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Discover the secret lives of birds, flowers and wildlife in our collection of original watercolor art. This collection brings together a curated group of contemporary watercolor artists. These artists blend the tradition of watercolor painting with their own modern style, including humor, storytelling and realistic nature scenes.Read more

History of Watercolor Paintings

Watercolor Paints

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Artists in the Stone Age crushed natural pigments into tree sap, water and even saliva to create fluid paints. These large landscape watercolor paintings are preserved in caves around the world. In Ancient Egypt, clerks recorded history in the making with watercolors on papyrus. Watercolors were also important to achieve the fluid brushstrokes in traditional Chinese paintings.

Watercolor paintings have been around since the Paleolithic Era but truly made their debut during the Renaissance.Up until that point, watercolor was seen as a naive medium and was not taken seriously in British and European art circles. Baroque artists used washes of watercolor to sketch underpaintings before committing fully to fresco or oil paints. Then, artists like Albrecht Dürer saw the potential in watercolor for painting his realistic birds and rabbits. Throughout the centuries, watercolors have been the preferred medium by many innovative artists such as John Singer Sargent, John James Audubon and Winslow Homer. The first collectors of watercolor paintings paid a premium because the pigments had to be ground by hand. This was a strenuous process for the artist until art specialty shops started selling pre-ground pigments. In 1780, William Reeves made watercolors even more versatile with cakes - now paints were portable and could easily be re-moistened by dipping in water and then rubbing on a porcelain dish. In 1830, shopkeeps began selling wet watercolors in pans, again to alleviate the process for artists. Finally, in 1846, Winsor & Newton brought us the familiar professional-grade watercolors in metal tubes. As watercolor became accessible to the mainstream, more artists emerged, such as John James Audubon who produced a series of American bird paintings. The artists at UGallery blend the tradition of watercolor techniques with their own contemporary style. Read what watercolor artists Judy Mudd and Jill Poyerd have to say about their preferred medium:

“Watercolor is different from other mediums in that it inserts itself into the process. When first learning watercolor, you try to control it just as you would other mediums. But over time you realize you, along with gravity, are participants with watercolor and allowing it to move, run and merge are what makes watercolor so beautiful.” - Watercolorist Judy Mudd

“My process takes a fairly long time. When working in watercolors, my preparation process is extensive. And then, as I paint, each layer needs to dry completely. That can take a full day or overnight… and there are many layers.Painting in oils takes time as well, although it involves less preparation and fewer layers(the way I paint).” -Watercolorist Jill Poyerd

History of Watercolor Paintings

Watercolor Paints

Artist Studio

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