Chania, Crete, 22" x 15".

I haven't uploaded a beach  scene for a bit, so here is one.  This is the 'Nea Chora' Beach in Chania, the main coastal town in Western Crete.  I changed quite a bit from my reference photo.  I was there on a short trip one October.  The skies were gloomy and overcast.  I decided to change my painting into more of a sunny summer scene.  I warmed up the sky with cobalt blue and a little alizarin crimson.  I used the 'wet in wet' technique for the couple of breaking waves and the distant coast.

Rethymnon, Crete, 15" x 11"

My first attempt at a night time painting.  It's the small bus station in the town of Rethymnon in Northern Crete.  I came to the conclusion that painting a night time scene it's even more important to pick out the colours even in pitch black areas.  It would have been easy to reach for the map black and plaster that all over the place.  Instead I used neutral tint for the sky together with Ultramarine Blue.  I think next time I would make the sky lighter at the bottom, to give the impression of distant urban lighting.

My next live, online watercolour demo will be on Thursday July 9th at 7pm GMT (UK Time).  The subject will be a street scene - old buildings, cars and people.

All you will need is a good/reliable internet connection, and a headphone or PC speakers to hear my audio commentary (Conference call phone numbers will also be provided).  If you want to, you'll be able to ask plenty of questions.  It's FREE by the way!

The demo might be an hour to an hour and a half in duration (depends how many questions/comments I get!).

You need to register to attend (please do this as soon as possible and not on the day)...

My subject will likely be this street scene (a town in France).  I will introduce some people somewhere!

Chipping Sodbury, England, 22" x 11"

A view up the High Street in Chipping Sodbury (it is famous for being the second widest high street in the UK - well I did a bit of artistic licence by making it a bit narrower to help the composition).  A fairly loose painting, especially with the treatment of the buildings and skyline.  Plenty of dry brush strokes with a synthetic brush for lamp posts, legs of people and tyre marks up the road.

Tavira, Portugal, 22" x 11"

A demo painting based on a smaller picture of the same area.  Completed in approximately two hours, first stage was the sky wash, then a light wash for the buildings and road surface.  While the road surface was still damp (maybe about two minutes after I painted the wash) I splattered in some clear water with a medium synthetic brush (I find if you use a mop brush for splattering you get a more random pattern than with a synthetic, where it ends up being more linear).  Second stage were the shadows, painting around the figure on the left.  Last were the figures themselves and window details on the right.

Faro, Portugal, 15" x 11"

A dusty 'back road' to Faro Railway Station.  Initial wash started with the sky, and all over the bottom two thirds of the paper with weak yellow ochre, burnt sienna and cobalt blue.  A medium size mop brush was used for the darker shadows on the left and some darker dry brush strokes for the left hand fence.  The railway station is actually the middle building with the red roof.  I think the way the shadows across the middle connect many objects works quite well.

Albufeira, Portugal, 15" x 11"

Now and again I do a painting that quite frankly I'm not happy with.  On this blog however, I post every painting, no matter what I think of the quality, mainly to serve as a record and let me do a mental debrief on what went wrong.  Well this one was rushed, and two big errors - 1) overworking the right hand shadows and dabbing with a paper towel when the paint was either too think or two dry.  And 2) those figures are a bit 'clunky'.

Dartmouth, England, 15" x 11".

The 'inner harbour' at Dartmouth at low tide.  Probably the trickiest stage was the sea wash - getting it deeper in tone towards the foreground and at the same time having to paint around those small boats.  The background buildings have lots of architectural details and decorative timber work, so they were simplified as were the background boats in the shadows.  While the background buildings were still damp, a bit of clear water was dropped in to add a bit of interest.

Faro, Portugal, 15" x 11".

The corner of 'O Seu Cafe' in central Faro, Portugal.  The road surface here are 'polished' cobble stones - impossible to paint every individual stone in a loose style, so instead I plump for a very light area up against very dark areas, smudging out patches with a dry paper towel to add a bit of interest to the surface.  The left hand side of the painting was left deliberately vague with that white van almost disappearing into the shadows.

Wickwar, England, 15" x 11".

The main street running through Wickwar, a village close to where I live.  Based on my last picture, I've chosen another stormy day.  The whole sky area was made damp first with clear water.  After leaving ot to dry a little, I painted in some dark clouds leaving some lighter areas.  Then a very simple rendering of the buildings left and right.  The cars had a neutral medium tone wash then a bit of "wet in wet" with their darker shadows.