Alan HEPBURN

Not only is Alan an extraordinary watercolourist, he is a gifted technician who has the rare creative talent of transporting you to somewhere beautiful and often exotic to experience the architecture and general atmosphere. He handles his subjects in a spontaneous way, creating lively and perceptive painting with confidence and complete control over his medium.  He is a master of his art.

Luminescent watercolours of cafés, streets and shopfronts highlight Alan's interest and passion for architecture, travel and joie de vivre.  His passion for travelling has taken him on journeys old and new, revisiting favourite haunts in Prague, Paris, London and the Middle East.

"I am exclusively a watercolour painter,very much influenced by the Scottish watercolourists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Arthur Melville, J W Herald and James Paterson - particularly the first named. I always work on stretched paper,which has been soaked in dilute china white and then rinsed thoroughly. I find that this gives the prepared surface the translucency required to convey the feeling of intense light, which I aim to achieve. Much of my work has been carried out in the Middle East, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Southern France, and the UK.  " 

"Originally I saw myself as a purist watercolour painter using no bodycolour, gouache or other mixed media whatsoever. Experience over the years has taught me however that this stance can be restrictive; the more I try to capture the essence of any subject the more I have come to realise that including complementary materials (gouache, pastel) can enliven the result, and some of these materials have been used in this latest body of work.

Laurie MacLaren and Diana Lanham  2010 ©

Paintings