Watercolour 15" x 11"

One of my submissions to the annual Bristol Savages Exhibition 2017, entitled 'Golden' which was actually a Wednesday night sketch topic.  So an Autumnal scene and an emphasis on trees with a golden tint to them.  A composition with the bridge and figure walking a dog which I have used before, but easily adapted to this scene.  Nice to get a light figure in front of a dark background.  As a further enhancement, I could have had the figure reflected in some water!

Bayonne, France, 15" x 11".

A thank you to Jean-Luc who sent me a reference photo for this painting of Bayonne Church in Autumn.  I suppose there are a few different approaches to painting a light coloured tree against a dark background - 1) Negative painting (dark background first then the tree), 2) Paint tree first, let dry/ish then do the background, or possibly 3) a load of thick body paint for the tree on a dry background.  I went for a variant of 1) and 3) !

Goose green, Yate, 22" x 15".

A local spot a few hundred metres from where I live.  I've done a few paintings of this location, from different angles and seasons.  This time it's early autumn, and in the foreground, some purple leaved maples have dropped their leaves.  The dark tree on the right was done with a sword brush, loaded with plenty of dark paint (neutral tint mainly).  Just dabbing the paper with the point of a brush like that gives some fairly nice leaf effects.

My recent entry to artist Steve Hall's Autumn competition.  Here is the photo from Steve for the competition:

And here is my initial planning sketch with some numbers (almost 'painting by numbers') on my sequence of painting.  I do occasionally do a little pencil sketch just to aid composition and thinking more about my approach to the painting:

As you can see, the sketch is done on any old paper.  And here is the final painting.  I added the man and dog for a bit of extra interest.  

Landscape Watercolour, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford paper, 140 lbs Rough.

Landscape Watercolour of Tetbury, 15" x 11".

Silver Street Tetbury, looking into the autumn sun and a row of large residential houses in the background.  The tree was painted leaving some little bits of paper round the outside, to give a bit more of an impression of the strong light.  Painting against the light makes it a lot easier to connect different objects thrown into shade - the bases of houses, car windscreens, shadows underneath cars, people nearby and so on.

Landscape Watercolour of Yate nr Bristol, 15" x 11" on Bockingford NOT Paper 140 lbs

Close to where I live and an interesting composition I thought with the curve in the road and hopefully taking your eyes into the sketch.  It started to come better when the road markings and the darks of the middle-ground went in.  Goose Green is a popular place for locals to take their dog/s for a walk (surprising how many people have more than one dog).