It Hao Pheh Watercolour Demonstration
15th June 2024
We are fortunate to have It Hao Pheh as a tutor at WAA. If you look up his name on Google you will see dozens of entries.
He is famous as a watercolour artist and has won many prestigious prizes, including the Kenneth Jack Prize and the Camberwell Art Show best watercolour. He has had over 100 exhibitions. Surprising for such a young man. He has a very pleasant personality and is very popular with his students.
Usually he paints old buildings. He brought with him
many unframed works which showed his versatility.
Today he gave us a demo on how he paints a peacock. He had as subject, a photo he took in Malaysia, his native country.
He had two brushes only, a varnish brush and a pastry
brush. He is not fussy about tools or expensive brushes. One was a daggy brush with a split in the middle. Each had a long handle which he gripped at the end. He had his board vertical on an easel so the audience could see. He drew the outline with a pastel pencil. He often uses a brush as a pencil. He was more interested in the bluegreen body of the peacock than in its tail, with its famous eyes. His aim was to make a painting, not a photograph. It was not pre-planned. He had a “wait and see” attitude. He decided on the background as he went along Not having a peacock-blue paint, he mixed Olympic Blue, Ultramarine and Green. A light wash on the body, then a scumble to show the feather edges.
During the afternoon tea break he put the board horizontal and flooded the bird with blue to glaze it. This made the colour more intense and luminous. Pressure of time made him use a hairdryer before doing the finishing touches.
Some detail around the head and it was
done. A master class.
Colin Browne
It Hao Pheh also had many other beautiful watercolours on display
