The Artist's Road Painting the World's Beautiful Places

David Rankin

Naptime                   30 x 40"                    Watercolor

   Accomplished artist, teacher and author David Rankin has spent a great deal of his career painting the wildlife and landscapes of India. His medium of choice?  Watercolor. We began by asking him what it is about watercolor that has made it his passion.

   I simply love the way watercolor reacts with gravity and good paper. The blends, the variety of edges, the tremendous variety of textural brushstrokes—it’s just a magnificent sensual process. No other medium is in such a complex relationship with gravity. And, because you are manipulating water mixed with pigment, the magic of gravity affects every moment. Learning how to create certain visual effects by altering the amounts of gravity is very cool.

   I’m constantly looking at the world around me and asking myself, "How would I paint that?" Watercolor is intensely personal to me. I love the cerebral process I go through as I try to envision how to recreate a visual effect of light and then find ways to replicate that phenomena of nature in watercolor.

Morning in Bharatpur                    40 x 60"                                Watercolor

   Recently, Rankin has also been exploring digital mediums, specifically using the app called Paper by 53 on his iPad.

   What for me started out as mere artistic curiosity has now become fully integrated into the very core of my skill set and allows me to work in ways I could not even imagine just a few years ago.

   
Examples of Working with the Paper by 53 app on iPad

Learn more about David Rankin's watercolor and digital work in our in-depth interview.
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All artwork copyright David Rankin.