Graham Wands was born in Irvine, Ayrshire in 1959, Graham cannot remember a time he didn’t draw or paint. He moved to the Borders and taught art in the local community and exhibited in local galleries. He moved to Perthshire in 1995 and now works from a studio in Aylth from where he takes workshops and demonstrates watercolour techniques as well as preparing his own work for exhibition. His great skill with watercolours enables him to bring great atmosphere to all of his paintings and can add a romanticism to an ordinary street.
Graham says: “In my cityscapes of Dundee I wanted to capture moments in time. A fleeting glance of the surrounding before the scene moves on. The people, the traffic, the sounds etc, all clamour together to create a vision of place and time.
I don’t want too much detail in my paintings, but prefer broad, bold strokes to tell the story. With watercolour I can use the unpredictability of the medium to create atmosphere through vigorous brush strokes and an impressionistic style, while still painting a recognisable representation of the subject.
I paint on a heavy grade of watercolour paper which means I don’t have to stretch the paper before I start painting. I use tubes of watercolour paint in a limited palette, sometimes using the paint straight from the tube itself. All in all, watercolour affords a wonderful sense of freedom when painting I haven’t been able to find in any other medium, and is why I love it.”