Soft Edges

"The secret of being a bore is to tell everything."
(Voltaire)

This week I've been talking to my watercolor students about lost and found edges in compositions, softness or fuzziness as convincing a sense of reality and space. Canadian artist Robert Genn sums it up beautifully in Soft Edges.

"While accurate description is paramount for some artists, keep in mind that art also needs to be seductive. Softness is the gentle handmaid of seduction. Knowing when to be gentle is part of the art... Many painters, completely in tune with the value of softness, forget that colour change is also valuable in transitional areas. Gradating up or down the colour wheel--say from red to orange or green to yellow--adds additional zing and deliciousness."

"The eye and soul are caressed in the contemplation of form and colour," said the American instructor and author John F. Carlson. "The subtle changes of colour over a surface are transitions like music and are intangible in their reaction upon us. There is an immediate sensual appeal."

Painters Keys - Robert Genn