A watercolor wash provides a kind of mercurial background for every picture.

Mr. Fowler's oil paintings, done in Florida, of waves and clouds, suggest watercolor washes.

But a watercolor wash of green tinged the brown earth of a sloping meadow and brushed the tips of shrubs nearby.

For instance, I would mix a puddle of acrylic paint flesh color and put that down as a watercolor wash.

Beyond that was just bluegreen watercolor wash.

Done with ink, watercolor wash, charcoal and some collaging, these are by no means finished drawings.

The copyright page identifies the mix as "vinyl engravings, watercolor washes and printed wood textures."

A watercolor wash of summer light lay on the Catalina Mountains.

A pen and ink drawing with a watercolor wash of "Mary Magdalen at the Sepulchre."

Once the elements began to coalesce into a composition, they were bathed in watercolor wash and transferred to a larger format.