Watercolorist Nicholas Poullis

 

A light search

 

Nicholas Poullis is a professional watercolorist. Before moving over to France in 1999 he exhibited in England at The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, The Royal Society of British Artists and The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

 

His paintings can be found in several important collections in the UK such as Saint John’s College, Cambridge. He has also illustrated books: The Voyage of the Arctic Tern (published by Walter books) and has co-written and illustrated Contemporary Watercolors (published by Walter Foster, 2012).

 

An amiable and approachable man, the artist explains that art came into his life during his childhood with subtlety and as a natural succession through the influence of a painter uncle and a craftsman grand-father. He makes no fuss of this fact because, in his own words, it is ‘who he is’, a watercolorist. But when asked to describe his own art, he replies, “It is about light and the building”

 

One of his main characteristics is the apparent ease with which he paints architecture. The perspective and the vanishing point are achieved with construction of the lines and the effects of light but more importantly the brush stroke. Painting with watercolour is a difficult exercise. Since by definition the water dominates, the skill is to regulate the dispersion of the pigments mixed with water. This implies a very focused gesture, leaving little room for error, especially when the subject is as precise as a building.

 

The painting is applied on porous paper and at any time the image can be spoilt by colour interference. Furthermore, one cannot cheat with watercolour since it is a transparent medium which allows anomalies to visibly transpire. Nicholas admires many artists, amongst who include 19th century English painters and watercolorists such as William Turner, Richard Parkes Bonington, James Whistler and John Constable.

 

When focusing on a particular place, Nicholas may go back to the same spot without ever finding the same nuance of light from his initial studies. Or he paints the same building but each time from a different angle. “The position of the sun can force you to do something else,” says Nicholas who paints from life no matter the weather. He has travelled to Spain and Italy and escapes regularly to London where he usually faces a race against the clock to produce a large amount of work in a short space of time. He also enjoys painting ‘marines’, landscapes and townscapes and when it passes the Tour de France event and bravados.

 

Rightly so, he distinguishes between the type of work that would interest galleries and his personal artistic search which he defines as ‘two different things. His greater desire is to produce the best possible work at the most affordable price.

 

His Watercolour paintings come in different formats, some of which can be seen at Agence Fidical situated at Hôtel des Barons de Lacoste in Pézenas or at Nicholas’s studio in Roujan.

 

Nicholas also runs watercolour classes, teaching the medium to all levels at his studio with views across the Hérault landscape. Classes take place every Wednesday morning from 9h00 to 12h00.

 

Nicholas’s skilled eye renders local towns, architectural details and scenes from daily life with an accurate but almost ethereal presence, at times tending towards abstraction; the dexterity of his hand gives bringing life to the image through the pigments and water, letting them breathe in their own space.

 

 

Dominique Aclange