

What delight and wonder it was to find that led and blue 

 made violet ; red and yellow, orange ; and blue and yellow, 

 green ! How assiduously we ground away at those hard 

 cakes of colour, and zc/z/jt a terrible mess we made of 

 them all ! There is just the same interest to be had in 

 experimental colouring now, fresh delights of tone, just as 

 fascinating as those earl)'' efforts, without the messiness ! 



Aly first essay into water-colour painting was, I grieve 

 to say, a surreptitious one. I had been punished for 

 some childish indiscretion, by being shut in an empty 

 room, my captors forgetting that a door communicating 

 with my father's study was open. Here, indeed, was food 

 for wonder and delight. Models of ships, curios of various 

 kinds, hitherto out of reach, I fingered with the enthusiasm 

 of a true daughter of Eve for forbidden fruit. But the 

 greatest joy of all was to discover that my naughty podgy 

 little fingers could slide back the lid of the old-fashioned 

 mahogany colour-box, and so disclose to view the treasures 

 within. Could a youthful soul with artistic longing with- 

 stand so great a temptation ? I commenced a series of 

 hasty "impressions" on note-paper, letters, anything I could 

 find about, hurriedly throwing them behind the writing- 

 table to avoid detection. And although a speedy retribu- 

 tion followed, for of course these works of Art were 

 discovered when the room was swept, I still remember that hou 

 stolen joy as one of the happiest in m\' life. 



In a previous chapter I mentioned what a mistake a beginner makes, 

 if, instead of looking for himself, he relies on the colour tradition has 

 taught him to call his model from childhood. I have a half-finished study 

 of apple-blossom before me as I write. What colour is apple-blossom ? 

 Don't all answer at once, please, and say, " Why, pink, of course." 



Look again. There is pink in it certainly : the unopened buds are 

 almost pure rose madder ; but what a number of other colours as well ! 

 The wide-open flowers are not very pink, except on their under sides. 

 They are a warm white, with pearly-grey modelling to show the flimsiness 

 of the petals ; but it is a luminous grey, and, if I remember rightly, I 

 used a mi.xture of cobalt, aureolin, and rose madder to express it, with 

 aureolin and lemon yellow for the pretty pale stamens in the centres. 

 Some of the branches are lying on a white cloth ; this I have purposely 

 kept rather low in tone to enhance the purity of the blossoms, and indeed 

 their fresh warm whiteness did stand out in a wonderful manner in the 

 natural group. 



A very general fault with a beginner at flower-painting lis that he 



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