CONTEXT

Watercolor is a tradition that spans the chronicles of history. Primitive man used pigments mixed with water to create cave paintings by applying the paint with fingers, sticks and bones. In India and Persia, the opaque gouache paintings created by the Moslems depicted religious incidents derived from Byzantine art.

Watercolor painting is a distinctive medium, straddling the worlds of painting and drawing to create a unique art form. Paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble medium and can be applied to everything from paper to canvas, and from wood to fabrics. What makes watercolor painting so unique is its unforgiving nature; lines, colors, and forms must be applied perfectly the first time around, as any attempt to paint over simply renders the entire effect muddied. Watercolors have dominated Asian art and still do today, but they have also enjoyed a prominent place in Western art history.