The home of Sculptural Watercolour®

is now at Art and Publishing : website
Many links will now take you there automatically.

Welcome to our five permanent on-line exhibitions of paintings that we hope will allow you to appreciate the depth and breadth of Prue Bishop's Sculptural Watercolours. 80 paintings are on display for your interest and consideration.

Whilst some Sculptural Watercolour® paintings are reserved for exhibition, such as the Global Warming series, others are now available for sale. High quality digital and printed images too, of all Sculptural Watercolour® paintings are now being made available for you to download or take delivery by post from Art and Publishing Ltd

As Prue Bishop approaches her 8th decade, she is pleased that full responsibility for her artwork and research data is now with Art and Publishing Ltd.

 

To make a complete tour, please tap or click on the 'NEXT' arrow near the bottom of each page.

Global Warming Exhibition

The pandemic of 2020/2021 confined Prue Bishop to her home, from where she began producing for us a series of very special Sculptural Watercolour® paintings that draw attention to the greatest threat to all life on our planet: Global Warming - that if unchecked will bring on a catastrophic Change in Climate that could prove impossible for life to survive.

She travelled virtually to Greenland, The Arctic and The Antarctic by sifting through the vast body of reports and photographic material written, supported and sponsored by such as The Scott Polar Research Institute and NASA.

Once free to travel again, she re-visited several Alpine Glaciers that she had known decades earlier. For instance, on visiting the famous Mer de Glace - above Chamonix in France - she was absolutely shocked to find herself at the level where she had stood on the ice as recently as 2001, but now observe an absolutely vast valley below her now devoid of ice. "Although I had read about the problem, to experience it is something else. I'm beyond simply shocked. I'm devastated. Words fail me. I'll attempt to communicate this extremely worrying development through art"

With so many military conflicts and seriously-worrying political changes, it is vital that we all keep a focus on coping with the dramatic and deadly effects of Climate Change that pose ever-increasing threats to all life on our planet. We must do everything we can to halt global warming, above all by nagging politicians to pressurise countries to take big urgent remedial steps right now.

In June 2024 she completed the final Sculptural Watercolour for her Global Warming series, and a booklet has been printed that includes her selected Sculptural Watercolours and their special sources of concern.

You will be both fascinated and pleased to hear that an early draft copy somehow reached Sir David Attenborough. To Prue Bishop's great pleasure and surprise, he kindly took the trouble to hand-write her a private letter of support. We mention this here to highlight what a remarkable gentleman he is. Others too have been equally supportive.

January 2025 was projected to be a relatively cold month for the planet. Instead, it has turned out to have had a record 1.75 degrees C above the pre-industrial times. Our planet's climate is of course complex, with predictive calculations well beyond the understanding of almost all we human inhabitants, so, please take away just one factor of overwhelming importance: the rise in sea temperatures everywhere. This is because we cannot reverse this rise, and the consequences will be ever-more dire. Maybe you think this is a hoax by aliens; if so, please seek help in a mental institution.

Volcano Exhibition

The artist's study of eruptions from volcanos and the associated lava flows in 2007 resulted in some remarkable Sculptural Watercolour® paintings that above all included successful experimentation to arrive at the needed intensity of the colours. Just this point alone makes these works unique.

But added to this is the extraordinary handling of water, pigment and paper to arrive at effects previously unknown to watercolourists.

Mediterranean Exhibition

The multitude of blues of the Mediterranean Sea and the special sandy colours of the shoreline captured in this series of impressions will be recognised and even felt by those familiar with this region.

Chartreuse Exhibition

The Chartreuse is known for a particular shade of green. But on visiting this region one is struck by the extraordinary range of greens - which are captured in this group of paintings - conveying to us that special sense of 'place' that can only be achieved by the artist being on the ground in this special environment on multiple occasions.

 

Alps Exhibition

This large exhibition of Sculptural Watercolour® landscapes of Alpine locations is the result of four decades of journeys through the Swiss Cantons, France (Savoy and Grenoble) Italy (Aosta and Piedmont) and beyond.

In the autumn / fall of 2021 and in Spring 2022 the artist was once again studying Alpine glaciers and landscapes. For instance, she is appalled to see that the famous Chamonix Mer de Glace is now largely stone-rubble rather than the wonderfully-impressive ice-field she once knew and walked on. In 2024 she observed even more deterioration, with beautiful landscapes that she recalled from decades ago, now ugly scenes of grey rubble.

Turner Research

2025 sees J M W Turner's 250th birthday

In the process of studying locations for her Sculptural Watercolour® paintings, Prue Bishop has recognised the subjects of many JMW Turner works for the first time. To this task too, she has brought her impressive thoroughness, studying at first hand around 2000 of his sketches and watercolours from the Turner Bequest that this foremost of European artists left to the public.

Her research papers bring an artist's insight into what is normally the preserve of the art historian. She and her several volunteer helpers have collected a vast body of information over the past decade centred on Switzerland and the surrounding territories. The work of reviewing, distilling and writing continues.

Her family origins in and fondness for Northumberland's Norham bring an additional personal dimension to her studies, writings and opinions.

This work has become of considerable academic importance, as it reveals a previously largely ignored side to Turner's tours of Continental Europe - staying in the topmost hotels; preferably those with spa facilities, and taking advantage of every travel advance of the Industrial Revolution, as it unfolded. The truly modern man, then. But this factually-based situation is seriously at odds with much of the hand-me-down so-called research by decades of so-called historians. As one leading figure in the Louvre remarked to Prue Bishop, having noted the summary-assessment of Turner made at a UK-originated exhibition, "We would never run down one of Europe's most important artists like this; it's shocking".

The recent trend is to try to link Turner with certain of today's artists. This was a visible disaster at a recent Turner exhibition in Monte Carlo, where the public crowded to see the Turner exhibits, and ignored the specially-promoted modern stuff, and ducked quickly through the horrible flashihg lights. And so this trend continues into 2025; oh dear! Curators need to appreciate that Turner stands on his own feet !! - and visitors want to see HIS work, and not be distracted by attempts to try to relate his genius to modern 'less-than-geniuses'.

In view of the importance of this research, we have moved it to a new site, where certain curatorial readers will be pleased to see that we have reverted to our usual factual/diplomatic writing.

About the Artist

In this section we define Sculptural Watercolour® and mention some aspects of the artist's background and experiences. Certain technical points are also explained.

A more formal summary of the artist's Life and Achievements has been added, in reponse to those wishing to know more of her background.

 

To take a full tour, press the 'NEXT' arrow on each page :-

 

NOTICES

This is now a commercial website owned by Art and Publishing GmbH of Switzerland

Archived by The Internet Archive in the USA and Canada, and The British Library in the United Kingdom.

February 11th, 2025