Beach party at Barricane

After a blissful weekend of hot sun and fun little waves in North Devon, I found an hour to do a little painting. Blissed our and exhausted this one stayed as loose as my arms after a 4 hour surf! 

Original watercolour, 24x31cm for sale £125 

When I'm cleaning windows

I painted this same view almost a year ago and yesterday's sunshine inspired me to tackle it again. I spent a lot more time on the drawing of the dome and windows, and I was rewarded with the window cleaner making an appearance! I mixed cerulean with a bit of ultramarine for the sky and washed that onto a carefully wetted area, I lifted out some clouds with tissue then darkened the bottom of them with ultramarine , red and some Chinese white. 

I built up the dome with several thin glazes of cobalt teal and white trying very hard to not go too dark. The shadow white of the building was a mix of purple and white with varying amounts of water. 

The rest was a case of slapping all the foliage in trying to get a nice loose mix of greens.

Quinacridine Gold was used for the lights and huge bolts in the bridge bits. 

Finally I used some Naples yellow mixed with some of my bridge green to overlay the railings.

Original watercolour, 31x41cm Arches 640gsm £295 framed.

Hammersmith bridge, low tide.

Just loving this Arches 300lb paper, it's invincible! Stunning early morning sun, plenty of time to sketch first? Really enjoyed this one.

Original watercolour £295 31x41cm framed size 45x55cm 

Sunset over Knightstone

Rain clouds and Rowers

I thought I might have a window of rain free painting on this one but it wasn't to be, I sat on the pontoon right on the water surrounded by rowers all enjoying the evening light,  the chap rowing on his own became a perfect focal point, even if only for a second. No sooner had I done a quick under drawing and laid my first washes when the rain came.

Whilst the scene was still fresh in my mind I went home and finished it off...without any photo reference I might add, fresher to use ones memory. Very happy with the balance of simplicity and sharpness of the bridge and the Harrods depository roof.

Original watercolour for sale £125  framed. painting size 24x32cm 

Houseboats by the bridge

After a beautiful sunny warm day I headed straight down to the river after work, looking for a new angle and trying a new approach, I set up and after a long hard think, dived straight into this one with no under drawing...something that is quite exhilarating and nerve wracking at the same time!

I knew that I had to keep all the background as smile as possible, also knew I had to try and "mass" all the boats together into a manageable shape. I'm not sure I was entirely successful in doing this but it was a really good learning exercise. I was most happy with the figures I added on top of the wall on the far left, not so much the figures themselves, they're just little blobs, but I am pleased with my restraint in not adding the wall in and overworking it, to me, they feel like they are sitting on and standing behind a wall. A bit of scalpel scraping was employed on the foreground mud and to add a few highlights to the water. The super heavyweight 300lb /640gsm Arches paper is so beautiful to use and can easily handle this scraping technique. If you try it on thinner paper it can very easily just tear up the surface.

So after a couple of weeks now, I am fairly happy with the "feel" of this piece, lots of mistakes in my mind, but that's all part of the watercolour journey!

Original watercolour for sale £295 framed. 31x41cm painting size. 

Lunchtime by the bridge

The sun was shining and I was itching to get out of the office, I've been meaning to sketch and draw this view for ages now! I spent 30 minutes sketching this and then painted in the studio only from the sketch and my memory. To be honest, I composed the bridge wrong on the paper and was faced with the lower third being empty! Not one to waste a good sheet of paper I put my hands in POV style. Makes it a little different ? 

Original watercolour for sale £200 30 x 40cm framed and mounted.