Cape Otway, Victoria, watercolor of the dramatic coast and huge waves of southern Victoria Australia, by Wayne Roberts. Collection of G. Simeral and P. Gegax click for close-up

Top three images: more closely observed representations of marine subjects. Other images this page: intuitive interactive realism

the ocean in watercolor

 

"My grandfather was born on a small island in the Baltic Sea. As a child and young adult, I recall being fascinated by the stories of the sea he recounted. His own father had fallen through the ice and perished when my grandfather was only three years old (the sea froze between the islands every winter and they would skate across it between islands.) He served in the merchant navy from a very young age and survived the torpedoing and sinking of a ship during the war, as well as numerous terrific storms on the ocean.

My paternal grandfather also enjoyed sailing and boat-building so I guess this 'marine spirit' is somehow 'in the air' with my ancestral heritage and this perhaps explains my need to return again and again to the genre of seascape.

Watercolor is the perfect vehicle with which an artist may express the spirit of the ocean. Allowing the medium to flow and find its own resolution and balance of waves and troughs is something that has marked my watercolor seascapes. Rarely, if ever these days, do I paint a seascape with any rigid preconceived plan of how or where waves will be placed in the final image. These emerge interactively from the nonlinear flow characteristics of the medium and the differences in saturation or dampness of paper which I work into while the surface is still wet. It is as if the watercolor forms its own 'waves', and each wave, as on the surface of the ocean is in a sense a reflection of the summation of forces and rhythms experienced by every 'drop'. "

Wayne Roberts, © 2002

Lighthouse
watercolor seascape painting by marine artist, Wayne Roberts
private collection

intuitive interactive realism

Oceania
watercolor
intuitive seascape
© Wayne Roberts
collection P & F Mitchell

intuitive interactive realism
close-up

All images © copyright 1994-2002 Wayne Roberts. All rights reserved.

very unusual interpretation of the spirit and voyage of Magellan