Put the Right Colour in the Right Spot

Put the Right Colour in the Right Spot (Paul Klee and composition)

“To paint well is just this: to put the right colour in the right spot.” – Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Paul Klee was not only one of the most visionary watercolorists of the twentieth century, he was a great teacher as well and during his tenure at the Bauhaus in both Weimar and Dessau, he wrote copious notes about the art of composition and its centrality to good picture-making. In this three-day course, spread over three weeks, we look at both Klee’s teaching and his work in order to gain insights into how we may improve our own watercolour art.

Week One: “A line going for a walk”
From dot to line and from line to plane; the tricky transition from pencil to paint.

Week Two: “Colour and I are one.”
Composing with colour… and very little else!

Week Three: “See with one eye, feel with the other”
Putting our studies from the past two weeks into a finished work of art.