Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Fishing boats at Cadgwith on the Lizard in Cornwall

Watercolour of the Lizard in Cornwall, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.

Cadgwith is a tiny fishing village forgotten by the 21st Century, located on the eastern side of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall.  Here, the focus is on a typical white-washed cottage with a thatched roof, and some relatives of the old pilchard fishing boats, high up above the shore line.  Painting of the beach was done fairly loosely as you can see.  Unpainted spots became rocks, emphasised with a bit of a shadow behind them.

 

Marseille Old Port Area, 3

Watercolour of Marseille, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.

A view along the promenade running along the sides of the old port area.  On each jetty there's a small hut/building which I think were toilets/storage for the boat owners.  Anyway it made for a bit of a focal point, along with some made up figures strolling around.  In the background and left, cliffs rise up from the waterfront.  A myriad of masts help connect the lower part of the picture to the top.

 

Boats moored up at St Tropez Harbour

Watercolour of St Tropez, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.

The buildings surrounding St Tropez harbour have this lovely warm reddish tone and sit well with the cooler colours in this cloudy spring day.  Painting was kept loose - there's too many details of windows, people on the far quayside, and paraphernalia to worry about.  Watercolour lends itself well to these bands of light, dark, light, dark coming down the picture.

 

Fishing boats sheltering, Newquay Harbour

Watercolour of Newquay, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms

A stormy day out to sea beyond Newquay Harbour.  Shellfish is the primary catch here for the local fishermen.  Sky was done quite quickly - wetted all over, then drop in some random clouds, leaving spaces.  Then drop in some sky - here a greeny mix of cobalt turquoise and cobalt blue.  The waves were just unpainted paper with soft top and bottom to it's edge.

 

Saint Raphael Marina, France

Watercolour of Saint Raphael, 22" x 15" on Sanders Waterford Rough 300 gms

The marina at Saint Raphael in South East France.  The wide promenade here follows the perimeter with lots of right-angled bends.  This is the posh end with smarter up-market yachts.  Further away from town the boats are smaller and a bit shabby looking.  Thickish pigment was used for the palm trees - maybe an easy type of tree to paint with a few bold strokes from the crown of the tree outwards.  White gouache was used for the ropes to show up against the darker background.

 

Venice, Rio dei Barcaroli waterway

Watercolour of Venice, 11" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms

The Rio dei Barcaroli from the bridge of Piscina de Frozzaria.  Steps for this painting, 1) initial wash starting with the sky and working down, added yellow ochre in the middle and then the canal wash going darker at the bottom.  When dry, 2) background and right hand buildings, painting around window details.  Then 3) the left hand building.  A lot more detail on this one, plenty of cad red to build the colour and paying attention to the perspective.  Last 4) water reflections in mainly a cobalt tone and boat details.

 

Porto Heli Greece

Watercolour of Greece, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms

A painting of a sunny day in Porto Heli, a small seaside town and port on the eastern side of the Pelopnnese.  A couple of challenging things with this painting were 1) getting the down of the church right - painting around it with the sky and its' shadows on the right side and 2) the complication of the row of moored up boats - probably 5 or so boats here all different sizes.  So of course try and simplify and think of shapes and shadows to define them.

 

Old Port Marseilles 2

Watercolour of Marseilles, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.

Another 'mesh' side up painting on Saunders Rough.  The scene is of the Old Port in Marseilles, looking from one side to the other, and the many masts silhouetted against the city buildings behind.  I suppose quite a simple painting as regards stages - sky first, then the sea (dropping in darker colour as it was damp), then the background buildings painting around some of the yachts and lastly the various boats themselves, their hulls on one side in the shade and mast in white gouache.

 

Fishing boats at rest in Newquay Harbour at low tide

Watercolour of Newquay, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms.

5 Fishing boats in a row at low tide.  Background was left very understated and cut around the tops of the boat cabins.  The perspective of the chains and ropes leading to the bows of the boats and channels of water draining away to sea hopefully helps the composition, and leads the eye in.  One of the last things I did was painting dabs of darkish paint on the harbour floor for the seaweed.

 

Marseille Old Port

Watercolour of Marseille, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms.

The Old Port of Marseille, a rectangular expanse of water running into the centre of the city and reminding me of a bigger version of my home town Bristol's own waterfront.  The view is looking up to the Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde, the highest point in Marseille and a great view over the city.  The view is framed by the local coast guard boat on the left and smaller vessels on the right.  Hundreds of yacht masts clutter the middle ground.