Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".
A view actually from a supermarket car park across to the tower of St John Baptist Church in Chipping Sodbury. There's a little footbridge here over the River Frome and leading on to the High Street. Quite a simple scene and done fairly quickly. A 'sword' brush was used for the foreground branches and leaves top right - plenty of paint on the brush and dab in a random fashion.
Landscape Watercolour of Sitges, 15" x 11".
A view along the sea front at Sitges on the Spanish Costa Brava towards the Church and the older part of town. Steps for this painting were 1) sky (a little yellow ochre on the right and darker going left). 2) Background mountains and middle ground town buildings, leaving a few spaces for highlights on roof tops. 3) Beach and then sea, leaving a few specks of white paper. 4) Figures and highlights.
Landscape Watercolour of Yate, 22" x 15".
Another sketch of the church local to me but on half imperial size paper this time. On this attempt I moved the dead end sign to the left side of the road and had the tree as a background. It just did'nt look right on the right-hand side, mixed in with the cottage. Background trees were done with an old brush and quite thick paint.
Landscape Watercolour of Sitges, 22" x 15".
The Church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla and it's commanding position overlooking the town and seafront at Sitges. Just to the rights there's just a little indication of the sailing boats on the beach, and I tried to make a point of the sunlight catching the sun blinds on the buildings. The sky was done very quickly - a few dabs of cerulean blue and yellow ochre into wet paper.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Rough, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Tytherington, 15" x 11".
Lovely little village of Tytherington, South Glos, and a view across to the church and some neighboring cottages from the shade of large tree next to the Swan Pub. Quite a simple composition I suppose with very little painting of architectural detail on the church and simple foreground shadow connected with person walking forwards.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Rough, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Yate, 15" x 11".
A church very local to me with the village hall next to it. The shadow across the foreground was 'invented'. I could have left just the lawns and road alone, but I think it needed a bit of extra interest. I'm going to attempt this scene again on double size paper and change a few things around, like I think the dead end sign needs to be on the other side of the road and contrasting more with a dark background.
Saunders Waterford Paper, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Mykonos, 15" x 11"
Mykonos is an iconic greek island and the main town here characterised by typical narrow streets and white washed buildings. I suppose my focal point here could either be the church bell tower or the couple walking or the left hand truck. I added in pigment into the dark shadows while still wet, just to add a bit of interest and depth.
Landscape Watercolour of Yate, 15" x 11"
The entrance leading up to St Mary's Church in Yate, near to where I live. I pass this church every day in to work and took a reference photo in late afternoon as the basis of my sketch. I left out quite a bit of detail, the village hall in the middle, a bench on the green, but I think they would have detracted from the scene. I also tried a bit of scratching our with a knife to define the side of the road on the right. You have to time this just right - too soon while the paper is still very wet, and the paint seeps back into the line.
Watercolour of Athens, 15" x 11"
My second attempt at the Monastiraki area of central Athens. Well the Parthenon is up on the hill in the background, but making it appear on the top of the hill might have detracted from the focus of the old church I think. Painting cars sideways on is a lot more difficult than painting them head-on - they can either look too stretched out with a wide wheel base or two dumpy.
Landscape Watercolour of Limassol, 15" x 11"
The side of Agia Napa Church in Limassol looking up towards the tourist district of the town. The tall washingtonia palms here are probably the easiest to replicate. I use a fairly small synthetic brush, loaded with thick paint and just make short drags from the centre of the canopy outwards to the length of a leaf. And then one long drag of course to form the trunk.
Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs.
Recent Comments