Graeme Masterton
Art
Watercolor Painting
Location
Victoria, BC
Currently in the Gallery
About the Artist
"My urban planning degrees helped foster a love of cities, places and architecture that shows up consistently in my choice of subjects to paint. Typically it is cityscapes, though I keep pushing myself to try other subject matter to continue to improve as an artist.
My work is informed by Realism and Gustave Courbet, the Impressionists Manet, Pissaro and Cezanne, and 18th c. landscape painter Canaletto. I strive to capture that feeling of place, as if the viewer is standing in my footsteps. This is based on a mixture of architectural accuracy, the movement of light and shadow, and the texture of the materials. I prefer vignettes that are recognizable to those who have visited these places and paid attention to the buildings, and to see how they evoke the past and present."
Graeme is a Scottish-born, Canadian citizen who lives in Victoria, BC, Canada. A trained urban-planner and transportation specialist, he has been drawing and painting since returning from a trip to the U.K. in 1983.
Graeme studied drafting in high school, and he took evening classes at the Victoria College of Art for two years before heading to the University of Toronto and a year of Fine Arts. Through the vagaries of the lottery system in Fine Arts for second year, he moved into urban planning. While VCA provided a background in Fine Arts basics and created the foundation for a year in classic art training, it was time at UoT that focused upon technical drawing, under-drawings and watercolour.