Review / Informed Opinion

 

June Issue 1998

Orchestrating Watercolor: A Review of Mary Whyte's Book

Watercolor for the Serious Beginner

 

by Lese Corrigan

 

Watercolor for the Serious Beginner by Mary Whyte is a concise, clear, comprehensive how to book on using watercolor and developing your painting skills. It is a most interesting read for a how to book. The notations are of interest with Ms. Whyte sharing her tried and true methods. The photographs of materials and process which provide information without being cold and sterile have some nice touches such as interesting backgrounds.

 

Anyone can learn from this book. Anyone can walk away refreshed, informed, enlightened and introduced to serious artists through captions used and examples of artwork. The explanation of need for personal concept and of eight elements of design are the clearest I have seen. Artists of all media can find reminders of what they are doing in their paintings and why.

 

Whyte's stories about the subject matter in her works are given without belaboring the conceptual or documentary background. Queen, on page fifty-four, the painting of a ninety year old woman with a quilt in her lap is a good example of this. There is just enough said to peak our interest, for us to say "awe" and not so much that it leaves us feeling the sentiment is sappy.

 

The artist/author's combination of detail, hard edge and soft washes is appealing and her shadows and reflections in the paintings of a still life are intriguing. The Egg and I on page six is a good example of this. Additionally there is the fragility of egg shells against the stone hardness of a clay canister balanced with the softness of flour spread on a board. The transparency of an uncooked egg sunny side up introducing us to a lovely glass vase with both evoking the early morning sun which so invitingly illuminates this image leaves us with a comforting sense of fresh baking to come from the spirit of home.

 

Several times we are given as many as six visual steps for making a painting with all explanations. We are told whether the image comes from life or photograph, what paper is used, what brushes and what colors as well as why the image was appealing to Whyte. We cannot hope for much more. Those just venturing into watercolors are provided the information needed with examples before beginning exercises. The exercises are well researched for skill development beyond their initial appearance. Most importantly, the exercises are ones for the reader's growth in the visual arena not to do what Ms. Whyte did as a paint by number kit. It is as easy as painting by numbers to follow this guide's suggested exercises but the resulting work will be unique not copies.

 

We are also treated to examples of many other artists work including some locally producing artists. Whyte is not pushing her work or her style. She is more than happy to show historically significant watercolors and those of her peer group and tell us why these works are successful. The examples are specific as in Margaret Petterson's Palm Series: Light Pattern the explanation of which describes how the artist created a watercolor which exemplifies unity (page forty) or Judi Betts's use of warm and cool colors for transition, spatial distance and unity in On the Water (page fifty-nine). Alice Ravenel Huger Smith's Cattle in the Broom Grass, An Autumn Evening Watercolor (page one hundred and three) acts as a reminder that we live in a stunning environment which has attracted artists for centuries.

 

The verbiage used in the text is familiar to those who have been working artists and read much on art and improving ourselves as artists as well as our work. Yet Whyte has not been repetitive and the reader will not be left feeling bored or waiting for her to say something new. The uninitiated will find an easy read which is incredibly thorough.

 

The best sentence in the book is "Beauty is simply a question of relationships and how we as artists orchestrate them". Bravo Maestro! Not only has Mary conducted well, she puts the reader on the path or straightens our path to our own well orchestrated paintings, paintings with interesting character and relationships.

 

This book is published by Watson-Guptill and is available for sale at Coleman Fine Art where Whyte's work is shown, at the Gibbes Museum of Art Gift Shop and at Chapter Two Bookstore , all located in Charleston, SC, for $19.95. It is one hundred and forty-three pages full of color photographs.

 

Lese Corrigan is involved in the arts on many levels including creating, teaching and consulting.

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