A great artist - John Sell Cotman

John Sell Cotman was a British painter best known for his distinctive watercolours of architectural features set amidst the English countryside. In his hallmark work Greta Bridge (c. 1805), Cotman employed washes of tonal colour to great effect, creating subtle forms and light through built up layers within precise shapes. 

In the last few weeks, we Members at the Claverton Art Group have very much enjoyed studying how Cotman built his pictures. Cotman's colours are built up through the technique of layering colours, each layer slightly darker than the previous, rather than a single heavy layer, which gives his darks complexity and richness.