Paul Riley
runs residential courses from his home and studio in South Devon. For details email lara@coombefarmstudios.com Telephone 01803 722353 or visit www.coombefarmstudios.com
I have been painting in watercolour for some time and have explored the many opportunities that the medium provides. A while back I felt the urge to paint big. I was working on some landscapes of the local scenery which is vista-like in some instances, so I researched larger watercolour paper sizes and even ordered a few sheets from Atlantis Art Materials in London. The problem was storage and cost In my normal work I generally use the Saunders Waterford sheets size 22½×30in (57×76cm). I wondered if I could use it in the form of multiples. I researched the possibilities and subsequently came across the world of polyptychs.
Polyptych – from the Greek, poly, meaning many, ptych meaning fold.
The most common forms are the diptychs and triptychs, respectively two and three panel types. For those of you who love numbers one can include tetraptych – four, pentaptych – five, hexaptych – six, heptaptych – seven, octaptych – eight, and so on. The origins of the polyptych go
