Covent Garden, London, watercolour 15" x 11"

London, England, 15" x 11"

Pont Street in South West London, looking up to the church of Saint Colomba.  A greatly simplified scene from a point of view of the buildings left and right.  Their facades have many horizontal and vertical lines which if you included them would make the scene incredibly tight. Pedestrian crossings are a good thing to have to either frame the picture or help lead the eye into the composition.  And you don't need to be too precise over painting them either.

Landscape Watercolour of London, 15" x 11".

From a reference photo taken on my mobile, I recreated this London Street scene back home.  The location is half way down Edgeware Road I think, and an early Winter's morning scene looking towards the light.  I was careful to paint around the foreground puddle so I could later drop in some reflections.

Landscape Watercolour of London, 15" x 11".

Upper St Martins Lane in London's West End.  It's a busy crossing point and so I had to feature plenty of figures.  Steps were 1) Sky and warm wash on buildings and road.  2) Shadows on background buildings and trees (with a rough old brush).  3)  Details on the architecture of the right hand building.  4) Lamppost and figures, then some highlights with white.

Landscape Watercolour of Borough Market, 15" x 11"

My depiction of Borough Market based on a photo of mine and trying to capture a dark & wet January day.  This is one of the entrances to the market with the impressive classical frontage. Apart from the obvious wet in wet on the reflections in the road, I added a little chinese white to the grey tones of the building as an experiment.

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford paper 140lbs

Borough Market in Southwark, London. One of the largest food markets in London and a hive of activity at lunchtime with tourists and office workers.  Borough Market's gourmet food market consists of up to 70 stalls and stands. Producers from all over the country bring a range of fresh produce to the market, including fish, meats, vegetables, ciders, cheeses, breads, coffees, cakes and patisseries.

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford paper 300g

This was quite a complex scene to paint - many windows, architectural details all over the place and the bare winter trees lining Whitehall down to Westminster, and Big Ben looming in the distance.  I had to simplify the details I saw, and if I had a second shot at this one, would probably make it simpler still.  Sometimes it's difficult to know when to stop!