Here’s my gouache colour swatch fun of one of Ivon’s later paintings when he seemed to have used glorious colours. It was fascinating figuring out how to make the colours & the darks & create those vibrant swathes of barely mixed colours so that they sing. The exercise of looking closely at his paintings & the colours, I can feel how he likened painting to music, those soaring heights along with pauses & stillpoints -fabulous . Thanks Louise for talking about this artist, he is quite something – I can imagine him painting feeling the landscape with his entire body until paint danced & flowed out through his brush. I’m heartened that he painted in such a limited landscape, exploring every moment of every day within this place. Louise, I think your Venice sketches have this same quality – vibrancy & aliveness. I wonder if Howard Hodgkin was influenced by his works – there are similarities. Ok, so I’m now an Ivon Hitchen’s fan
Here’s my gouache colour swatch fun of one of Ivon’s later paintings when he seemed to have used glorious colours. It was fascinating figuring out how to make the colours & the darks & create those vibrant swathes of barely mixed colours so that they sing. The exercise of looking closely at his paintings & the colours, I can feel how he likened painting to music, those soaring heights along with pauses & stillpoints -fabulous . Thanks Louise for talking about this artist, he is quite something – I can imagine him painting feeling the landscape with his entire body until paint danced & flowed out through his brush. I’m heartened that he painted in such a limited landscape, exploring every moment of every day within this place. Louise, I think your Venice sketches have this same quality – vibrancy & aliveness. I wonder if Howard Hodgkin was influenced by his works – there are similarities. Ok, so I’m now an Ivon Hitchen’s fan
Louise Balaam - Monthly Landscape Painting
Thanks Louise. Interesting about Liquin to increase flow of paint – is there anything else that creates teh same effect I wonder? I’m trying to avoid liquin as I dislike teh smell of the stuff! And why do children get all the best colours!! I’ll. have a look for those watercolours because they are fab.
Beautiful colour swatches Karen and a heartfelt description of the way Hitchens worked. He seems to me a very steady artist who worked continuously in the same, rather limited area but got so much out of it, particularly in terms of colour. I’m sure the fact that he got to know that landscape so intimately fed into the expressiveness of the work he made there. That’s an interesting point about Hodgkin. They both used areas of vibrant and beautifully judged colour – with Hitchens the way he leaves areas of white canvas free around the patches of colour helps make them stand out, and I believe Hodgkin used Luquin as a medium to make his mixtures more transparent and increase the flow of the paint. Thanks for the comment about my colour studies – they were made using Anilinky watercolours which are very strong colours, designed for children I think. To be honest the camera flatters them as well. Still, glad you’re now a member of the Hitchens fan club!