Failing to plan is planning to fail!

I was reminded of this saying today as I am preparing for two new adventures.

The first is that I have been asked by Artefacto School Online to create an art course for them for beginners in watercolour. This has made me revisit my watercolours after a period of painting solely in oil or gouache. And, as I’m sure many of you will know, you need to really plan a painting in watercolour for it to succeed. In oils you can muck about a bit as you are free to change anything along the way, add lights over darks, scrape off and start again if need be, and go with the flow.

But with watercolour you need to plan. The end result of not planning is often failure.

What do I mean by planning?
It means working out your composition beforehand on paper, making a tonal value plan, thinking through the whole painting process (in watercolour this involves initial light washes, followed by mid-tones and then a few darks or textural marks), and imagining in your mind the finished picture, not as a photo, but as your finished painting. Then you know what you are aiming for and you have a route map to get you there.

This is planning to succeed! And in watercolour it is essential.

So, I am practising these things and planning my course. I’ll let you know when it is available online.

The second adventure

This is coming up this month and involves a painting trip to the Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland. Having painted Mont Blanc last autumn, I am now inspired to paint the Matterhorn, so soon we are off to give it a go.

And again this needs lots of planning so as not to fail. At this stage the planning is deciding on the painting kit to take. I’ve spent ages on this; tweaking bits, removing stuff, adding in new bits, starting over… but I now think I have the right kit.
I’m taking my homemade pochade box that holds two panels 8″ (20cm) high and up to 12″ (30cm) wide and my water-mixable oil paints, and also a small Portable Painter Micro gouache set and sketchbook. That should cover most eventualities.

With temperatures forecast to be below freezing this may all be a challenge – but I’m up for a bit of extreme plein air!

My planning has also involved reading about the early mountaineer and artist Edward Whymper who finally reached the summit in 1865, being the first man ever to do so. Now there is a cable car and a restaurant there. How times change!

Here below is a description of the Matterhorn, which gets me excited to go there:

“A rock tower, pyramidal in shape, it contrasts sharply with its white neighbouring peaks of the Pennine Range. Often they stand in serene silence, giving no sign of the forces of destruction wearing them away. . . . You can hear the clamourous uproar of these forces ravaging the Matterhorn. You can see the rockfalls that grind away at its cliffs. Scarcely an hour passes, day or night, when rocks are not falling. Frequently they start avalanches that thunder down the steep walls, raising clouds of dust like a chain explosion.

Though the summit brow of the Matterhorn is white, it has only a few patches of snow elsewhere to shield its sides from the sun’s rays. The rocky cliffs expand by day and contract with night cold; this constant loosening process explains the rockfalls. A rock mountain also absorbs more heat than one blanketed in snow, for snow reflects sunlight. This aura of warmth around the Matterhorn causes turbulent air currents; it condenses moisture because of its contrast with the cooler air surrounding the mountain. Storm clouds hover over the Matterhorn when the sun is bright on neighbouring peaks. Lightning plays around its head, bolts shatter its spires and towers. Savage gales and torrential rains flay its rocky slopes. While other Pennine peaks slumber in peace, the Matterhorn is always a battleground of the elements.” (From “Climbing the Matterhorn – A Collection of Historical Mountaineering Articles on the Brave Attempts to Scale One of the Highest Peaks in the Alps”)

I’ll let you know how I get on and post my paintings here.

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