Paint Type

Watercolor Paint

Watercolor paint is a water-based art medium made with pigment and a water-soluble binder, typically applied in transparent washes on absorbent paper.

Watercolor paint surface compatibility

Watercolor paint works naturally on absorbent paper, while less absorbent supports usually need a watercolor ground or other suitable preparation.

Surface	Compatibility	Preparation	Primer or ground	Finish	Guide
Paper	Excellent on watercolor paper	Choose paper with enough weight and sizing for the amount of water; stretch lighter sheets when needed to reduce buckling.	Usually not required on watercolor paper.	Normally displayed behind glazing rather than varnished.	—
Air-Dry Clay	Good for transparent decorative effects	Use thoroughly dry clay and test first because porous clay can absorb washes quickly and unevenly.	Usually not needed when absorbency is part of the desired effect; sealing first changes how the wash behaves.	Use a compatible protective finish if the piece will be handled or may encounter moisture.	—
Canvas	Good with watercolor-specific preparation	Start with clean, dry, primed canvas and follow the preparation product's coating and drying directions.	Apply a watercolor ground or multi-surface watercolor preparation.	Protect from moisture and abrasion using a display method suited to watercolor.	—
Wood	Good with watercolor-specific preparation	Use clean, dry, stable wood and smooth rough areas before applying the preparation.	Apply a watercolor ground or multi-surface watercolor preparation.	Protect from moisture and handling using a method compatible with the preparation and paint.	—

Sources: Winsor & Newton watercolor guidance, Winsor & Newton Multi-Surface Preparation, Crayola air-dry clay decorating guidance, and The Met watercolor overview.

Painters who used watercolor paint

Albrecht Dürer layered watercolor with bodycolor and white highlights, while Winslow Homer often left paper visible to carry light in his watercolors.

Albrecht Dürer

The Albertina catalogs The Hare (1502) as watercolor and bodycolor, heightened with white. The sheet records Dürer’s close study of an animal through layered, highly controlled color. Because the catalog separates watercolor from bodycolor, the entry preserves both terms instead of treating the work as transparent watercolor alone.
Winslow Homer

Watercolor appears throughout Homer’s works on paper; in Hudson River, Logging he laid watercolor over graphite on wove paper. His watercolors often leave the sheet visible to carry light and atmosphere, unlike the more fully worked scenes he made in oil.
Paul Klee

Little Hope (1938) combines watercolor with plaster on burlap mounted on cardboard. The Met records the pale washes and textured support separately; plaster is a surface material, not a watercolor binder. Klee also used watercolor in the painted border of Static-Dynamic Gradation (1923), alongside ink and gouache.
Henri Matisse

Woman with an Umbrella at the Seashore (1905) is watercolor over charcoal on paper. The quick color passages describe a coastal figure, but this work is a drawing on paper rather than one of Matisse's oil canvases from his Fauvist period.
Georgia O'Keeffe

The O’Keeffe Museum catalogs Canyon with Crows (1917) as watercolor and graphite on paper, with two flying crows against green and orange. This finished landscape shows watercolor carrying a complete composition, while her later oils use a different surface and handling.
J. M. W. Turner

Watercolor was central to Turner’s studies and finished works on paper. In the Met’s The Lake of Zug, he laid transparent washes over graphite and used scraping to recover light. Tate’s Lake Como likewise documents watercolor on paper, showing the medium across both travel studies and carefully worked views.
Joan Miró

MoMA records watercolor alongside gouache and ink in The Escape Ladder (1940). Fluid washes form a colored ground for drawn signs and figures, allowing the paper and ink marks to remain visible. This documented work on paper shows Miró using transparent color within a tightly integrated mixed-media composition.
Edgar Degas

The Met identifies traces of watercolor and pastel alongside oil colors diluted with turpentine in The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (around 1874). Degas painted over a pen-and-ink drawing on paper later mounted on board and canvas. This is a mixed-media work, not a conventional watercolor on its own.
Marc Chagall

MoMA records A Street Dancer and Gypsies as watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper. The object record establishes both water-based paints without assigning particular passages to one medium. The paper work shows Chagall using transparent and opaque color in a compact design distinct from his oil canvases.
Edward Hopper

