This January I have been frequently visiting the local library. Primarily, to read Samuel Adams: The Revolutionary, by Stacy Schiff, one of my recent Christmas gifts. Books on the founding fathers I find hard to read as the time period is quite removed from our current times, so I need to eliminate distractions as much as possible.
While I was in the library I came upon an old book on the painter JMW Turner which stated he painted over 20,000 watercolors, many in journals. That figure doesn't escape my consciousness. That's a huge number which is hard to comprehend. I don't know where he stored all those paintings.
In that same vein, a few years ago I recall reading that someone discovered over five hundred watercolors attributed to John Singer Sargent's sister Emily, found in an old trunk.
These two watercolor studies I did as I often do by grabbing a sheet of paper when I am either pressed for time or inspired by something I see in the moment. There is a direct quality to painting a watercolor study with no hesitation that is quite refreshing. Much of the paper maybe left white while the brush moves across the paper at a rapid pace.
I hope that these watercolor studies are done in the same spirit as a Turner or Emily Sargent from an earlier period.
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