Duras, France, 15" x 11".
The Place du 11 Novembre, a small square in the market town of Duras, France. Most of the time with watercolour you paint from light areas first then lay over darker tones. With some bright objects in deep shade I normally paint around them (e.g. the cafe sign and the van on the right) with the dark shadows, then when that's dry I paint those brighter objects with the appropriate colour (with a bit of bleeding if the shadows are still a bit damp).
St Tropez, France, 22" x 15".
A corner of the harbour where the sea wall joins a row of restaurants/cafes. The row of boats here I painted in a very loose style but emphasized the bow shapes with the contrast of the dark wall against the lighter hulls. In a similar way the figures were created with the darks of the shadows and a bit of 'negative' painting around their random shapes. I think the darker cool sky worked well against the warm buildings (plenty of alizarin crimson, cadmium orange and yellow ochre in there!).
Painted on my normal Saunders Waterford Rough, 300 gms weight.
Faro, Portugal, 15" x 11".
The corner of 'O Seu Cafe' in central Faro, Portugal. The road surface here are 'polished' cobble stones - impossible to paint every individual stone in a loose style, so instead I plump for a very light area up against very dark areas, smudging out patches with a dry paper towel to add a bit of interest to the surface. The left hand side of the painting was left deliberately vague with that white van almost disappearing into the shadows.
Weston-Super-Mare, England, 22" x 15"
A small pedestrianised square in the seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare. Centrally placed is a busy cafe with outside seating. In this painting I went for some high contrast where the tree tops are lit up against the background house and then with the base of the building and the pavement. I introduced some figures coming and going and a foreground shadow, joined with a walker. Right across the middle of the painting, nearly everything is connected.
Chania, Crete, 15" x 11"
A colourful square in Chania next to the 'Ventian Harbour'. A bit of an experimentation in how mcuh colour I could introduce to a painting without going too much over the top. The Hotel on the right was that red, but I enhanced the yellows of the buildings to the left - hopefully not too much. A good dollop of Neutral Tint was added to Ultramarine Blue for the darks. Cobolt Blue my favourite colour for light shadows predominates in the foreground.
Olhao, Portugal, 22" x 15".
The local fish canning factory in Olhao - Pescado Conservas - or as someone remarked when they first saw my painting - "Ah, Tescos"! - seeing my partial sign top right... The initial wash was a light cerulean blue for the sky, then changing to a mainly yellow ochre wash in the lower half. After drying, the background trees then were painted, carefully around the tops of the cars, and then the road and foreground. Next were building details on the right, going quite dark around the base and the right hand car. Last were the left hand cars, figures and some street furniture.
Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote, 15" x 11".
Along the main 'strip' of cafes/restaurants/bars along Puerto del Carmen's seafront there's many scenes like this with many bars - mainly British/Irish - sitting cheek by jowl with each other and using every bit of pavement space available for outdoor seating. I'm pleased with that bottom left corner, letting watercolour do what watercolour wants to do - as the darker wash was half dry, I drip in some more water to emphasize the bleeding, helped with a bit of gravity (I can tilt my easel at pretty much any angle).
Tavira, Portugal, 15" x 11".
A small square in Tavira - a small park in the middle, flanked by a few restaurants/cafes around the side. I love painting a line of cars like this, head on, and a bit of random strokes on the windscreen hopefully passes off as some convincing reflections. All figures are connected to different car shapes/shadows - not entirely intentional (I drew them in quite rapidly), but I think it worked out okay rather than having them too isolated.
Bruges, Belgium, 15" x 11".
The trade mark 'crow-step' gable end to the buildings in Bruges, Belgium, and those lovely warm red brick walls (chance to use all my reds - light, cadmium, alizarin crimson...). So here's a busy scene of a square in the city, and perhaps one of the many beer houses or chocolate shops. I added in quite a few figures walking in all different directions, with most of their shadows connected - made easier with the light coming from the side.
Olveston, England, 15" x 11".
The main road going through Olveston in South Gloucestershire, with the White Hart pub on the right. A fairly simple composition with the two sides of the street almost mirroring each other with the high walls. I was careful to leave the top of the right hand wall unpainted to show the light hitting it. Maybe that figure could have been a fair bit lighter to give a bit more of a contrast with the background shade. It could have been a good idea to do a tonal sketch beforehand to get the values planned.
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