Velma Casselli-esque

Hi,

Watercolour. Always a tricky medium to work with - but one of the true masters of it is Henry Casselli (b 1946-).

Casselli is a USMC combat 'Nam veteran and has painted everything from raw combat to ballerina's, astronauts and the US President. He was commissioned to paint the official portrait of President Reagan.

As an artist, he paints in oils and watercolour (with his watercolour almost been layered like oil paint!), but his first love (I think) is probably graphite drawing. These drawings underpin all his works. He draws everyday and tries to get a direct, emotional, link to each subject he tackles.

For this Submission, I wanted to try to work in watercolour and make efforts to capture the deep, dark backgrounds Casselli loves and the high contrast colours he works with. His figure subjects are often locked into a field of shadows. The shadows often have an almost Baroque darkness to them. So, for this Submission, I was keen to hint at a drawing beneath the paint - the strong colours, the dark shadows. I learned a lot about watercolour working on this Submission. Casselli's work was inspiring and I'm keen to revisit his style.

I hope the one-legged Velma amuses more than she offends.

Best wishes to those who stop by here.

John