In Streetwalker (1906–07), the Art Institute of Chicago records watercolor over graphite. The sheet documents Hopper’s early work on paper, where transparent paint and drawing define the urban subject. This is a different working method from the oil paintings on canvas that later became central to his practice.
Andrew Wyeth

The Met catalogs Up in the Studio as watercolor and tempera on paper. The combination documents watercolor in Wyeth’s works on paper, where he used it alongside another paint rather than as the sole medium. This evidence is distinct from his egg-tempera panels and oil-on-canvas paintings.
Wassily Kandinsky

Paper supported Kandinsky’s watercolors and preparatory studies, including works documented by the Guggenheim. The absorbent sheet carries transparent washes and drawn lines, making these works distinct from the oil paintings on canvas, cardboard, wood, and glass documented in museum collections.
Pablo Picasso

Bathers in a Forest (1908) combines watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper. MoMA also records gouache and watercolor in Sleeping Peasants (1919). These mixed-media studies help document the breadth of Picasso's painting materials without assuming that every water-based paint he used was acrylic.
James Gurney

Gurney’s field practice also includes transparent watercolor studies of landscapes, skies, and changing conditions outdoors. He uses the paper’s light ground and fluid washes to record broad color relationships quickly; this method differs from the opaque coverage of gouache and the matte finish of casein.
Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh's Road in Etten (1881) combines watercolor with chalk, pencil, pastel, and ink underdrawing in a scene of everyday rural work. The Zouave (June 1888) includes watercolor over graphite alongside reed-pen ink and wax crayon. These are documented mixed-media drawings, not watercolors used to paint his better-known oil canvases.
Alphonse Mucha

The Mucha Foundation catalogs a study for The Slav Epic cycle No. 19 in watercolor and gouache on paper. This preparatory work documents watercolor in Mucha’s drawing and study practice, distinct from the egg-tempera canvas used for the finished monumental cycle.
Agnes Martin

MoMA catalogs Untitled (1952) as watercolor and ink on paper. The early sheet pairs transparent washes with drawn lines, documenting a paper-based practice before Martin’s later acrylic grids on canvas. Its catalog record identifies watercolor directly rather than inferring it from thin color.
Jan Toorop

Toorop also used watercolor for works on paper, including Jan Toorop in a Sculptor’s Studio. The sheet records an interior in a more immediate drawing-and-wash format than the oil landscapes. A museum catalog identifies it as watercolor, documenting the medium rather than inferring it from the image.
Francesco Clemente

The Met catalogs Untitled VI as watercolor on paper and Untitled LXXXVI as watercolor over graphite with pastel. These works document Clemente’s watercolor practice on sheets, distinct from the linen paintings made with oil and tempera. The record names drawing materials separately from the paint.
Frank Stella

The Allen Memorial Art Museum records Wolfeboro (1966) as watercolor and pencil on graph paper. Stella used the paper drawing to plan geometric forms; the grid and pencil are drawing materials and should not be confused with the industrial paint surfaces of his canvases.
Pierre Bonnard

The Met records Bonnard’s Le Port de Cannes as watercolor with gouache and graphite on paper. The washes capture the harbor in a compact study, while the drawing remains visible beneath the color. This sheet documents a separate works-on-paper practice from his oils on canvas.
Gustave Moreau

Saint Cecilia is watercolor and gouache over graphite on paper mounted to a wood panel; the catalog identifies both paint media and the drawing beneath them. This layered construction documents watercolor as a distinct medium in Moreau’s works on paper, separate from his oil paintings on wood.
Fernand Léger

MoMA lists watercolor alongside gouache in Study for a Mural (1938). Both water-based media were applied on paper for the small preparatory composition, distinct from the oil paint Léger used for The Village and The Builders. The watercolor study records a separate stage in his planning for large-scale imagery.
Billy Al Bengston

