Pinazo and watercolour

Like other great artists, Pinazo treated the same subjects in his watercolours and ink wash drawings as in his oil paintings. He also alternated between oil painting and water-based systems. He often chose watercolour for works of recreation or relief from commissioned works, and he also used it for sketches, jottings and preparatory studies for his canvases. Watercolour always worked well in succinct, small-format pictures, and it was certainly one of the artistic devices that he employed from the beginning of his career. Ignacio Pinazo must therefore be considered one of the most brilliant representatives of local watercolour, and not just an example of a painter capable of mastering the techniques of watercolour painting on paper. He and other Valencian artists, together with internationally renowned figures such as Mariano Fortuny, ennobled Spanish watercolour with their constant efforts, raising it to the same category as other techniques. This took watercolour painting to new heights in Spain, producing a proliferation of new associations and academies and a considerable increase in enthusiastic practitioners of the art.