Cambridge when you come to the UK and I'll treat you and your partner to afternoon cream tea, with clotted cream & scones at Aunties Tea Shop in Cambridge to say "Thank you" properly! I'm perfectly happy to help answer any social media queries, just tweet me and I'll respond as soon as I can.
    All the best, and happy painting!
    Ian

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