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watercolor Watercolour

Fighting picture-postcard syndrome or not

Last week I painted three watercolours. Initially, I was really happy with all of them but after a while I gradually changed my mind.

I had just finished reading a lovely book about Edward Seago by James Russell. Seago was an excellent English watercolour artist that was very successful in his lifetime but was disliked by the critics. “He painted picture-postcards” a critic once said.

He was a landscape painter, he painted the countryside around him. A typical watercolour would be of a summer-blue sky, rolling hills and shadows dancing on the fields while animals grazed. He liked sailing boats too so you can understand that he inspires me a lot. His watercolours were very pleasing to the eye.

So this is the question, should I worry about my watercolours looking like picture-postcards? Maybe I should paint more watercolours like the one featured here. I painted it to counteract the three pretty watercolours. It’s of Poolbeg Power Station in Dublin Bay, Ireland. A quick sketch (30mins) 28x18cm.

Your thoughts please. 🙂