Watercolour of St Tropez, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
A 'backstreet' scene in St Tropex, France. Up ahead the road forks into two narrow streets. The buildings here have lovely warm tones - plenty of light red and burnt sienna to replicate them. There's two sides to Saunders paper. This one, I've painted on the 'wire' side where you have regular indentations made by the wire grill that help made the paper. However, I'm starting to prefer the 'other side'....
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.
Watercolour of St Tropez, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
The Rue Francois Sibilli in St Tropez and lined with top-end shops yet still has a laid back feel. I can see I went to town with plenty of heavy warm tones for the buildings, bits of cadmium orange mixed with yellow ochre and light red. All cooled down a bit and darker into the foreground shadows.
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.
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.
Watercolour of Marseille, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
The Rue de la Loge, a street running parallel to the waterfront around the old port area. There's a row of shops up the right hand side here and over to the left and up some steps, a large square filled with mature olive trees in large planters. A little bit tricky with the light coming from behind, especially with figures and having to drag their shadows behind them (unless you shove them over on the right hand side of course in deep shade).
Watercolour of Marseille, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms
A sunny Saturday morning's street market in central Marseille. Quite a simple painting in a few steps. Background buildings were painted in very simply and around the parasol tops and figures. Then the figures were painted in, alternating tones to make some darker than others, and at the same time introduced the shadows, paying attention to the perspective of their lines. Lastly some highlights went in on the figure heads and shoulders with white gouache.
Watercolour of St Tropez, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms
A quiet square at the back of St Tropez, away from the crowds and an imposing evergreen tree in the centre. I thought this made a good composition with the diagonal shadows running across the picture, and a combination of the distant coast line left then the middle ground buildings with their ochre tones and the foreground railings and figures.
Watercolour of Marseilles, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
This is central Marseilles and the old port area, and here a 90 degree turn in the road left, around the waterfront. Ahead is the Hotel Alize. I always like to introduce a few figures in my landscapes, and a decision has to be made, do you put some larger figures in the central area, or maybe push them out to one side and have some smaller figures centre stage. I need to experiment a bit more.
Watercolour of St Tropez, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms
It's the end of the Saturday Market in central St Tropez and traders are breaking down their stalls an last minute shoppers are leaving. There's a bit of litter lying around of course (bits of white gouache with a bit of shadow in front. Quite a simple composition really - from the top, sky, then trees and background buildings, paint around market stall parasols and vans, then the foreground. Lastly, paint in the deep shadows under the parasols and vehicles.
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