SUSTAINABILITY OF WATERCOLOUR PAINTING MEDIUM IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES

Abstract

Watercolour painting medium has been proven to be an effective and unique medium of painting. The medium is believed to have existed since the cave paintings era. Many renounce painters have used the medium to produce paintings that express their emotions or feelings. But in recent times only but few used the medium to produce paintings. Thus, encouraging more painters to use the medium to produce paintings and to guide against the medium going into extinction inspired the need to discuss watercolourist painting medium in this paper. The paper aims to enable artists and non-artists to understand that watercolour has been in use and to encourage painters who may desire watercolour as their preferred choice while producing paintings. However, due to the technicalities and manipulative ingenuity involved in using the medium not so many painters use the medium frequently, but for does that have consistently used the medium can attest to the fact that the medium is efficient and effective to produce paintings. Thus, to ensure that the medium is sustainable, the paper reviewed some cognate literature on watercolour that focuses on the meaning of watercolour, the historical origin of watercolour, and the significance of watercolour in the production of painting, sustainability of watercolour painting medium, among others. The paper concludes that watercolour painting is endowed with rich aesthetic potentials that need to be explored. The more paintings should be encouraged to use the medium to produce their paintings.