Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Quai des Belges, Marseilles

Marseille, France, 15" x 11".

The 'Quai des Belges' Marseille in the Old Port area - a very busy part of the city and where the fish market is.  The first wash was light cerulean blue for the sky, yellow ochre in the middle and alizarin crimson at the bottom.  Then I painted the Hotel in the middle and the buildings in the distance on the right.  Then the left hand shaded area, people and cars were almost done in one process, dropping in darks while the paint was still damp.  Darks were done with neutral tint with ultramarine blue.  The globe street lights needed a careful bit of painting around.

 

Winter Trees, Brook Street, Chipping Sodbury

Chipping Sodbury, England, 15" x 11".

A very faint rendering of the background, you can almost see the main church tower, and then very loose painting of the foreground trees.  The main part of the trees were painted with a small mop brush, and a 'sword' brush was used for the branches.  When the paint was still damp I used a small penknife to make some scrape marks indicating lighter branches.  Timing here is important doing that and also not to overdo it to avoid damaging the paper surface.

 

Yachts at Low Tide, Watermouth Bay, Devon

Watermouth Bay, England, 22" x 15".

Another exercise for me in painting boats.  I try to have a balance over painting subjects (sorry, I don't do bunches of flowers, portraits or pet pictures), landscapes, town scenes, cars, people and maritime scenes.  It was quite fun painting around all those puddles and changing the colour as I came down to the foreground with a lot of green seaweed in the middle and then bare reddish sandstone.  Man and dog were not painted around, and was the last thing I did with thickish paint for his overalls.

 

Bartley Water Southampton

Southampton, England, 15" x 11".

Low tide at Bartley Water, an estuary leading into the Solent.  This was a drizzly winter's day - very gloomy and everything 'grey'.  So slightly out of my 'comfort zone' here not being able to do any darks.  There were two wet in west phases - the background and the reflections.  I actually did the reflections first, then painted in the background trees to match them.  A bit easier that way when your paper is at an angle and you don't know how far the reflections will travel.

 

Quai Mistral Frederic, St Tropez

St Tropez, France, 15" x 11".

A street just up from the quayside, Quai Mistral Frederic, in St Tropez.  It was a cloudy overcast day so I made up the shadows (apologies to any local people if they see this and maybe the light is in the incorrect place).  I think the contrast of the terracotta building and the cool shadows in the foreground worked well, and the figures plus bollards joining the foreground with the background.

 

Street Banner, Mudanya, Turkey

Mudanya, Turkey, 15" x 11".

So it makes a change having a banner across the street rather than telecoms cables - well it's a telecom's banner.  This is Marmara coastal town of Mudanya, Turkey.  My reference photo was taken on an overcast day, but I tried to introduce some light on the car tops.  Also a bit of bright red - a patch on each side.  In fact the first wash had a lot of alizarin crimson on the left side.

 

Winter Sun in Dartmouth Devon

Dartmouth Devon, 15" x 11".

Some low winter sun in the Devon town of Dartmouth.  A simple composition with the left and right buildings.  I created the highest area of contrast above the car tops against that dark tree.  Very often this is what I try to decide before painting - where is the lightest area?  Where is the darkest area?  Sometime, not always, I'm able to get the two together for maximum effect.  The smoke effect in the background was done with pure white pigment 'rubbed' into a moist surface.

 

Antalya, Turkey, road above the harbour

Antalya, Turkey, 15" x 11"

A road high up above the harbour in the Turkish city of Antalya.  Plenty of 'negative' figures here to see if it works - light figure against dark shadows and vice versa.  Middle building almost blends into the background sky with that lower wash of weak yellow ochre.  Palm trees were done with a small brush and thick pigment flicked from the crown of the tree outwards.

 

Recording of Tim Wilmot's last live watercolour demo from 9th July 2015 - French Town Scene

Did you miss my last live, online presentation last week?  No problem, watch it here.  It's up on my YouTube channel also.

I will notify soon my next live demo.

 

 

Wadebridge - Cornwall: A painting of two halves?

Wadebridge, England, 15" x 11".

Wadebridge in Cornwall, England.  Perhaps a tricky composition with the road sign and tree almost splitting the picture making two separate elements.  So I thought maybe the shadow from the tree will help connect the two halves.  The road signs were the last things I did on this painting - I had painted around them, then at the end just put in a light wash of whatever was left in my palette.  White writing on the sign was done with white gouache.