From Oils to Watercolours

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

This excellent introduction to the techniques of watercolor painting is
also a reflection on what painting means to one artist, and on the
experiences that brought him to this medium. Ontario painter Charles
Spratt began painting in oils and had achieved considerable success with
them by the time he developed a strong allergic reaction to oil paints
and traditional solvents.

Toni Onley’s foreword focuses on Spratt’s new medium, one still
considered secondary by many curators. This makes no sense to Onley,
since atmosphere and light are best captured by watercolors. Spratt’s
detailed coverage of technical matters, from pigments to papers, will
interest both beginning and advanced painters. His conversational style
of writing widens the audience for the book.

Painting to Spratt means making a statement about the feelings
generated by light and color. In a prose poem called “Light,” he
speaks of light’s power to bring “a message of warmth and harmony
and a sense of spiritual uplifting.” He paints to express the
loneliness of an abandoned building or the “rapture” of light in
pine branches.

From Oils to Watercolours includes a list of suggested readings and is
illustrated by three color plates and numerous black-and-white sketches
and photographs by the author.