SFMOMA catalogs Bengston’s Venice Watercolor as watercolor on paper. The work documents a water-based medium on a flexible sheet, distinct from the glossy lacquer and enamel paintings on metal, Masonite, and composition board. It represents a separate part of his practice from the industrially finished panels.
Jacob Lawrence

The Met catalogs The Photographer as watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper. Lawrence’s watercolor work belongs to a separate sheet-based practice from the casein-tempera panels of The Migration Series, with drawing and transparent passages sharing the same support. The Met directly names both the medium and support.
Ben Shahn

The Whitney records opaque watercolor in Conversations, combined with brush and ink on paper mounted on board. This catalog entry documents watercolor in a mixed-media work, with the ink drawing separately identified. The specific “opaque watercolor” label is preserved rather than generalized as transparent watercolor.
Mark Tobey

The Seattle Art Museum lists Untitled Calligraphy (1953) as transparent and opaque watercolor on paper mounted on board. The combined media let darker passages show through while denser white strokes assert themselves over underlying forms.
Bridget Riley

Birmingham Museums Trust holds Final Cartoon for Pale Green/Blue Magenta Elongated Triangles (1969–70), which the Contemporary Art Society records as watercolor on paper laid on canvas. The large preparatory cartoon belongs to Riley's developing color studies, distinct from the finished PVA-emulsion Cataract 3 or oil-painted Blue About.
David Hockney

The Huntington catalogs Hockney’s Rainy Morning, Holland Park as watercolor. Hockney also described returning to watercolor while painting from observation in Yorkshire, connecting the medium to on-site landscape work. These examples document watercolor separately from the acrylic and oil paintings in museum collections.
André Derain

In The Hillocks (1921), Derain used watercolor with graphite on paper to describe a landscape through washes and drawn marks. The Met also records watercolor in The Artist in his Studio, combined there with gouache over charcoal. These works document a later works-on-paper practice.
Caspar David Friedrich

In New Moon or Solar Eclipse above the Riesengebirge Mountains, Friedrich combined watercolor with pen and gray ink over graphite. The National Gallery of Art identifies the sheet as watercolor on paper, a layered drawing distinct from his finished oil landscapes.
Charles Demuth

Demuth’s watercolors include Tulips, cataloged with transparent watercolor and graphite on paper. The medium also appears in his earlier figure studies, where it supports rapid observation and tonal modeling. These works on paper are distinct from the rigid composition-board paintings that anchor his later Precisionist practice.
Charles Warren Eaton

Eaton’s Pines is watercolor on paper, according to the Smithsonian. The smaller work records the characteristic tree motif through washes on an absorbent sheet, distinct from his oil landscapes on canvas. Museum records document both media and supports, showing a separate watercolor practice alongside his larger finished paintings.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Met’s Lady Lilith is a watercolor replica of Rossetti’s earlier oil composition. Tate records watercolor in other works on paper, including The Wedding of St George and Princess Sabra. These examples document watercolor as a separate painted practice, not simply a preparatory medium for oil paintings.
Devon Rodriguez

Rodriguez’s Seoul watercolor study uses transparent watercolor on paper, distinct from his slower oil portraits. His studio documentation shows him painting from observation in the city, using washes to record a specific scene and a separate part of his practice.
Dia al-Azzawi

Mathaf identifies watercolor with ink and graphite on paper in Drawings Consecrated to Love (1972). This work documents transparent water-based paint alongside drawing media, distinct from the opaque gouache recorded for other sheets. The object record supports watercolor as a separate paint type in Al-Azzawi’s practice.
Dionne Woods

Woods’s The Garden No. 3 is a watercolor work on paper, using a water-based medium rather than furniture paint. The sheet documents a separate fine-art practice alongside her decorative makeovers and acrylic canvases. The artist’s collection entry names both the medium and support.
Dwight William Tryon

Pasture Lands: Early Spring is watercolor and gouache on wood panel, showing Tryon’s use of water-based paint on a support also associated with his oil landscapes. The Smithsonian identifies both media in the same work, so watercolor should not be described as the only paint.
Édouard Vuillard

