Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Joseph Zbukvic painting course day 1

I was very fortunate to attend recently a Joseph Zbukvic (pronounced Z-book-vich) watercolour painting course care of EPC Painting Holidays in Girona and Cadeques on the Costa Brava.  It was a superb location for painting, or indeed any holiday, and we were lucky with the weather being early October.

Anyway, Joseph is the leading watercolourist with terrific skills in the atmosphere and the tones of his work and I was eager to learn more about his style.

Day one was spent mainly at our hotel base and working in the 'studio'.  Exercise one was a study of an 'English country scene' with sunlight coming towards you in the early morning mist.

Here is Joseph's example which he completed in an hour whilst giving a running commentary!:

Notice the wet in wet on the background trees and great dry brush strokes on the middle ground trees.  The cows were literally done in seconds and looked perfect.  Well here is my first interpretation:

As you can see, I lost the plot of trying to emulate the master, and after a small ticking off from Joseph (in the nicest possible way!) I attempted a second:

Perhaps a little closer to the brief, but only done in 30 minutes or so as I didn't want to miss lunch!

 

Newquay Cornwall

Landscape Watercolour of Newquay, Cornwall, 15" x 11" on Bockingford Rough Paper 140 lbs

Newquay, a popular resort on the North Cornish coast of the UK and a big surfing centre.  There's a long winding high street, the main shopping area,  through the middle of town with glimpses now and then down through to the sea. I thought this view made a good composition with the two sides of the street and a bit of an improvised shadow coming across the front.

 

Sunny Street in Staithes, North Yorkshire

Landscape Watercolour, Staithes, Yorkshire, 15" x 11" on Bockingford Paper 140 lbs.

One of my favourites sketches of Staithes and capturing a rare sunny afternoon (well rare for the summer of 2012 in the UK anyway!).  It's a fantastic location to paint and this was picture/composition was adapted from a holiday photo of mine.  I think if I had painted from this viewpoint, I would have been blocking the main street running down to the sea.

 

Alfriston Church Sussex

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford Rough Paper 300 gms

Alfriston Church, Sussex, in the Autumn and my entry into Steve Hall's recent monthly watercolour competition.  Steve Hall is the master of loose and fresh watercolours.  Anyone interested in entering his competition can see this in his newsletter at http://www.stevehallartist.co.uk/newsletter.htm