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Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light (Art Institute of Chicago)

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I was browsing through the book store at the Art Institute of Chicago and was attracted to a new book that accompanies an upcoming exhibition at the museum. The beautiful cover of the book invited me to pick it up and open it. I know a little about Winslow Homer, but did not appreciate his accomplishments with watercolors until I flipped through this book. The staff at the book store must have thought I was a little nutty as I spent nearly an hour studying the gorgeous artwork and rich information about the artist, his times, and watercolor technique. The most interesting part is how the authors uncovered, just like CSI, how the artist created the pieces and what the watercolors originally looked like. I feel a little guilty buying the book from Amazon and not the Institute's store, but the museum will probably still benefit. This book is perfect for anyone whether you are an artist, a scientist, a lover or art, or just want to treat your eyes and mind to something beautiful on a dreary winter day. I am looking forward to returning to the museum and walking through the exhibition, which opens on February 16th.

After seeing someone else's copy I immediately bought my own. Not only is it interesting for anyone who appreciates Homer's watercolors, but it shares methods, techniques and helpful hints used by him for many types of effects and in some cases to cover mistakes. A must have for watercolorists. My instructor is considering giving a class using this book as a basis.

For those of us who revere Homer as a great American artist and who particularly love his watercolors, this book is what we've waited for. I only wish some of the details and close-ups (which are stunning!) were larger.
One reviewer said that her watercolor teacher is considering a course with this book as a basis. Great idea. I've taught watercolor at Fullerton College for sixteen semesters and I would love to do the same. For years my students and I have conjectured on how Homer worked. This book answers almost every question that can be answered. And the reproductions are excellent. And the work is breathtaking.

This is an invaluable book on Winslow Homer's watercolors with superb color photographs and technical details.
TEDESCHI, MARTHA; DAHM, KRISTI; WALSH, JUDITH; and HUANG, KAREN.

Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light

The Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press, New Haven and London2008

978-0-300-11945-9

228 pages, index of technical terms, extensive references and bibliography, copiously illustrated with excellent color plates.

This catalogue accompanied an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in spring 2008. Technical information about Winslow Homer's watercolor technique is woven throughout the entire text. Homer's career in watercolors is carefully traced beginning with his self-taught, trial-and-error early watercolors. He began using watercolor as an independent medium in 1873. His method was often to paint quickly in the open air or to develop a watercolor from a careful pencil study. He seems to have informed himself by reading treatises on the medium. Favoring papers of moderate texture, he opted for opaque watercolor at first but sometimes combined transparent washes and opaque passages. He usually began by laying out the central motif with graphite lines. Technical variety was established early and would endure throughout his career. Homer's "Bible" was Chevreul on Colors.

By the early 1870s Homer was an accomplished draftsman. To achieve brightness and opacity he used zinc white watercolor, mixing it with and layering it under transparent watercolor. By 1878 he carried out some works entirely in transparent watercolor. For "Weary" he selected an off-white, medium-thick sheet with a rough, twill texture and used a dry brush method for sunlight hitting the tree trunk. In the fall of 1880 he dedicated himself to painting in transparent watercolor and appropriated a new range of transparent pigments including three blues: Antwerp, indigo, and Prussian. A chart is provided of his pigments from 1878 to 1903.

Many of his watercolors were on Whatman paper, handmade from linen fibers and infused with gelatin size. This size sometimes attracted mold which appeared in scattered spots of foxing. The Whatman paper was bound in a solid block with a gumlike adhesive and gauze on four sides. His brown laid papers, containing red and blue fibers were made by the French manufacturer "Saint Mars." Among the remains of Homer's studio materials are two Winsor and Newton "Japanned tin boxes" containing moist watercolor cakes. They contained glycerin, a wetting agent that retains moisture and causes the immediate release of color when touched with a rough brush. Two of his watercolor brushes are pictured; they are made from sable bristles set into a swan quill that was stripped of its feathers.