The Musée d'Orsay identifies Le Peintre Forain dans son atelier (1927) as watercolor and gouache on paper. Vuillard used the water-based media in a study of the artist's studio, distinct from the oils and decorative distemper used in other works.
Edward Burne-Jones

The National Gallery of Art catalogs Ariadne as watercolor and gouache over graphite. The work documents watercolor on paper in a finished figure study, with graphite as a separate drawing medium. This combination differs from the oil on canvas recorded for Love among the Ruins.
Egon Schiele

Standing Girl Wrapped in Blanket (1911) is watercolor and pencil on paper. In Girl with Black Hair (1911), Schiele combined watercolor with gouache and pencil, letting drawn contours and irregular washes define the figure. These paper works are distinct from his oil-painted panels and canvases.
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

The Posthumous Child is watercolor and gouache on paper. Brickdale combined transparent and opaque water-based paints for a detailed literary image. The collection record documents both media together on a sheet, separate from her oil paintings on canvas.
Elizabeth Siddal

Tate records Lady Clare and Sir Galahad and the Holy Grail as watercolor on paper. The Delaware Art Museum catalogs Madonna and Child with Angel as watercolor and gouache, documenting both paints in a separate work. These records establish watercolor across her narrative subjects and preserve the distinct mixed-media identification.
Elsie Driggs

The National Gallery records Woman Tree as watercolor on wove paper, documenting Driggs’s later work in a more fluid medium. Her watercolors and drawings reveal a different scale and handling from the oil painting Pittsburgh. The collection record identifies both the paint and support for this separate practice.
Erich Heckel

Heckel painted Hirschhorn (1905) in watercolor on paper, describing a town and river in his early Die Brücke period. Bathers on the Beach (1913) also uses watercolor and pencil on paper, placing figures against the Baltic coast.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner’s Street Scene (1914) combines watercolor and ink on paper. The colored areas work with rapid drawn contours to describe pedestrians, rather than building the scene from the thicker oil marks of Street, Berlin. His Self-Portrait with Pipe also incorporates watercolor, documenting the medium across several works on paper.
Eugène Delacroix

Delacroix’s works on paper include transparent watercolor alone, as in The Sea at Dieppe, and mixed sheets such as Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger, where watercolor is combined with gouache and pen and ink. These records document the medium across studies and finished works on paper.
Fernand Khnopff

In White, Black and Gold, Khnopff combined watercolor with pastel and gouache on paper mounted on canvas. The collection record identifies the drawing media alongside the paints, preserving the work’s mixed technique. This paper-based composition is distinct from oil paintings made directly on canvas.
Francis Picabia

Watercolor is documented alongside gouache and pencil in New York (1913). The fluid, overlapping passages differ from the reworked oil surface of The Spring; this work on paper is not an oil painting or a reproduction of Picabia's later mechanical compositions.
François Boucher

In The Fortune Teller, watercolor appears with ink, gray wash, gouache, and a black-chalk underdrawing. The mixed-media sheet documents his use of watercolor in a drawing, distinct from his opaque gouache studies. The collection record identifies each material separately, so the drawing media are not collapsed into one paint type.
František Kupka

An Untitled work from 1928 at MoMA combines watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper. Transparent passages let the drawn composition remain visible beneath colored forms. MoMA also records Kupka’s watercolor studies of rhythmic forms, documenting a continued works-on-paper practice.
Franz Marc

Marc’s St. Julian the Hospitaler (1913) incorporates watercolor alongside gouache and metallic paint on paper. The Guggenheim lists these media together, distinguishing the smaller mixed-media work from his oil-on-canvas paintings. Watercolor is documented here as one component in a specific work, not inferred from the vivid colors of his oils.
Frida Kahlo

NSU Art Museum catalogs Self-Portrait on Diary Page as watercolor, crayon, pencil, and ink on paper. This small work documents a separate medium and support from Kahlo’s oil self-portraits. The paper sheet combines painted and drawn materials, which the collection record identifies individually.
Gabriele Münter

The Lenbachhaus identifies both watercolor and oil on gray paper in Murnauer Landscape with Fruit Branches (around 1909). This small mixed-media work is distinct from her oil canvases and panels, and its watercolor cannot be inferred merely from the looseness or brightness of her brushwork.
George Bellows

