joseph scissorhands: William Tillyer: Watercolours

Sunday 9 May 2021

William Tillyer: Watercolours

Reflections on the Esk The Mulgrave Watercolours, 2019

I came across this exhibition purely by chance whilst on my way to another. I stopped to take it in however, as the bold, painterly, splashy brushstrokes seen through the gallery window really appealed, moving me in much the same way that those of Jessica Rankin's did which I'd seen a few days previously (in my last post). Most of the works in this exhibition reference Tillyer's extensive travels, evoking English and foreign landscapes in both representational and abstract imagery. The brushstrokes and saturated colours here were both bold and yet beautifully nuanced. The white watercolour paper background and translucent watercolour medium in which they were executed gave the colours an almost luminous quality like stained glass seen in the sunshine, which really enhanced their appeal. I couldn't help but draw parallels with the dreamy watercolours of JMW Turner which were equally as evocative of a sense of place and climatic conditions. Turner was innovative in his day in his use of technique and application of paint, and I saw something similar here too in Tillyer's paintingThe Bedford Hills where he cuts V shapes into the painted paper and paints the reverse, he then peels these back to disrupt the rhythms and textures of the picture surface adding a completely new dimension to the painting. Sometimes chance encounters are the most rewarding.