Share to XFor the founding members of the Sunrise and Sunset Workshop, I provided a brief critique of each student’s work. Many students were a little bit rigid and tight with their approach. They focused too much on the shapes and details at the expense of the subject’s raw character. My suggestion to these students was to explore Joseph Turner’s work. Not his polished, studio pieces, but his relaxed sketches, often done in watercolor or gouache. They are fresh and full of character. This is what you should be trying to capture through your work. Be more polished if you like, but always aim for this effortless finish.
I curated a heap of them for you below. These sketches weren’t easy to track down. They are scattered across the internet and in books such as Turner’s Sketches. Turner himself didn’t want them on public display (though I’m sure he will forgive me for featuring them here). His sketchbooks were more of a private exploration and diary. He did hundreds of them during his career.
“Piled up in boxes in his studio, and running along several shelves above the stacks of unsold or unfinished canvases, were around three hundred sketchbooks charting his life and his travels during the previous sixty-two years. The contents of these books amounted to thousands of pages of sketches, generally in pencil, but occasionally worked with bursts of extravagant colour, especially the latest ones. Almost no one had been permitted to look inside these volumes and that was how Turner liked it. Throughout his life he had jealously sought to maintain a mystery about his creative processes and this protective attitude was particularly marked when it came to his sketchbooks.” — Ian Warrell, Turner’s Sketchbooks, Page 7
I won’t provide commentary on these. Sometimes it’s better to just sit back and enjoy.
If you want to learn more, you may be interested in our Sunrise and Sunset Workshop. One more day left to join at a reduced price.
Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Regards
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
Turner is on of my favorites artists I have several books about the way he painted landscapes. His use of color and brushstrokes in his skies are brilliant.
The looseness and the colours of these sketches are inspiring.
You sun sets look interesting and good I wish I could paint as well as you do .
I like landscape art and find it inspiring to devalope my own talent. You have realy good samples for me to try.
Thanks Dan
Oh what a joy Turner’s sketchbooks are – I have The Skies which I think includes a couple of these. I did your course but never submitted my painting precisely because it was so representative in all the wrong ways, and the colours, although true, were so garish, I really disliked it. I’m inspired to have another go now, thanks for taking such trouble and time to post these beautiful images Dan.
I wish I knew what Turner was thinking in the abstract pieces. What was he looking to portray? Was it just the colors? Or the forms? or lack of forms? It would be so interesting to step into his mind.
Thank you for all the pieces. They were a delight to absorb.
Is your workshop applicable for watercolor?
I would think the work shop would be beneficial for watercolorists. Shapes, value and color is common across all media. Of course, the application of watercolor and how you sequence the color is not going to be the same as oil.
They’re very encouraging by inspiring us to take sketchpad and small paints to capture special scenes spontaneously – thank you!
It was wonderful to sit back and have a visit with each of these this morning. Thank you Dan!
So interesting I did not know anything about his watercolor. I always have only seen his oils in museums
Thank you, Dan, your subjects and interpretations are always amazing!
These watercolor sketches are terrific. They’re very timely as well. I began a watercolor class at the local college in mid January through a “Veterans Create Art” grant. Turner’s sketches are inspiring to say the least with their looseness. Thanks for posting them. I’m sure it took some digging to find them.
James Oliver
De Leon Springs, Florida. USA
Gorgeous. Its easy to see who inspired Monet when looking at some of these sketches in particular.