MoMA catalogs Under the Elevated as watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper. The sheet documents Bellows’s separate works-on-paper practice, using painted washes alongside drawn contours to depict city life. This medium differs from the oil-on-canvas boxing scenes in his finished paintings.
George Grosz

Punishment (Strafe) (1934) combines transparent and opaque watercolor on paper. The Met identifies watercolor alongside gouache and selectively applied glaze in Dune Country, Cape Cod (1939), a landscape made after Grosz moved to the United States. These paper works show a different material approach from his oil paintings.
George Inness

The Met catalogs Across the Campagna as watercolor and gouache on paper, recording Inness’s water-based studies separately from his oils. The sheet combines transparent watercolor with opaque gouache in a landscape study. This documented medium differs from the oil paint used for finished canvas scenes.
George Luks

The Brook, Nova Scotia records a landscape in watercolor and pencil on paper, combining painted passages with drawn contours. This sheet documents a separate medium from Luks’s oil portraits on canvas. The Met identifies watercolor and pencil individually, distinguishing paint from the drawing material.
Giacomo Balla

Velocità d'automobile (Velocità n. 1) (1913), in the MART collection at Rovereto, combines watercolor with Indian ink on lined paper. The dynamic arcs and strokes develop Balla's automobile imagery through drawing and transparent color rather than an oil-painted panel.
Giorgio de Chirico

A watercolor costume design associated with Le Bal, the Ballets Russes production of 1929. A MoMA exhibition catalogue records Costume for the Woman in the Italian Entrée as pencil, watercolor, and gouache on paper, held by the Wadsworth Atheneum. That painted paper design is distinct from his architectural oils.
Giorgio Morandi

The Met’s exhibition records two late still lifes from 1962 and 1963 as watercolor on paper. Morandi carried his recurring tabletop subjects into a more open, paper-based medium, using delicate washes rather than the dense surface of his oil paintings on canvas. These records document watercolor in his later practice.
Hannah Höch

Study for Man and Machine (1921) combines watercolor and gouache with pencil on paper, documenting transparent and opaque paint media together in one study. The drawing and painted washes develop the image on a flexible sheet, distinct from the cut-and-pasted photo fragments in her photomontages.
Helen Frankenthaler

Great Meadows; Untitled (Landscape) (1951) uses watercolor and acrylic on the front of a sheet of paper and watercolor alone on the reverse. MoMA records both sides, documenting her work with water-based color on paper before the acrylic canvases of the 1960s.
Henri-Edmond Cross

Cross also made watercolor landscapes on paper, including the Met’s Landscape. In these works, he leaves openings between the colored touches so the pale sheet contributes to the scene’s brightness. This smaller, portable medium sits alongside his larger oil landscapes, rather than serving as another name for his canvas technique.
Jackson Pollock

The Met catalogs Pollock’s early Untitled (about 1938–41) as watercolor and gouache on cardboard. The transparent watercolor shares the sheet with opaque passages, documenting a works-on-paper practice before the large poured canvases of his mature period.
James McNeill Whistler

Whistler made compact watercolor studies of coastlines and atmospheric settings. The Art Institute records Coastal Study as watercolor on paper mounted on academy board, showing the sheet and its support as part of the work’s construction. The fluid medium suited this portable, observational format.
Jasper Francis Cropsey

Cropsey made watercolor landscapes and studies on paper, including the Met’s Hackensack Meadows. That sheet also incorporates gouache and graphite, documenting a mixed-media works-on-paper practice separate from his finished oil canvases. Watercolor let him record open skies and marshland in a compact format.
Jasper Johns

In the same thirteen-part Untitled series (2001), watercolor is documented with acrylic and gouache. The water-based passages belong to layered works on paper, not to a conventional oil-on-canvas flag; the printmaking techniques MoMA lists are separate from the painting media.
Jean-François Millet

