Medium and Message: Watercolour on paper

Medium and Message: Watercolour on paper

On the face of it, watercolour painting should be the simplest of all the more popular painting media. The paper is both support and ground, the paint layer is thin, with a little binder of gum arabic and a diluent of plain water. Although some have tried using varnish and other protective layers, in the great majority of watercolour paintings, that’s all there is. In practice, though, as anyone who has taken watercolour painting seriously knows…