I was taught watercolour at the Academy by Ben van Voorn. He was a gifted water-colourist himself and he shared all his innovations with us. He taught us to exploit the special qualities of pigments. For example the sifting of various cobalt’s. Or whether or not a pigment is opaque: cobalt blue, for example, works transparently, gambodge, on the other hand, works opaquely. In the design of a watercolour he encouraged us to paint large surfaces directly in the right tone. Thus keeping the action of the paint fresh.
Watercolour is an outstanding technique that lends itself to working quickly. Ben van Voorn called it making notes. Because my official job was rather time consuming the scarce time which was left I devoted to making watercolours.
