Trees by the Lake, Peamore Park, near Exeter, Devon 1790 - 1810

Francis Towne made this watercolor, Trees by the Lake, Peamore Park, near Exeter, Devon, using traditional methods and materials. Paper, pigment, and brush were his tools, and the work's magic arises from the artist’s mastery of them. But what kind of paper? What sort of pigments, and how were they prepared? Details of these choices would tell us a lot about Towne's practice. The thinness of the washes suggests a fine, absorbent paper, allowing the colors to blend seamlessly. The pigments themselves would have been ground by hand, a labor-intensive process. This act of making color, connecting the artist to the material world, stands in stark contrast to our contemporary experience of pre-packaged paints. Looking closely, you can see the artist building up layers of transparent color, exploiting the paper's whiteness to create luminosity. This attention to the inherent qualities of the material – its absorbency, its texture, its very being – shows how understanding the making process can deepen our appreciation of the finished work. Towne's art, like all art, is the product of skilled labor, a point sometimes obscured in favor of purely aesthetic readings.