Bath UK, both 15" x 11"
Two paintings from separate sessions of my January watercolour workshop. Almost like a spot the difference competition, taking the same scene and a demo to two separate audiences. I like the dotted white lines rather than the yellow they are in reality. An example of changing what you see to suit your composition and not copy exactly what's in a photo.
Both painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms
Winterbourne, UK, 22" x 15"
My first demo painting to Frome Valley Art Group. With a common 2-hour slot for a demo, I complete at least one painting, maybe two depending on complexity and subject. As per other demos to art groups, I ask for a few photos of local scenes. This one was the old Wheatsheaf Inn, now an Indian Restaurant (hence the elephant on the pillar!). An exercise in just taking an ordinary scene that most people might not consider for a painting and introducing some figures and so on.
Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms.
Newquay Harbour, UK, 15" x 11"
One of my demo paintings from my January Workshop held in Bristol, UK. So this was an exercise in painting boats and reflections. Other things tackled in this demo: Simplification of the background (the source photo has lots of different types of buildings from the top to the bottom of the hill), and a graded wash. Also we discussed composition with the winding path in the background and the balance of the figures at the side and the 3 boats.
Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms
Bristol, UK, 15" x 22"
A recent demo to Clifton Art Society. As I normally do on demos to Art Groups, I either ask for photos of a local subject or allow attendees to vote on a scene with some choices given by me. Well this was a sample photo provided by the society and I went through other photos and explained why in my opinion they were either suitable or not suitable for watercolour. Hopefully a nice evening had by all.
Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press 300 gms. And I have free samples of Saunders Waterford paper to give out to all attendees!
Watercolour 15" x 11"
Another rural scene leading on from my last posting. I am trying to perfect the look of tall pine trees. They seem to loose their lower branches, save for a few stubs, and then gain more of a lollipop look about them. Here the forest is mixed in with some deciduous species and the foreground is winter grass. Good to do a bit of scraping to get the grassy look, which I don't normally do.
Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press Paper, 300 gms.
Watercolour, 15" x 11"
I am trying to do some very rural scenes now and again - try and get away from the normal street scene, bright sunlight sort of thing. So just picking an ordinary country lane, trees in the background. The time of the year would be I think mid winter - still a few russet leaves on the oak trees and some fallen debris on the ground. But I had to have a little sunlight coming into the scene.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Cold Press, 300 gms
Bristol, UK, 15" x 11"
An iconic railway viaduct in Bristol and the painting is based on a Dashcam image of mine (while waiting in some traffic). Dashcams are good source material for paintings - have them record your journey (hopefully on a sunny day) and then fast forward the reply to a suitable subject. Then delete when done. They're also good becuase they can be set to a low resolution. Painting in a loose style, you don't want to be distracted with lots of detail, so the smaller the better. I sometimes like looking at thumbnails of pictures, so really small in size.
Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms.
Here are the two demos I did last year to Exmouth Art Group as a one day workshop. So what I normally do on the workshops is that we do things in stages - first I do the outline sketch, then the attendees do their sketch, then I do the first wash, then they do their wash...and so on....
Each painting here is 22" x 15"
A rural lane and an exercise in simplifying the scene and composition
Newquay harbour and an exercise in painting boats and simple reflections
All painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms paper
Watercolour, 15" x 11"
Bristol Savages Wednesday night sketch night and the Chariman's topic was "Play Time". I decided to go with a theme of some people cycling up a seaside promenade, an Ice Cream shop, and some warm sunshine coming through the scene. My other fellow artists came up with a wide range of paintings - beaches, water, boats, fun figures....
Painted on Saunders Waterford Paper, Cold Press, 300 gms