Hard, soft and broken edges
Paul Talbot-Greaves teaches watercolour and acrylic painting in workshops and demonstrations to art societies throughout the Midlands and the north of England. He can be contacted through his website: www.talbot-greaves.com
Whilst watercolour is an immensely expressive medium, quick to dry and capable of building complex multiple layers, it naturally dries with hard edges. When applied without any intervention as a series of fluid washes, it will yield crisp edges that describe every shape in sharp, detailed focus. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, except when it comes to engaging the viewer in your painting. Have you ever looked at a painting and looked again and then realised you just can’t stop looking? That’s probably because the artist will have used lots of ambiguity in the work, and that ambiguity comes in the form of how the edges are treated. The consideration of edges in your painting is paramount to handing over some of
