Hand, Eye, Heart

Hand, Eye, Heart (Hockney’s watercolours)

“I used watercolour, because I wanted a flow from my hand, partly because of what I had learned of the Chinese attitude to painting. They say you need three things for paintings: the hand, the eye and the heart. Two won’t do. A good eye and heart is not enough; neither is a good hand and eye.” – David Hockney on his exhibition at the Louver Gallery in Los Angeles, 2005

Hockney came late to watercolour, having derided the medium early in his career as ‘wishy washy’ and ‘suitable only for Sunday painters.’ In this practical three-day course, spread over three weeks, we look at what changed Hockney’s mind and the techniques he employed to create more than one hundred exuberantly colourful, watercolour landscape paintings that put him alongside other twentieth century greats like Nash, Ravilious and Bawden.

Week One: Hockney and Chinese Art
An exploration of decorative and expressive brushstrokes and the difference between them.
Week Two: Hockney and the watercolour tradition
A practical look at how to design a landscape painting
Week Three: Hand, eye, heart
Painting a large-scale, Hockney-inspired watercolour landscape of your choice.

Materials required:
Basic set of watercolours No.6 and 12 soft round brushes (soft nylon, sable or squirrel or mixed hair) 3/4” or 1” flat brush (soft nylon, sable or squirrel or mixed hair) six A3 sheets of 140lb/300 gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper.

Learners to bring their own equipment. SWAC have items in stock in their shop and course participants will be entitled to 10% off painting materials. Pleas contact David or SWAC for assistance or more info.