I remember that, when I was in grammar school, the art teacher laid it down that the foundation of watercolour technique was one’s ability to paint a wash. We spent what in recollection seems to have been hours attempting to produce that perfectly even layer of colour. This I now remember with some amusement in the light of my recent engagement with the work of Eric Ravilious. I don’t suppose that he ever produced a classic wash in the sense that we were expected to do back then. His surfaces are typically built up from an accumulation of brush strokes, every one carefully graded in area and intensity, and regularly modified to convey an impression of form and texture. He must have had the most incredible ability to control the hand in order to produce such precise and sustained gradations. I believe that the foundation of his originality is to be found in the aspect of his technical ability, and that sense of engagement with the creation of form and surface is perhaps the most distinctive thing about his art. Although his landscapes and interiors at first sight appear to be uneventful little vignettes, on inspection they turn out to be tours de force of the control and understanding of his medium.
I believe that Eric Ravilious compares, in his understanding of his chosen medium, with Edgar Degas, whose mastery of pastels I have always admired.