James Watterston Herald painted predominantly in watercolour, working in a very ‘wet’ manner to create atmospheric blots and puddles, within his evocative depictions of rainy city streets, urban parks at dusk, local harbours full masts and the idiosyncratic architecture of the local towns.
His innovation was to depict his subject by painting only the light, in its manifold hues, using fluid and suggestive strokes of watercolour or pastel. This effect was often achieved by working on a black,
grey or brown ground, which allowed his coloured highlights to sing.
Herald was largely self-taught, which does something to explain the originality of his technique. It is also evident that throughout his life he was content to follow his own path with little heed to convention or popular artistic trends. Yet his talent spoke for itself, and he was hailed by his contemporaries as a rival to Melville as a watercolourist, and to Whistler as a pastel artist.
Once he had established his distinct technique and approach, Watterston Herald consistently produced good quality work throughout his career. He had briefly lived and worked in Croydon in the 1890s and at that point achieved recognition and some success in selling his work, yet in 1901 he returned to Arbroath. He was thus surrounded by his inspiration, and worked well and prolifically, but such distance from urban artistic centres meant he struggled to achieve further success. His removal from the London art scene likely prevented his reputation from flourishing in the manner it might otherwise have during his lifetime.
It seems he looked on this with regret, with his brother writing to a friend after his death,
‘he confessed to me a few days before the close that he had made a “mess” of it,’ and that ultimately he died ‘as simply as he had lived.’
In the hundred years since his death, his talent has been re-evaluated and recognised, as collectors have enjoyed discovering their subtle beauty, considerable technique and evocative spirit.