Homer sometimes transferred designs using carbon paper. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals the artist's use of madder lake; in "Two Boys Watching Schooners" of 1880, the madder lake was used over the figures and rocks to convey the sun's warmth. He sometimes used blotting to create atmospheric textures or would wet, blot, and scrape areas. Scraped passages are recognized when viewed at an angle; the broken and disrupted paper fibers in these areas have a softer look than the uninterrupted surface. Homer sometimes used sandpaper to abrade both pigment and paper to reveal the white substrate below; this method created a speckled texture, taking away pigment only from the highest points of the rough paper while leaving it in the surrounding interstices. Occasionally, Homer abandoned his brushes and tools and manipulated watercolors directly with his fingers. Other techniques discussed include applying broad flat washes for sky and water, painting wet-on-wet to create atmospheric effects, spattering to produce the effect of salt and humidity hanging in the air, tamping the brush to construct thin wispy tops of pine trees, using a knife to create white highlights, and using a resist, possibly of white lead, a drying oil, and a resin, to block off areas. Alterations were sometimes made by scraping. Infrared images of the graphite underdrawings may reveal significant changes in composition. Homer sometimes cropped the works; the trimmed edges appear slightly uneven and lack the adhesive residue from the watercolor drawing block.

Homer would sometimes place tracing paper over a watercolor, outline the main elements with a soft graphite pencil, and place the tracing face down onto a copper plate to transfer the image for an etching. Some of the red lake pigments in Homer watercolors have faded. The original color may be preserved where it was covered by a window mat or frame rabbet edge.

Apart from featuring paintings from the exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute, it provided a lot of information about the watercolor techniques. A great reference book.

I absolutely LOVE this book. My watercolor teacher assigned this book as our text for class. I have never seen a book like this ever. They took a microscopic look at Homer's paintings to determine how he did what he did and have done a wonderful job of describing the techniques. While beginning watercolor students would probably need to supplement this text with a more step-by-step book (I favor anything by Michael Crespo) I would rate this book as indespensible for anyone who loves watercolor... and not just the artist, but the viewer as well. Truly, this book is a masterpiece in itself. It's worth every penny they are asking.

As a painter and an art educator, I have an abundance of books on paintings, painters and technique. This book beautifully combines all three and somehow transcends every other book on Winslow Homer or professional watercolor technique that I've experienced. Of course, it isn't a primer on watercolor; it is a scholarly, yet very accessible, treatise on the watermedia artwork of one of my two favorite American painters (Sargent being the other).
Besides, the book is gorgeous. The plates are excellent, readily conjuring up both the ruggedness and the lyricism of Homer's technique, as well as the abstraction in the realism, and the metaphor threaded throughout his work.

This book was by far the best book I have read about any of the well-known artists who have preferred watercolor as a medium. I am an artist getting back into the field after around 30 years, and I took up watercolors about 3 years ago. The book has most definitly contributed to my understanding of this medium, mostly because it was written for artists and therefore contains loads of information about the daring ways in which Homer experimented with this little understood medium. There is a lot of detail about each work, both scientific and technical, and besides, I got to know the man. I understand now why Winslow Homer is important the in history of watercolour -- he was corageous in the use of the medium, and did not limit himself to the European tradition of watercolor. He was an excellent draftsman (confirming my insistence to become a master draftman too), and set the standard high for any aspiring watercolor artist. A MUST for any professional who would become an expert in this difficult medium. Judy Moraga, Caracas, VenezuelaWatercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light (Art Institute of Chicago)

Winslow Homer - The Color of Light is a work of amazingly penetrating scholarship on many levels that examines the techniques and the pigments and papers used by this foremost of native American watercolorists, as well as much else. Every time a book on Winslow homer comes out, one assumes it will be the last, then yet another emerges that is nevertheless of immense value in understanding this painter. Winslow Homer - The Color of Light is such a book.

Watercolours by Winslow Homer: Color of light(Art Institute of Chicago)When I placed my order I had not had the possibility to see the book in advance, so I didn't know what it would be like. First of all I expected to get a book with good colour illustrations about W. Homer's watercolours and of course with some information about the artist, his life and paintings. I was very surprised because not only does the book have good colour illustrations, but also very detailed information about the techniques, types of paper, pigments that W. Homer used in his watercolours and in the different periods of his life. A beautriful book for people who do or simply love watercolours.
Beatrice Vaccari