Frank Townsley: Texture in Watercolour

Cracks in rocks, fur on animals, the grain in wood—there’s nothing like texture to add interest and reality to your watercolour painting. On Thursday, December 1, 2016, as part of the SAGA Thursday Artist Talk series at the Surrey Art Gallery, local artist and instructor Frank Townsley will discuss techniques to take your work to the next level in his presentation “Texture in Watercolour.”

One of the techniques is called the ‘”dry brush” that can add texture by simulating grass, wood grain, cracks in rocks, and stonework on old buildings. Townsley says, “It also has a place when painting bark on deciduous tree trunks, leaves on distant trees, and even fur and hair on mammals. ” You’ll learn how the technique of splattering can look like snowfall, wind-blown spume from a breaking wave, stars in a night sky, sand grains on a beach, texture on foreground concrete, and more. Achieving that “granitic” look to rocks will also be covered in his talk, as well as scratching to add snow on distant trees and mountains, or highlights on icicles.

About the Artist
Frank Townsley was born in North Vancouver and graduated with honours from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1979. In the same year, he was admitted into the Federation of Canadian Artists and won the first place Shell Canada award at his first exhibition in the spring of 1980. His works had been printed and distributed throughout Canada through Canadian Gallery Prints in Port Moody. For the past 25 years, he has taught both watercolour painting and photography through several venues in the Lower Mainland, and has done several demonstrations through Opus Art Supplies around the province. Townsley has compiled two instructional DVDs on watercolour painting and just released his first book this year on British Columbia, in which he has incorporated sixteen of his watercolour paintings, resulting in a flattering endorsement from wildlife painter Robert Bateman.
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