Top 50 Watercolour Artists You Need to Know About (And Their Iconic Work)

Known for my watercolours of flowers and plants, my approach to the medium combines an interest in detailed work with abstract effects created by water and pigments. Spontaneity and colour are central themes, with an invocation of vivacity and joy. I studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 1986. Since then, I have regularly exhibited in galleries around the UK and abroad. For the last 4 years I have been the leader of the Scottish group of artists at the international watercolour convention in Italy, ‘FabrianoinAcquarello’. I have won 2 prizes at the Royal Watercolour Society in London and was also shortlisted for the international watercolour prize ‘Marche d’Acqua’ in 2016. I have been shortlisted for the same competition (now known as the Watercolour Biennial) in 2022. I work from my Edinburgh studio, and when the flowers are in bloom, I can be found painting in the garden.

My name is Cherry and I'm a coloured pencil artist! I spend my days drawing animals, from pets to wildlife, from my home studio in the gorgeous Hertfordshire countryside. I've always had a huge love of dogs and after drawing my own two pups, Cherry Watson Illustration began! Since late 2017 I have been lucky enough to illustrate so many animals, predominately pet portraits of our beloved dogs, cats, horses and the occasional parrot! My work also includes beautiful wildlife pieces, from hares and pheasants to fallow deer, and animals I see on my daily dog walks, like gorgeous cows and birds!

In January 2020, I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Being immobilised and signed off work, I started to draw every day, and I haven't stopped since: it's now the reason I get out of bed in the morning. It might seem strange, even disgraceful, for a man in his late 30s to start pursuing an artistic pathway. An archetypal mid-life crisis. But there is nothing inherently bad about a crisis: Yes, there is danger and difficulty, but also, potentially, a turning point and a renewal. In terms of my artistic perspective, I am interested in urban sketching and illustration. My work aims to capture the liveliness of our environment, with a strong emphasis on play and more than a hint of anarchy.

I'm a mixed media artist now living in Nottingham, I have always painted and drawn ever since I can remember and always believed that I would eventually work in this field, but my career took me on a path working with children developing their self esteem and wellbeing which I loved and was also able to use my creativity in a more therapeutically direction. In 2016 myself and my husband was given the opportunity to live in Wisconsin USA for 5 years, during this time I rediscovered my love and need to create art for my own mental health. I draw inspirations from my travels, the colourful vistas of Americas National Parks, the vibrancy of cities like Toyko and San Francisco. I'm currently enjoying working with alcohol inks, which can produce such intense colours whilst maintaining a fluidity which can only be controlled up to a certain point, so you never fully know how it’s going to turn out - which is part of the fun! But I also enjoy other mediums, watercolours, acrylic and ink pads, no matter what my subjects are, whether its female nudes or landscapes, you can be sure that they are always colourful!

I am a contemporary painter based in York. My work often features the North Yorkshire Moors and the Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cornish coastlines as well as expressive still life. I work in a loose, spontaneous style using acrylic with mixed media (sometimes employing gold leaf), preferring to capture atmosphere and energy over too much detail. My work has been exhibited widely throughout Yorkshire and beyond including solo shows at the Hemsley Arts Centre and Beningbrough Hall (National Trust). I have exhibited several times with the Society of Women Artists and I am a member of Leeds Fine Artists which is one of the oldest regional arts bodies in the UK, established in 1874.

Andrew Allsop is a Leeds based artist working to capture snapshots of the city he loves. He predominantly workis in ink and paints; sketching, painting and screen printing. His work looks at both the grand architecture and the everyday scenes that make his northern home unique.

