Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
Tinajo, a picturesque small town in central Lanzarote and an area with a long straight road running through it. Probably a good practice in perspective, but I quite like myself the rendering of the car in the shadows on the left and a little bit of reflection on the roof.
Landscape Watercolour of Brixham, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
The harbour, looking towards Brixham town and one of the old restored double masted sailing boats which take part in the annual festivals here in Devon. I suppose the composition is fairly simple. An initial wash went over the top half of the picture, then the lower half, getting darker towards the bottom. While the sea wash was moist, thicker, darker pigment was dragged over to form the waves and foreground interest. When the top half was dry, I continued with the background town buildings, again kept simple and just indicating some roof tops and lighter patches. Last stage was the boats, boat reflections and then the masts.
Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
Playa Honda is situated right next to Lanzarote's Airport, but it's actually quite a quiet place. Along the sea front runs a winding promenade and an unspoilt mainly sandy beach. Half way along is a small group of what I guess are fairly old local buildings right on the beach and some weathered boats tethered to the railings.
Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
A 'sleepy' little town in Northern Lanzarote, slightly off the beaten track. The building on the right I think was a children's nursery with lots of paraphernalia out front in the playground, but I decided to simplify the scene and remove all that detail. I had to include the obligatory Canary Island Date Palm and Dragon Tree for authenticity of the location.
Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
Brook Street in Chipping Sodbury, a small market town in South Gloucestershire. Not really a street but more of a lane in probably one of the prettiest parts of Chipping Sodbury and being situated back from the High Street, rarely visited except by the locals.
Landscape Watercolour of Faro, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
The high perimeter of walls of the Old Citidel casting their late afternoon shadows over the rest of the Old Town part of Faro. The whole sketch was done quite quickly and the shadows going in at the same time. I was pleased with the guy on the right side left understated and sort of merging into the darkness.
Landscape Watercolour of Bristol, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
A subject closer to my home and the Bristol waterfront area. This was once about 30 years ago, more like an inner city dockland area - somewhere you would definitely avoid at night. Now it's been very well developed with waterfront apartment blocks and many bars and restaurants, popular at nights and weekends. This painting was based on a photo taken after the annual harbour festival when the whole area takes on the feel of a marina with all different sizes of boats and yachts. I suppose the main challenge of the subject was to simplify it with the many lines and background detail that was there.
Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
A slight change on this one as regards the direction of the light - the scene of some tourist shops in the Old Town part of Puerto del Carmen with the light behind me rather than coming towards me. So it's a bit more difficult to get areas of contrast unless you introduce a bit of dark shadow and in my case some brightly coloured swimming rings outside the shop.
Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
The reflections in the first floor windows of this modernish shopping centre along the coastal road in Puerto del Carmen I think made for an interesting subject and just a hint of a palm tree reflection on the left side. Just a few brush strokes for the line of trees on the right and dry brush strokes for the palm tree leaves are an easy effect to achieve.
Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs
The lovely old buildings and entrance of the Ridgewood Communty Centre in Chipping Sodbury near to where I live. A hundred and fifty years ago this was a poor people's workhouse typical of Victorian times, but now it's a centre for the community, dancing, arts and crafts.