Painting from Life: Explorations in Watercolor

Painting from Life: Explorations in Watercolor chronicles the progression of artist Douglas Lew as he takes on the most eternal and challenging of themes: the nude. Working side-by-side with other artists in the context of life-drawing sessions, Lew struck out on his own heightened pace of exploration as he grappled with the ultimate problem: How to draw and paint a nude model accurately and expressively within the time limits of single pose, which were sometimes as short as five or ten minutes. Having started with single line drawings, Lew soon realized he could use watercolor to render volume more quickly. He then began to build paintings, sorting out composition, light, shapes, and color as he worked. Once he mastered the nude, Lew sought to be freed from it: In a delightful game of hide-and-seek he created seductive abstractions, leaving parts of the figure visible. At the heart of the book are Lew’s remarkable figure drawings and paintings.