Large Seascape in Watercolour; Zoom Demo – Scott Swinson
Wednesday 25 March 2026 – 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Scott will paint large seascape watercolour on a half sheet (28cm x 76cm or 38cm x 56cm) of Arches 300gsm cold pressed paper. He might also paint a small landscape if there is time.
He will predominately use Holbein Hake brushes and some Ron Ranson Hake brushes for the initial application of colour. Then use other brushes when moving towards more detail. He will use bowls of watercolour wash to enable free application of large areas of colour. This style has been called the Kyoto Approach due to its origins from Japan. Scott uses Winsor and Newton artist quality tubes of watercolour.
Learning how to use hake brushes and working wet in wet with bowls of wash is a great process for loose more abstract style watercolours. It enables the paint to do some of the painting for you and you get to work with events that happen on the page that you did not plan. You need to understand the medium to work in this way, but once you do it can be fun and exciting! You are free to ask any questions along the way.
Bio and Overview of Scott Swinson’s Art Journey
I have always enjoyed art. It was one of my favourite things to do in primary school, not just landscapes but also funny faces etc. I loved sketching when we went away camping or on holidays.
I was very lucky at the age of 12 to be home sick from school one day and my dad had created some watercolour videos with Tony Smibert called “The Watercolour Apprentice”. We had some supplies at home and I decided to watch the videos and paint along with it. From that time onwards I was hooked on watercolour. I have always painted, not always consistently, life has got in the way at times, but I have always found the time and space to paint again. Tony was very generous and allowed me to watch him paint for 10 months. I moved back from London and bought a house in Deloraine and learnt a huge amount. That was almost 20 years ago now.
For much of my adult life I have been trying to figure out, while working as a Physiotherapist, how do you make a consistent living from painting? I have had many solo exhibitions that have been successful and been very enjoyable but would still not allow me to quit my day job!
So I stopped trying to have exhibitions and started investigating different avenues. I sold digital downloads on etsy for nurseries which was a fail. I sold my art through bluethumb and sent them unframed to the new owners which was better. I started a youtube channel just demonstrating what I was doing and then started Patreon. I also started selling courses online independently.
I am still learning a huge amount. It has it’s ups and downs but at least I am in control and I have the ability to help others learn watercolour and support my family at the same time.
I will have exhibitions again in the future and I will paint more en plein air in the future when I have more time but at present this is the best use of my time.
On the 17th of April [2025] I went down to 3 days a week as a Physiotherapist. It is scary but also exciting to see how I go in the next year with more time.
I am truly enjoying this journey!
This journey is about:
- Helping others
- Serving people
- Growing in my knowledge base around multiple skills including cinematography
- Following my joy
- Working hard
- Sharing without reservation
- Growing as an artist
- Attempting to capture the essence of nature on the paper
I love:
- Kurt Jackson (British landscape painter)
- Mao Lizi (realist and abstract painter from China)
- Geoff Dyer (Tasmanian artist)
- Mark Making
- Large Scale Paintings
- Abstraction
- JMW Turner
- Letting Watercolour Express Itself
- Light
- The Sublime
Find more images by Scott here: Images by Scott Swinson
