Larger than life,inspiring and inspired, Edward Wesson is considered one of Britain’s most outstanding 20th century watercolourists.

This celebration of his life and work by beSt.selling author Ron Ranson, brings togetheroVer 120 of his exceptional paintings - including watercolours, line and wash, and oils.

During the years that I have been writing painting instruction books, and later books about other artists and their methods, one name has cropped up over and over again. Everyone, including my publishers, wanted to know, ’When are you going to do a book on Edward Wesson?’ Now, no one is a bigger fan of his than I am, but what made me hesitate was not the writing, but the thought of having to scour the country trying to find his work in hundreds of homes, and then to photograph it on their walls, through glass, to a very high standard.

After a lot of thought, I decided to put a very small three-line ad in the personal column of the Leisure Painter to the effect that I was contemplating writing a book on Edward Wesson and would like to hear from owners of his paintings willing to help. I expected half a dozen replies, but was deluged with letters which continued to arrive for months afterwards. I honestly can’t think of any other artist, living or dead, who could create such downright affection. He was not a remote figure whom people admired from afar. Once you’d met him, you regarded him as a friend. Personally, I don’t think of him as Edward Wesson, RI, but as Ted, and that’s what I intend to call him in the rest of this book, not disrespectfully, but with my own ’downright affection’.

The Mooring 2(frontispiece)

Introduction

THE PAINTINGS:

St Ives,.Huntingdon

Winter Feed in Wylye Valley

Norfolk, Wells-Next-The-Sea

Cricket at Taunton

Thames at Tower Bridge

Skye

Snow on the River

Near Lochinver

Blackwater Foot, Arran

River Shin

Chrysanthemums

East Coast Beach

Brancaster S taithe

Shadows on a Snowy Bank

St Mary’s, Bristol

Guildford Cathedral from Merrow Downs

Heybridge Basin

Flower Study

Corfe Castle

Rochester, Kent

Scene at Potter Heigham

Rough Sea off Arran

Uppingham, The Post Office

Clifton Bridge, Bristol

Quiberon

Guildford Cathedral from the Row Barge

Autumn Lock

High and Dry

Road to Holt, Norfolk

Roses

Misty Morning

Silverdale, Lancs

Misty Morning on the River

North Wales

Norfolk Landscape

Blown Roses

Albury Heath

Friday Street, Surrey

Yarmouth Harbour, Isle of Wight

Snow on Merrow Downs

Constantine Bay, near Newquay

Ely

Blythborough Church, Suffolk

S nowdonia from Port Madoc

Maldon, Essex

Mont St Michel

Winter Trees, near Oving

The Doulton Vase

Waxham Beach

Wherry at West Somerton

Ben Nevis

Barford St Martin

Venice from Gondola Station

Skye

Sunny Lane near Evershot

Walberswick

Near Evershot, Dorset

Chapel, Eton College

Blakeney Church from Morston Quay

Eton College

On the Wey, near Guildford

Sea Palling, Waxham

Brancaster Staithe

Severn Bridge

Stoke Mill

Winter in the Garden

Thames Mooring

Potter Heigham

Cumbrian Fortified Farm

Pembrokeshire Coast near Fishguard

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

Beach Scene in Essex

Polperro

Looking towards Yarmouth from Causeway at Freshwater

Winter

Norfolk Windmill

Chichester Canal

Winter Sport at Newland Corner

Autumn Bunch

St Aubins, Jersey

Horsey Mill, Norfolk

White Sands of Morar

Winter Willows at Peasmarsh

River Arun, near Blackrabbit

Portland Bill

Sidlesham Quay

North Downs, Newlands Corner

Kyle of Tongue, Ben Loyal

St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall

Portland from Osmington

Incoming Tide, Freshwater

Farmyard behind Yarmouth, Isle of Wight

Brownsea Island

Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale

Chichester Cathedral

Roses

MaUaig, Skye Ferry

Still Life

Wylye Valley in Snow

Whitworth, Devon

Shere, Surrey

Quinag

Preparing for Dinghy Race

Looking towards Wylye

Winter Puddles

Snowdonia from Port Madoc

Walberswick from Southwold

New Forest

The Lane in Summer

Still Life with Prawns

On the Mole, near Woking

Index