Harlech Castle across the Traeth Mawr. Artist: John Varley (British, London 1778-1842 London). Dimensions: sheet: 5 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (14 x 23.5 cm). Date: 1800-1842.As a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Varley promoted the medium's range and capabilities at the organization's annual London exhibitions, while simultaneously influencing a generation of young artists as a teacher. In this scene of the Welsh coast at low tide, he uses broad, flat washes to delineate sand, water, and sky. Varley and John Cotman had developed this technique together as members of an informal sketching society beginning in 1802, and the motif of a clouded sky opening to reveal a patch of distant blue appears frequently in Varley's watercolors made between 1805 and 1810. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.