WATERCOLOUR – PL E IN-AIR AGAINS T THE ODDS: 4 TH OF 4
Abetter title for this article would probably be ‘out of the wet’, because painting watercolour in the rain is not possible. You may certainly go outdoors painting on a rainy day, but you’ll have to get your easel (and yourself) under cover somewhere. This is where cities are so handy, what with their bridges and arches and overhangs where you can often get some shelter. If you’re out in the countryside you should have remembered to bring a car with you!
Buckingham Palace, watercolour on Arches Rough, 11x141⁄2in (28x37cm). My first story is one of those completely impossible wet days and its sequel. I had drawn up this subject, standing on the grassy corner by Buckingham Palace, and put down a first sky wash when I suddenly realised how quickly the clouds were darkening. I barely had time to pack everything up and duck under the nearest tree – there is no hard cover whatever near this spot – before the rain arrived in torrents. It went through the leaf canopy in no time and I, along with all the poor summer-clothed tourists around me, was instantly soaked through. A few trees away from me stood another Wapping Group painter, John Killens; we squelched off through the incessant downpour to find a café somewhere, and eventually abandoned the day. But next morning dawned bright and sunny, so after some thought I decided to return to the same spot, and painted up the previous day’s still rather damp drawing