Sahara Poette started painting in 2015 with a friend around a table in a Spanish farmhouse. Encouraged by her friend, an artist, Sahara painted a few more pieces. After that she didn’t paint much again, then her father passed away and she started painting again. Her heritage is Jamaican - a Londoner and was privileged to have a father who was learned and world wise. The books on the shelf ranged from Marcus Garvey to Dubois, Sex and Race, War and Peace. “We listened to a lot of Black Classical Music-Jazz and art was all around. My mother was an artist, Father a musician amongst other things. My daughter paints as does my brother. I am the late comer.” Her influences and subject matters are centred around iconography and the figurative appeal of the female form. She creates abstract, layered and textured, applying lines, dots, patterns and colours. Sahara loves colour. “I will paint on anything from plates, to glass, whatever appeals to me, I will paint on it.” Her first work was exhibited in the Auntie Freeze Art Fair at CAVE SW1 2019 and sold ‘She Follows’. Subsequently, Sahara had her first solo exhibition ‘She Walks with Nature’, in May 2021 and sold some pieces much to her delight. She enjoys painting a wide plethora of subjects especially figurative and as her artist repertoire of knowledge deepens, she has come to appreciate the art of before and the art of now. Sahara an emerging artist, is keen to continue developing her art to see where it takes her. As a yoga and well-being practitioner, finding the balance between her two worlds intertwines her love of people and to see equality and justice within the human race.

Maria was born in a tiny mountain village in Spain. She grow up surrounded by forests, animals and fairytales, which are her main inspiration. She started painting with her grandad when she was a child but it wasn’t until she moved to Edinburgh in 2018 when she began to share her illustrations with the rest of the world through Instagram and her online shop. She’s a self-taught artist who is starting to find her place in the illustration world, her dream is to become a children’s book illustrator. At the moment she’s illustrating a Fairytale for a local writer from her homeland which is going to be published at the end of this year. Her style is delicate, very sensitive and magical… She loves playing with different shades of blue to create misty and romantic scenes. Edmund Dulac, Gemma Capdevila or Christian Birmingham are some of her favourite illustrators. She is in love with nature and life and believes that the actual real world is the most magical thing that exists. Apart from painting Maria loves history and art and she works as a part time tour guide in Edinburgh where she shares wonderful stories and curiosities with travellers from all over the world.

I have always been fascinated with the edges of landscapes, where one space collides with another. I grew up in Whitby, which lies on the boundary between moors and sea. Sheffield, my home now, has many layers to explore as its history is directly tied to every river and every valley that feeds it. In the borderlands between the city and the wilds surrounding it, there is so much industrial heritage slowly being absorbed into the surrounding woods and park lands. I find these spaces fascinating. Sitting and studying an old bridge, its alignment in the landscape, and the age of the stonework is often as enjoyable as the act of creating art. As a professional commercial photographer, I usually work to a client’s brief and my previous career as an industrial designer was equally constrained. My art provides me with a sense of playful freedom and I strongly believe that, as adults, we sometimes forget the power play has to benefit our overall wellbeing. I create work quickly and sketching allows me to work with flexibility and speed. I find the ‘minimal’ captivating. A simple set of lines and a splash of colour can be so expressive.

In Charlotte’s gallery you will find watercolour landscapes, acrylic abstracts, oil paintings and more! Charlotte’s love for colour and the feelings of happiness and pure joy it can evoke shines through in her paintings. Born and bred in Leeds, Yorkshire, the local scenery and vivid pops of colour in nature have long inspired Charlotte’s work…bright, bold and beautiful. Charlotte is predominantly a self taught, mixed media artist. Her work has evolved through experimenting with different mediums and colour pallets, following intuition and refining techniques. All her paintings are created in her home studio in Leeds, you can see ‘behind the scenes’ and ‘work in progress’ pictures on her social media.

Studio A.W. works with botanical illustrations and female portraits with botanical elements. Anne Wiziack, the artist behind the studio, tries to transmit with her paintings a message of sustainability, feminine power and a bit of the culture of her home country, Brazil. Most of her art is done with watercolour on 100% cotton paper and she loves to explore different techniques and textures, such as painting with coffee or a natural ink like beetroot. In addition, she likes to insert some geometric and astrological elements in her art, which makes her work unique.

A 25 year old languages graduate, Amy has spent time in various beautiful places around the world, particularly in Europe, and is always left feeling hugely inspired to recreate them on a canvas. After graduating university in 2019 with a degree in Spanish and Italian, she decided to devote more time towards this passion, and found that painting throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020/2021 provided a certain level of escapism whilst travelling was not an option. Amy now completes commissions in both watercolour and acrylic paint, and aims to become a full time artist in the future. In her spare time she enjoys socialising, travelling and spending time with family.