JOE DOWDEN

I have painted in watercolor since the age of six. My father taught me the principles.

I have attended colleges and sought additional training by learning from respected fellow artists around the world..My youth was spent sketching and drawing in situ. From 1982 I sold work in galleries. Since 1990 I have staged many one exhibitions.

A professor asked me to demonstrate to his students. I have demonstrated  painting since then. I believe the watercolour medium is an elite and superlative mode of expression. I have tried to create demonstration paintings as artistic pieces in their own right. It has been my honor to have had several exhibited at international exhibitions or published in books and magazines, and I am grateful to those selectors and editors.

I get a creative "supercharge"  from demonstrating to fellow artists. It has enabled added a dynamic to my painting, from the speed and intensity required, and a little adrenaline from fear.  It has taught me much about watercolour because when demonstrating there is no time to correct mistakes, the painting has to be done with integrity to the medium, nothing can be hidden.

I believe in telling people exactly how I paint, so they in turn can develop quicker. Life is too short to waste with needless experimenting, when you can just find out from  someone else. This leaves great young artists and developing painters to go further and faster, because they can use these methods to break their own new ground.