A Step-by-Step Plein Air Watercolor with Herman Pekel

Multiple winner of the prestigious Camberwell Rotary Watercolour prize and the Camberwell Rotary Travel Scholarship, Herman Pekel creates powerful paintings of the Australian landscape, urban vistas and moody interiors. He works in oil and gouache as well as watercolor, often painting the same subject in multiple mediums. “Fearless” has been a word to describe his strong compositions and dynamic brush strokes.

Pekel credits his father as his main enthusiast growing up. He had the opportunity to paint with Roger Webber, Ernest Buckmaster and Lance McNeill. He furthered his eduction in fine arts at RMIT (formerly known as Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Melbourne Technical College) studying under Dale Hickey and Jeff Makin.

Pekel sent us this step-by-step demonstration of a watercolor plein air painting he had recently completed:

Step 1