The particularity of watercolours precisely resides in the presence of water, which is more than a simple solvent. Water is an EXPRESSIVE ELEMENT of this medium, in the same way as the pigments, the colours, the line, the composition, etc. The watercolour technique can be puzzling for the beginner who tends not to put enough water and therefore not enough coloured pigments to prevent gouache effects, thus resulting in a dull and bland painting.
To make the water one's ALLY, to accept to leave it some AUTONOMY, and to be MINDFUL enough to exploit any HAPPY ACCIDENT are then the necessary conditions for a LUMINOUS and TRANSPARENT watercolour paiting. This idea is linked to Dolorès Bolaños' precious advice which is a fundamental and extremely simple principle : watercolours is PLAYING WITH WATER AND PIGMENTS.
In this game of alternating between CONTROLLING and LETTING GO, the WATER imprints itself on the pigments, leaving hints of its presence on the paper, thus giving birth to watercolours where the WATER is no longer a simple solvent but an element which, through its physico-chemical properties, reveals its own ESTHETIC AND POETIC QUALITIES.
All in all, paraphrasing Soulages's words, it can be said that :
WATERCOLOURS IS THE ART OF MOVING PEOPLE WITH WATER.