Millet made watercolor works on paper, combining the medium with graphite, ink, or wash. The Met catalogs A Woman Burning Weeds as watercolor and wash over graphite and Hamlet in a Wheat Field, Vichy as watercolor, ink, and wash. These sheets document a separate drawing-based practice from his oil paintings.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Fragonard also worked in watercolor and wash on paper, as in the Met’s View of a Park, made over pencil. This small landscape study records a different handling from his finished oil paintings: the transparent washes describe trees, paths, and atmosphere while the drawing remains visible.
John Brett

Brett made watercolor studies and landscapes on paper, using transparent washes to record atmosphere, weather, and rapid changes in light. These sheets differ from the highly finished oil landscapes for which he is best known; they document an independent working format rather than sketches presumed from his style.
John Sloan

Sloan also made watercolors, including the Delaware Art Museum’s Landscape, cataloged on paper. This compact sheet-based work extends his urban observation into a looser medium, separate from the finished oils on canvas. The transparent washes preserve the immediacy of a study rather than the dense surface of his street paintings.
Jonathon Marc Mendes

Mendes’s earlier work includes watercolor on paper, a transparent medium distinct from his later furniture finishes. The sheet-based practice uses fluid color and drawn detail, while his current projects apply opaque decorative coatings to furniture and interiors. This row is limited to the documented works on paper.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

In Reflecting Clouds (1936), watercolor on paper, Schmidt-Rottluff reduced the shores and reflections of Lake Łebsko in Pomerania to simplified masses of color bounded by dark lines. The museum describes his rapid watercolor handling and notes that he also painted oils of the lake that summer.
Kurt Schwitters

Schwitters used watercolor in works on paper, including N Watercolor 1 (The Heart Goes from Sugar to Coffee) (1919), cataloged with pencil on paper mounted on board. The compact composition places transparent painted marks beside drawn lines, separate from his oil-and-object assemblages on canvas.
Marie Spartali Stillman

Stillman used watercolor in Love’s Messenger, where the Delaware Art Museum records the medium alongside tempera and gold paint on paper mounted on wood. Transparent washes help form a detailed narrative image, while the rigid backing stabilizes the painted sheet. The record documents watercolor without assigning every passage to it.
Maurice de Vlaminck

In Courtyard in Auvers (around 1920), Vlaminck used watercolor with gouache, brush, pen, and black ink on paper. The water-based paint is documented in this later drawing, rather than being inferred from the intense color of his earlier Fauvist oil paintings.
Max Beckmann

Watercolor appears with gouache in The Feast of the Prodigal Son (around 1918). The translucent and opaque passages sit over drawn ink and pencil lines on parchment; those lines and the parchment support should not be counted as separate paint types.
Oskar Kokoschka

MoMA’s Seated Woman (1921) is watercolor on paper. Its fluid handling places the sitter within a different material practice from Kokoschka’s oil portraits; the museum identifies watercolor alone, without documenting gouache or oil in this work. The sheet preserves the immediacy of his drawn, painted studies.
Otto Dix

Portrait of Violinist Carlo von Rust (1920) is pencil and watercolor on paper. In Rosa (1923), Dix used contrasting red and green watercolors to characterize a theatrical figure. These works document watercolor in his graphic practice, distinct from the oil and tempera panels.
Paul Cézanne

In Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902–06), a watercolor-and-pencil work on paper at MoMA, Cézanne described the mountain with translucent washes, drawn lines, and unpainted areas. These lighter passages depend on the paper showing through rather than on the thick oil layers of his canvases.
Paul Gauguin

After returning to Brittany, Gauguin decorated The Artist's Portfolio, Pont Aven (1894) with watercolor scenes of local life and landscape. The Met identifies watercolor alongside gouache, graphite, and charcoal on heavy gray paper sewn into the leather portfolio; it is a decorated object, not an oil painting.
Paul Ranson

The Musée de Pont-Aven records Ranson’s Study for Christ and Buddha (1890) as pastel with watercolor wash on paper. The transparent wash accompanies pastel in a mixed-media study, documenting watercolor as a works-on-paper medium distinct from the tempera and oil of his finished paintings.
Paul Signac

