Wickwar, England, 15" x 11".
The main street running through Wickwar, a village close to where I live. Based on my last picture, I've chosen another stormy day. The whole sky area was made damp first with clear water. After leaving ot to dry a little, I painted in some dark clouds leaving some lighter areas. Then a very simple rendering of the buildings left and right. The cars had a neutral medium tone wash then a bit of "wet in wet" with their darker shadows.
Chania, Crete, 15" x 11".
The 1866 square in Chania, Crete, and a steady one-way flow of traffic going through this busy city. It's also an area of transition between mainly two storey older buildings on the right running down to the sea and newer multi storey apartment blocks on the left. Predominantly I used yellow ochre and cerulean blue for this painting. Burnt sienna and cerulean together also makes a nice 'grey'. From a composition point of view, having a row of cars and the light coming from one side makes it easier to connect everything.
Wickwar, England. 22" x 15".
A view up the High Street in Wickwar, a village close to where I live. This sort of picture makes for an easy composition, with similar height buildings either side of the road, and a disappearing column of parked cars going into the distance, leading you in. Maybe those two guys on the right are stumbling towards Wickwar Social Club which sells the cheapest pint of beer in the area! The sky had a couple of stages - first a light wash, then second, after drying, I went in with some darker clouds, blending with the background buildings. That blending was aided by some dabbing with a paper towel.
Tavira, Portugal, 15" x 11".
A small square in Tavira - a small park in the middle, flanked by a few restaurants/cafes around the side. I love painting a line of cars like this, head on, and a bit of random strokes on the windscreen hopefully passes off as some convincing reflections. All figures are connected to different car shapes/shadows - not entirely intentional (I drew them in quite rapidly), but I think it worked out okay rather than having them too isolated.
Chipping Sodbury High Street, 15" x 11".
A littel experiment here with 1) doing the sky wash, then 2) going in with the buildings base colour while sky still damp. The building wash was slightly thicker in consistancy than the sky wash, and left to bleed together where it wanted to. Then when everything was bone dry, I continued with shadows, forming the chimneys and around the vehicles. Lastly a few dry dark brush strokes were dragged up the road to give it a bit more form.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms.
A well known veg shop in Chipping Sodbury, always marked by van and dutch trollies laden with fruit and veg outside. With apologies to any local residents, but I've emphasised the little dip in the middle of the roof tops - give them a bit of character. Midday and the sun is pretty much behind the buildings and throwing one side of the street into deep shadows. In the summer with the sun being higher, the parked cars offer a bit of contrast against the dark background.
Watercolour of Yate, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms
A 2nd attempt at a pub local to me, this time on Saunders and larger half imperial size. Previous painting was on some old Fabriano I had knocking about. I think the figure with the dog and the pub sign being over on the left, helped the composition with some longish shadows stretching right.
Watercolour of Marseille, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms
The 'Quai du Port' running down one side of the old port in Marseille, and looking towards the silhouette of the Fort Saint Jean. A fairly easy subject for watercolour with lots of light and shade, and figures out for an afternoon walk (think it was a Sunday afternoon). Again a nice warm wash for the road of light red and alizarin crimson. Figures were done with almost neat pigment and little water added.
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