Cley, Norfolk, Watercolour, 15" x 11"

The Windmill at Cley by the sea.

Gran Canaria Watercolor, 15" x 11"

My demo painting from last weekend's workshop and the subject was the Las Canteras beach on Gran Canaria, Spain.

Gran Canaria, Spain, Watercolour, 15" x 11"

Another beach painting from Gran Canaria - Playa de Las Canteras in Las Palmas.  Could be a good subject for 1) Composition  2) Creating mood in the sky  3) Getting light into your watercolour.  What do you think?

Next workshop is here.

Painted on Saunders Waterford, Cold Press, 300 gms.

#watercolour #StcMill #watercolorpainting

Some effects that are difficult to achieve with other mediums - the mixing of different thicknesses of paint for the sky, and letting them mix a little at the edges and the glow you could get as in the centre here by leaving the paper unpainted and first laying down clear water around that bright area, or in it, then painting carefully up to the area to get a soft edge.

Watercolour 15" x 11"

My late brother, Ian Wilmot, was a very good photographer.  I was looking through his archives the other day from his travels, and quite a few of his black and white photos (that was his specialty for mood and atmosphere) I thought could be paintable.  Now I have no idea where this location is, but I believe it's in Cornwall.  Painting from a black and white photo is great for helping you and suggesting values, but you're on your own with the colours!

Cheers Ian, wherever you are!  RIP.

#watercolor #cornwallharbour #cornwallpainting

My effort from my last online workshop I ran in July.  Featuring a volcano, a low cloud, some fields and a couple of groups of houses.  An exercise in composition, and different edges in watercolour - with a hard edge for example at the top of the cloud and a soft edge at the bottom of the cloud and the transition to the shadow of the cloud on the hill.

You can still take part:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/july-2020-watercolor

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.

Montpon, France, 15" x 11".

Another shot at the centre of this town on South West France.  I think the building in the middle is an employment office - looks more like a Hotel or the Marie's office to me.  Key points to this painting - 1) sky quickly done with some random spots of clear water then dropping in some clouds and finally some cerulean blue for bits of sky.  Then 2) carefully painting around the street lights and tops of cars to fill them in at a later stage.  The balls of the street lights were done with a bit of white gouache mixed up with some paint in the palette to give it that light grey colour.

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.

Landscape Watercolour of Arrecife, 15" x 11"

The roof of a seaside kiosk in Arrecife catching the light.  I don't normally put a lot of work into skies, but I went over this one with two washes to add a bit more colour.  It was comprised of Yellow Ochre, Ultra Marine Blue and Burnt Sienna. And these hues were repeated in the road, cutting around the zebra crossing.