Landscape Watercolour of Yate, 22" x 15"
A location close to me and a nice green space in the town, popular with dog walkers. I thought the composition looked okay with the sweeping road, the cottage on the corner, and some bright light hitting the roofs and road. Somehow my eye keeps going to the litter bin. A little bit of red was dragged across the grass to dull it down a bit.
Painted on Saunders Waterford paper 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11"
A windy day on the sea-front promenade of Arrecife, Lanzarote. Well it's windy there quite alot during the winter months with storms coming off the Atlantic. Normally I do skies in one pass, but this one had an initial wash and a bit of cobalt turquoise, then allowed to dry a bit, followed by some darker patches. Bendy tall palm trees add to the effect of the win and of course you can have all the long leaves going one way.
Painted on Saunders Waterford paper, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Costa Brava, 15" x 11".
Another view of the main beach road in Tossa de Mar, Costa Brava, with the restaurants on the right, old town in front and the beach on the left. I think a useful trick now and again to aid the composition is some dark foliage in the foreground corners, emphasised by the near shadows.
Painted on Saunders Waterford paper, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Yate, 15" x 11".
A church very local to me with the village hall next to it. The shadow across the foreground was 'invented'. I could have left just the lawns and road alone, but I think it needed a bit of extra interest. I'm going to attempt this scene again on double size paper and change a few things around, like I think the dead end sign needs to be on the other side of the road and contrasting more with a dark background.
Saunders Waterford Paper, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Madrid, 22" x 15".
Calle Major again on a larger size paper and I made a feature of the large concrete balls here (they were painted around and then dampened and a darker wash dropped in) used in place of bollards. I went quite dark on the buildings in the background, maybe a touch too dark and perhaps the trees could have had a few highlights just to make them sparkle in the sun a bit.
Landscape Watercolour of Costa Brava, 15" x 11".
The old part of Tossa de Mar looking down on the newer part of town and the sandy beach in front. I think this made a slightly better composition than my previous Tossa sketches, doing away with the boats and having the light coming from the side rather than painting into the light. Some of the buildings in the foreground were actually quite light and I darkened them up a bit to make a bigger contrast with the figures.
Landscape Watercolour of Bath, 15" x 22".
The largest portrait orientation painting I have done to date, and the subject was the sunlit building at the end of the Pulteney Bridge in Bath. I tried to break up the colour of the stonework, while wet, with bits of different pigment. The base wash was mainly Yellow Ochre. The focal point was I suppose the light parasol on the platform above the river. Then I went quite dark on the shadows and reflections. Darks were a high proportion of Paynes Grey with a touch of Ultramarine or Alizarin Crimson.
Landscape Watercolour of Madrid, 15" x 11".
A Churros Shop (a Spanish Donut) on the Calle Major, a fairly major road in central Madrid. The sketch was a good opportunity to paint in a more loose style with the understated architectural details and dry brush strokes hinting at columns, window frames and pillars. I think the cool sky and the warm background building worked quite well.
Landscape Watercolour of Tossa de Mar, 15" x 11".
Landscape Watercolour of Tossa de Mar, 22" x 15".
A practice again in taking a subject and trying out at quarter size then doubling up to half size paper. The canopy of the cafe had quite a shiny, metallic coating inside to it so hopefully that came through with it's reflective quality. The waiter in the second picture has probably had to much to drink based on him leaning into his walk - well it might give him a bit of movement! There's just a hint of the beach on the other side of the cafe.
Landscape Watercolour of Weston Super Mare, 15" x 11".
Back to my normal qtr size paper and a scene in Weston Super Mare, looking down a pedestrian precinct towards the pier. I took the liberty of introducing the shop blinds on the other side of the street and a little bit of shadow cast across them.