Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Clock Tower, Chipping Sodbury 2

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

An iconic building in the High Street Chipping Sodbury which has gone through a few additions over the years.  First it was just a tower with some clocks at the top, then a building was built around it and a public lavatory was added, and finally a tourist office at one side.  As regards the painting, special things I did here was adding a lot of dark pigment in the left hand shadow while the base wash was still damp, and lifting out colour with a paper towel in certain areas like the cars.

 

War Memorial Chipping Sodbury

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

The War Memorial standing at the bottom of Broad Street, silhouetted against the background buildings.  The shadow in the foreground was stretched by me to cover the whole area, much longer than in reality and then drop a couple figures walking in.  It's tricky with the window details and frames to decide what to leave out.  

 

Brook Street Chipping Sodbury 5

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 22" x 15".

I tried to get a nice warm glow in this painting of Brook Street, an old part of Chipping Sodbury town.  It's looking slightly uphill, and a narrow footpath running down the side of a house.  Plenty of alizarin crimson was used in the initial wash especially on the shadows centre, the a lot cooler left in the darkest shadows.

 

Tetbury Market House

Landscape Watercolour of Tetbury, 22" x 15".

The old Tetbury Market House (grade I listed building), an ochre coloured building resting on stout pillars and topped by a lovely bell tower in the centre of Tetbury.  Markets have been run from Tetbury Market House for more than 350 years now and you regularly see outdoor traders on the ground floor selling all sorts of goods.   This was a Winter scene so dullish sky and long shadows, plus people with heavy coats.

 

Chipping Sodbury High Street 7

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 22" x 15".

A sketch off half way down the main street in the market town off Chipping Sodbury with the town church tower just popping up about the shop roof tops.  A bit of a challenge this painting as my source photo was in the shade and devoid of people, so I had to invent shadows and some shoppers.  The buildings also present their own problems - no straight lines and nothing symmetrical.

 

Market Day Chipping Sodbury

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

Market day in the 'market town' of Chipping Sodbury.  The main stalls are just down on the left (I'll do them in another sketch).  My tip for making old buildings look older, have a dip in the roof top and have a few minor jagged edges so it's not too perfect.  The building in the middle is the local butchers - great home-made faggots & sausages.  Sky was done in 3 steps - 1st wet nearly the whole area, 2nd drop in the random dark clouds and third a bit of cerulean blue for patches of sky.

 

 

Brook Street Chipping Sodbury 4

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

A Winter scene of Brook Street Chipping Sodbury, looking towards the church tower in the distance.  The narrow lane here is a popular spot for dog-walkers, so I had to slip in a little dog.  Really easy to paint dogs when they're in the distance - it's just a quick splodge of paint.  Sword brush was used to paint in fairly random twigs and leaves on the foreground trees.

 

Bowling Hill, Chipping Sodbury 4

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

Another painting of the crest of Bowling Hill in Chipping Sodbury and looking towards the town of Yate in the distance.  It's only a small little hill before you get to the town, but I've been able to stretch 4 paintings out of it so far.  There's so many angles I could choose and the lovely row of cottages on the right are a nice right hand border to the composition.  Trees and bushes were done with an old mop brush, not too large and dryish paint on a dry background.

 

Bowling Hill, Chipping Sodbury 3

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

A quick sketch completed in under an hour (with the aid of a hair dryer), with a row of cottages in shadow and my old brush used for the trees in the background by splaying out the hairs and using quite thick pigment.  Maybe a bit too much of the cobalt blue on the foreground shadow.  Sometimes I rub out pencil marks which are still showing in unpainted areas, but I left them in here on the car windscreens.

 

Footbridge over the River Frome, Chipping Sodbury

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11".

A winter scene of a small footbridge over the River Frome in the town of Chipping Sodbury.  After the initial washes went down (the darker ones) there was a fair bit of scraping out with a small penknife to give the lighter branches.  You have to judge the time to do this just right - scrape too soon while the paint is too moist and you just might damage the paper surface (which I've done many times, bing too impatient).  Best time is when the paper is just damp. Also another challenge with the picture was the wooden fence with part of it painted negatively with the sunlight catching it, the the rest being easier and darker than the background.