Porlock Weir, UK, 22" x 15"

This was a demo painting and I laid down some extra washes on this one - more than I normally do, especially in the bottom right to try and create the form of a rocky slope.  I decided to introduce a figure on the right with some movement.  I am not sure what the figure is pulling, but it certainly isn't the big boat.  Not too many colours were used.  Mainly cobalt blue and burnt sienna were the primary two.

Painted on Saunders Waterford Paper, 300 gms, NOT surface.

Porlock Weir, England, 15" x 11".

An exercise in simplification.  The distant boats of which there were many, are simplified here - less in number and just thinking about their basic hull shapes and lines and masts.  Painting done with my 3-colour palette, so I decided to make the harbour floor a cool colour to be compatible with the blue tarps covering the boats.

Painted on Saunders Waterford, 300 gms, NOT.

Porlock Weir, England, 22" x 15"

A made up scene based on Porlock Weir for a recent workshop.  My reference photo was a very dull day, so I added some blue sky and shadows.  It was an exercise really in light and shade and introducing a few watercolour techniques like laying down a smooth wash (the sky and water) and timing - letting everything dry for example after the first wash.  A bit of fun and not meant to be an exhibition quality painting.

Minehead, England, 15" x 11".

Minehead Harbour in North Somerset and a Winter's scene.  The harbour bed here is a mixture of sand and mud, so a bit tricky to walk over in places.  It's a change to paint a dull light scene as opposed to something in bright sun.  Good practice for getting the shapes and composition right to compensate for lack of contrast.  Still, you can introduce some darks and lights - so the darkest area here might be the bottom of the boat and the lightest area might be the sea in the distance.

Burrowbridge, England, 15" x 11".

I missed a plein air trip last year with a group of fellow artists but I managed to acquire a photograph of the area with the iconic mound in the background.  Well I can imagine I am there by the roadside with the view in front of me.  Of course I have to insert man and his dog somewhere and decided to have him cutting across several horizontal shadows along the road.  Thankfully I have the hedgerow to add a bit more interest and angle to those shadows rather than boring straight lines.

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.

Weston Super Mare, England, 15" x 11".

An outdoor cafe scene at Uphill Wharf near Weston Super Mare, with some small cliffs to the left that overlook the estuary here.  The background, cafe figures and stone wall on the right were almost done in one go, making this quite a simple sketch, apart from some careful painting around other figures and the cars.  I think it would have been better to not have the left had highlighted roof bordered by the parasol - maybe a bit more roof to the left, or move the parasol to the right....

Weston-Super-Mare, England, 22" x 15"

Another plein air painting from a trip out last year.  It's a small tidal estuary called Uphill Wharf and home to many different types of small craft and a few inhabited boat houses.  My subject here was the bow of a large catamaran - not sure if the was someone living in it underneath all the tarpaulin topside.  Where I was painting from was a small sheltered area as the wind was gusting from left to right here. I decided to put in the foreground figure to connect the foreground with the middle ground.  I think if it was over on the right hand side it would have conflicted with the background boats.

Uphill Wharf, England, 15" x 11".

Uphill Wharf at low tide - the area is a small tidal estuary near Weston Super Mare.  Here there's some small boats moored up and just beyond them is the tidal river.  The whole area is covered in long grasses or rushes, a golden colour in late summer.  These were given a wet in wet treatment.  Some watercolourists I know might do a bit of scraping out to give the impression of the stalks, but timing is everything if you do this - if the paper is too wet then the line disappears, too dry and you can damage the paper surface

Weston Super Mare, England, 15" x 11"

Perhaps a more unusual view of the pier at Weston Super Mare, and its entrance (the pier runs out to the left, into the Bristol Channel).  I was most pleased about the way the shadow on the left came out and the range of colours in there - I was almost mixing the colours on the paper so you get areas where the pigment was thicker, than in weaker areas it blends more easily rather than staying in one place.  Also, while the shadows were still damp, I created the pavement lines with clear water and a synthetic brush with a good point.