Signac used watercolor for more direct studies, including Le Pouliguen: Fishing Boats, made with watercolor and black crayon. The transparent washes record the coastal setting in a compact format, contrasting with the segmented, carefully planned handling of his larger oil paintings.
Peter Halley

Halley’s official exhibition archive lists Hand-Painted: Watercolors and Drawings, documenting a separate watercolor practice beyond his fluorescent and metallic acrylic canvases. These works on paper provide a more direct, portable format for color and line than the constructed relief-like surfaces of his paintings.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir's Landscape (1889) is watercolor on laid paper, made during a summer in Aix-en-Provence when he was close to Paul Cézanne. His Young Girl in a Blue Dress (around 1890) also uses watercolor, carefully layered on paper to shape the sitter's face and clothes.
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

In Christian Inspiration (1883–86), the Met records watercolor with gouache and pastel on cream-colored paper. The sheet is a preparatory study for a mural composition, showing Puvis using transparent washes to test the figure arrangement before translating the design to a large canvas.
Piet Mondrian

Before his mature De Stijl abstractions, Mondrian used watercolor for botanical subjects. The Kreeger Museum's Dying Sunflower (1908), watercolor on paper, shows a single bowed bloom. Its freer washes differ from the rigid oil-painted grids of the 1920s.
Raoul Hausmann

Hausmann’s Untitled (Men’s Floor Exercises) (c. 1920) is watercolor and pencil on paper. In his 1918 illustrated book, MoMA separately records watercolor additions to woodcuts, where transparent color was applied after printing. These examples document watercolor without treating the printed matrix as a painted support.
Reginald Marsh

The Met records Marsh’s Locomotive as watercolor and graphite on paper, a compact work suited to his rapid observations of urban transit. The fluid color and visible drawing document a separate sheet-based practice from his tempera panel paintings. The catalog identifies watercolor separately from drawing materials.
Robert Henri

The National Gallery of Art catalogs Dancer in a Red Skirt, No. 2 as watercolor with ink and gouache on paper; the Met also records Central Park as watercolor on paper. These sheets show Henri using fluid color and drawing for both figure and urban subjects.
Rosa Bonheur

Bonheur used watercolor for studies of horses and other animals, including Return from the Horse Fair. The transparent medium let her examine movement and form away from the monumental oil paintings, documenting a compact works-on-paper practice that supported her larger compositions.
Salvador Dalí

Dalí's Study for “Vogue” cover (1944) combines watercolor and gouache with black ink, graphite, and cut-and-pasted paper on board. The watercolor belongs to a layered design made with several materials; the ink, graphite, and collage fragments are not additional kinds of paint.
Simeon Solomon

The Met records Solomon’s Portrait of a Cleric as watercolor and gouache on card. Watercolor provides the transparent base color while retaining the paper support; this compact figure study documents a separate works-on-paper practice from his oil paintings on canvas.
Thomas Eakins

Eakins’s John Biglin in a Single Scull is watercolor on paper. He treated rowing as a subject for finished works on paper as well as large oil paintings, using transparent color and a compact format to study the rower, boat, and water.
Thomas Moran

In Above Tower Falls, Yellowstone, Moran combined watercolor and gouache on paper. Transparent washes carry the atmosphere of the canyon, while opaque passages clarify the waterfall and rock faces. The sheet documents a compact works-on-paper practice alongside his large oil canvases.
Tom Holland

Holland identifies watercolor among materials he uses on clay works. The water-based medium is separate from the epoxy coatings on aluminum and is documented in his sculptural practice; the record does not establish watercolor as a medium for all his paintings.
Tschabalala Self

The ICA’s materials list for Out of Body includes watercolor alongside acrylic and Flashe. The museum records these as separate media in a composition that also incorporates cut and sewn fabric, showing watercolor as one painted element within Self’s layered construction.
RUN

RUN began My Many Hands with a watercolor sketch. The transparent study served as a preparatory image before he enlarged and translated the design onto a public wall, connecting a compact paper drawing to the scale of his mural work.

Watercolor paint articles

Explore PaintZeal guides to watercolor techniques, paper, pigments, and display, with advice on materials and surface preparation for transparent washes.