Biarritz, France, 15" x 11".
Quite a large square around the Tourist Office in Biarritz. Quite a loose treatment of this painting - the pedestrian crossing 'roughed up', the roof tops pf the background buildings allowed to bleed into the sky and the foreground shadows with different colours dropped in while the wash was still moist. The building on the corner is a restaurant, so I painted around the menu outside the front door.
Riberac, France, 15" x 11".
On a recent holiday I had decided to travel light and took away with me some free paint samples from Sennelier - a Yellow Light, Opera Rose, Cinereous (whatever that is) Blue and an old Ivory Black I had lying around. Using just 2 brushes - a small synthetic and a largish mop, this would be a useful exercise in seeing what colour combinations I could come up with. On the whole they made quite a nice 'stone' colour which worked quite well in this French street scene. I will be posting a few more paintings soon, all with those same 3 colours.
Saunders Waterford is my paper of choice. I could paint on others, but I am familiar now with it's behaviour to my painting style. Now I prefer the 'Rough' texture paper to either NOT or Hot Pressed. There are tow quite different sides to this paper, not smooth of course but one being rougher and having a grid like pattern compared to the other side being more random in texture and not so rough. So taking a similar subject, I paint on both sides...
Saunders Waterford Rough - non mesh side
First painting on the non mesh side, a slightly smoother side. You can get smoother edges on this side and wet in wet tends to be more controllable.
Sanders Waterford Rough - Mesh Side
The rough side is the more normal side to paint on. The watermark in the paper will be on the correct side, so not show below any washes. This side is best for loose style painting. However in my experience, because of the mesh texture, when doing wet in wet you have to be very careful with your timing or some nasty edges appear where paint is creeping into the little troughs in the paper surface.
So it all depends on your painting sytle and what techniques you'll be using to best decide which side to use.
Porthleven, Cornwall, UK, 15" x 11"
The inner harbour in Porthleven on an early winter's day and some low light coming in. The foreground had quite simple treatment - mostly with the side of a big mop brush and with rough paper, dragging the brush lightly across the surface gets that effect. Odd light patches remaining can be turned into a stone with a bit of shadow underneath and to one side. The background buildings were simplified - just a few strokes leaving out some highlights to give the impression of random roof tops reflecting some light.
Burrowbridge, England, 15" x 11"
Burrowbridge, and the 'mump' hillock in this Somerset village. This painting was based on a reference photo sent me by fellow artist Jem Bowden and a plein air trip I could not make. I adopted a very loose style here - not too much detail at all apart from a few straw bails and the couple of figures. Those figures are much smaller than I normally do, but I think they turned out okay. All in all, quite a dark painting with that stormy sky.
Avebury, England, 15" x 11".
A composition based on a reference photo from a visit to this pretty village last year. I think the key part to this painting was the first wash - over the whole paper starting with the sky and then a bit warmer on the left hand side with the buildings and a bit of cool blue for the road and then finally the grass at bottom left. While the wash was still moist, different colours were 'dropped' in. Then everything was left to dry completely. The second dark was was added and created the form of the buildings, shadows and car coming towards us.
Porthleven, Cornwall, 15" x 11".
A loose style painting of Porthleven Harbour in Cornwall. Painting against the light reduces small boats to simple shapes. When painting boats in a row, I look for the shape of them altogether as a whole, especially those at the back, in deep contrast with the dark harbour wall. The background buildings to are simple shapes and it's easier to not think or draw them as separate buildings all joined up. Also, I used very few colours here, mainly ultramarine blue.
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