Porthleven, Cornwall, 15" x 11".

A loose style painting of Porthleven Harbour in Cornwall.  Painting against the light reduces small boats to simple shapes.  When painting boats in a row, I look for the shape of them altogether as a whole, especially those at the back, in deep contrast with the dark harbour wall.  The background buildings to are simple shapes and it's easier to not think or draw them as separate buildings all joined up.  Also, I used very few colours here, mainly ultramarine blue.

Quarteira, Portugal, 15" x 11".

A town on the Algarve coast, and not a touristic sort of place but more for the locals.  The scene is a residential area.  I can't remember exactly how I found myself in this spot, but I thought my reference photo would make a good watercolour subject and I decided to add a few cars and a couple of figures to the composition.  Some people have asked me about me leaving in the pencil marks from my outline drawing.  I use a think 2B or 3B pencil and those lines still show.  I personally don't mind them and they add something to the painting.  I very rarely rub them out where I've left paper.  Also on this painting I've not used so much white gouache for highlights - you can overdo it sometimes.

Cambrils, Spain, 15" x 11".

Cambrils is a coastal town in Catalonia, Spain, and my subject here is the fish market with boats being unloaded with their catch.  Quite a loose painting with a very quick and simple treatment of the harbour wall background and some careful painting around the tops of the figures.  Also the foreground shadows have had some clear water dropped in while the wash was still quite damp and with the paper on a slope, bleeds were allowed to travel down the paper.  As regards the composition, i have tried to balance out all the figures and maybe that guy on the right could have been a bit bigger.

Chipping Sodbury, England, 15" x 11".

My 3rd painting I think of the iconic Clock Tower in the middle of my local town Chipping Sodbury.  A lot looser in style then the previous 2 and I am thinking how looser could I make it.  I wouldn't think of going so loose you couldn't recognise the focal point in the picture - the Tower.  Even with this loose approach, I could not resist in adding little shadows to the 'accidental' white patches on the road to indicate small stones or litter!

Montpon, France, 15" x 11".

Another shot at the centre of this town on South West France.  I think the building in the middle is an employment office - looks more like a Hotel or the Marie's office to me.  Key points to this painting - 1) sky quickly done with some random spots of clear water then dropping in some clouds and finally some cerulean blue for bits of sky.  Then 2) carefully painting around the street lights and tops of cars to fill them in at a later stage.  The balls of the street lights were done with a bit of white gouache mixed up with some paint in the palette to give it that light grey colour.

Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura, 15" x 11".

A little cafe on a street corner in the town of Puerto del Rosario.  For me the attraction of the subject were the diagonal shadows and their repetition across the scene.  Also the contrast of the warmth of the pink coloured walls with the coolness of the shadows in the background.  And also I think about contrast - trying to get together light and dark - e.g. the buildings, the figures and the cafe blinds.

Tavira, Portugal, 15" x 11".

A backstreet in Tavira, a coastal town in the eastern Algarve area.  What makes the composition for me are the road signs and their shadows, plus the balance of the two figures.  Those figures are the focal point and have deep contrast with the dark shadows behind them.  I am still painting on old T H Saunders paper which has quite a yellow tint to it, so sometimes difficult to get some bright whites but ideal for this scene where yes there are whites of the building walls but they are tainted with other colours and inherit tones from around them.

I'm often asked what palette/paint I use.  Well mainly they are from a UK manufacturer called Winsor and Newton (although I think they are actually made in France now).  The colours mainly used are...

Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Red
Light Red
Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Cobalt Blue
Cobalt Turquoise
Viridian Green
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Neutral Tint (for getting those darks)

Quite a common mix of these to get darks for example is Ultramarine Blue, a bit of Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber and a tiny bit of Alizarin Crimson.

A good green (for grass or trees is made up of Cobalt Turquoise and Yellow Ochre).

Saint Saud Lacoussiere, France, 15" x 11".

A second attempt at painting this village in the South West of France, and the main road junction.  The main technique I have used here is when painting the building walls, I am adding in additional colours as the wash is till moist.  It then gives hopefully a more realistic appearance of unpainted walls and a bit more 'shabby chic'.  I added a couple if figures on the right hand side to balance up the composition.  One thing that could have been change is maybe have the post of the road sign not be aligned with the side of the house - perhaps it could have been moved slightly to the left and have a some daylight behind it.

St Tropez, France, 15" x 11"

A scene I have done a few times before and this time I am playing around with mainly two things - 1) the cool sky against the warm buildings - lots of nice warm reds and a bit of cadmium orange thrown in, and 2) the reflections.  The reflections here were a little more complex compared to my previous efforts with more boats plus several different tones and had to be attempted in one go.  The boat reflections were done first followed by the darker building reflections.