A: Artist Magazine

I enjoy reading Artist Magazine among other design and art magazines and books. I've also started searching art lessons on YouTube which has had some interesting results. In the April 2009 issue I was particularly inspired by the Master Class article by Jerry Weiss.


Clear Eyed Romantic dealt with Richard Parkes Bonington, "A consummate draftsman...[who] painted the essence of a vanishing Venice in watercolor." (Artist, April 2009) The featured illustration Equestrian statue of Colleoni by Verrocchio in Venice caught my eye. I had the loose qualities that I remember from Honore Daumier (i.e. Don Quixote at right) and Windslow Homer (i.e. watercolor below), artists that I studied back in painting and drawing classes in college 25 years ago. The pallet was limited and draftsmanship lively and simple.

As it turns out, Mr. Bonington was a "candle in the wind." According to the author, he "was a proficient watercolorist by age 16. When he died at 26, he left a body of work that established him as one of the great painters of the Romantic era."


It was a great gem that triggered some memories and sent me searching the internet for images.