Pith stories with Dave Watson

The first in our series 'Pith stories', Sharing the unique lives, inspirations and knowledge of the people who bring our books to life.

CONVERSATION WITH

Liam Goward (Pith Co-founder)

Dave Watson is a painter, artist and especially wonderful human being. He played an instrumental part in the birth of Pith by testing our very first prototype. "If you're not doing this as a business, can I buy a lifetime supply?!” So here we are, two years later in one of Dave’s favourite spots to draw, Roughting Linn, Northumberland.

"I've been coming to this spot for about 11 years, making photographs in the early years and more recently I've been drawing or painting. It's a place I love and a place I keep coming back to". 

Liam Goward: Let’s start from the beginning, how long have you been an artist and how much of that time have you been using sketchbooks?

Dave Watson: Regular sketchbooks pretty much the whole time I have been an artist, say 12-13 years. Mainly I started out using Daler ring bound ones, and the paper was terrible, the ring binding was terrible. I was very pleased to come across Pith Sketchbooks. They were the best I have ever used, and still are!

LG: That’s a pretty big compliment! Thank you Dave. What is it about working in sketchbooks that you love and what qualities do you look for in them?

DW: I find that sketchbooks are a great way of disappearing down the rabbit hole of finding yourself through art, and sketchbooks are really good at this. But really to get a sketchbook to do the job well, you don't want to find yourself coming up against the paper moving as your making marks on it. You want to find that the paper is really satisfying to use. I find that these Pith sketchbooks do that really well. They never argue with you. They always do as you wish.

LG: You helped us in our early days when we were testing our first prototypes, what was it specifically about those that stood out to you in comparison with sketchbooks you had used before?

DW: When I first started testing the books, one of the things I was really impressed with that was better than any sketchbook I had used before was that you could take it out into the landscape, get out my three-legged stool, put the Pith sketchbook on the floor and it would fall flat open. And you could work straight across two pages, with just a little line of stitching down the middle which doesn't bother me. You could carry an A4 book and have A3 work at the end of the day. I found that I could use it with all sorts of pencils, from hard to soft, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencils, pastels, pastel pencils, watercolours right through to acrylics. I was really pleased with how all of these things layered onto the paper.

I was even quite surprised that you could do really good watercolours, if you gave it enough time to dry between layers you could actually make quite complex watercolours. Almost like you would with a good watercolour paper.

LG: You mentioned you like going out into nature and drawing and painting, what is it that inspires you about doing that as opposed to working in your studio?

DW: I work in two ways with sketchbooks, both in the studio and outdoors in the landscape. The thing I love about using it in the studio is you can follow this line of concentration and thought, where all of these beautiful things like branches of a tree emerge, all these new ideas moving forward. When you are working you find compositions that keep coming back. Rather than overwork one picture, the best thing to do is to find where a picture peaks turn the page and start again. And if you start again you will find that new ideas come and you won't destroy the old ideas.

LG: Where are your favourite places to go and record in your sketchbooks?

DW: Any place in the landscape where you can find the composition of the trees or the rocks or the water or the hills is complex enough to be interesting enough to paint. These are the great fun places to go back to again and again and again throughout the year and capture them in all their moods, in all different weathers.

A friend of mine once said "There's lots of weather about today" you get black clouds and grey clouds and white clouds and vanilla clouds and blue skies, all in one day.

LG: How does working in your sketchbooks effect the art you create?

DW: It's all about observation, you go out to look and record. Van Gogh said "Drawing is everything" and there's really been a truer thing said. If you love art, if you look at the sketchbooks of Van Gogh or Constable or even Kirill Sokolov sketchbooks, the most important thing is - looking, observing, noticing one thing at a time so when you come around to doing your big paintings you have forty ideas instead of just one.

LG: I know you experiment a lot with different materials, what are you using at the moment and how does that affect how you work?

DW: Materials that you use can really make you look at how you are working from different points of view. Sometimes it's a great idea to make lines first and then to use colour over the top. And sometimes it's good to just use charcoal and look at the lines and to likely colour the same etc and keep working and wiping away and working in again. And then start using watercolour over them and waxy pencils to get a different feel on the paper. I'm really fond of using sanguine colours because these match really nicely with black, it's great for working in shadows and highlights. And on top of that, you can use an eraser to make your highlights.

My other favourite bits of media, one is a little bit surprising, I use an atomiser to lay down layers of colour which is great for shapes and stencil work. I love acrylics and oil paints and love drawing with pencils, pastels and charcoal because they are so easy to use.

“It's almost like you're in a film yourself. Your moving through past the trees and every tree, every perspective and every view is so important”.

LG: Do you have a set routine when you go out to draw or paint or do you let the day inform your process?

DW: One of the things I always do when I'm settling down and looking at the landscape in front of me, I get all my pencils out and my sketchbook and you know the rubbers and all the stuff you need to make some work. I check over all the points on the pencils and charcoals and pastels or whatever I have. Not because they need sharpening but I will get my Stanley knife out and sharpen each pencil in turn, and think about the qualities of each pencil in turn. Not always to a needle-sharp point, I'm just revealing the charcoal I'm going to be scrubbing across the paper. Always keep your pencils sharp!

LG: How did you find the spot you are drawing in the film and how do you decide where to stop and draw?

DW: I've been coming to this spot for about 11 years, and I've been making photographs in the early years and more recently I've been drawing or painting. I've found lots of different vantage points. This particular one is about 8-9 feet above the path and I've been right above the waterfall and looked down and had my foot from the precipice only about 6 inches from the edge where all day I was scared of falling. Where I am today I'm frightened if I lean forward or go over to the side I might end up tumbling down the hill.

But it's a place I love and a place I keep coming back to because it's surrounded by trees whether there are leaves or not makes a heck of a difference to the light that comes through to the ground. On the brightest days, it can actually be quite dark down here in summer, and in winter if you get a bright day it's all bright and open. So it's worth repeating visits to a place. Ever so beautiful.

I love when I get to where I'm going to paint. I am always so excited about what I'm going to come away with at the end of the day. It's almost like you're in a film yourself. Your moving through past the trees and every tree and every perspective and every view is so important. You can feel the moisture in the air and the chill and wonder how cold your going to get through the day, whether your going to need to jump up and down every half hour or just a cup of tea every now and again is going to sort you out. But you know that you're going to be looking at the most beautiful thing in the world all day, it's your job, you feel like the luckiest person alive.