Landscape Watercolour of Cyprus, 15" x 11"
An anonymous car parl in downtowm Limassol. I'm not exactly sure where my focal point was on this one. Why can't you have more than one. Anyway I was pleased with the way the picture turned out and I think the Alizarin Crimson wash turned out okay as the underlining tone. I experimented a bit with the palm tree leaves, painting it with a 'sword' brush.
Watercolour of Athens, 15" x 11"
My second attempt at the Monastiraki area of central Athens. Well the Parthenon is up on the hill in the background, but making it appear on the top of the hill might have detracted from the focus of the old church I think. Painting cars sideways on is a lot more difficult than painting them head-on - they can either look too stretched out with a wide wheel base or two dumpy.
Landscape Watercolour of Limassol, 15" x 11"
The side of Agia Napa Church in Limassol looking up towards the tourist district of the town. The tall washingtonia palms here are probably the easiest to replicate. I use a fairly small synthetic brush, loaded with thick paint and just make short drags from the centre of the canopy outwards to the length of a leaf. And then one long drag of course to form the trunk.
Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Jerusalem, 15" x 11"
The wide Sultan Suleiman road leading west towards the Damascus Gate of the old city. Steps in this painting were, 1) wash of sky and foreground, then left to dry. 2) Castle shadows and background buildings, cutting around figure and cars. Lastly 3) figures and shadows. With the figures, I normally paint in the faces first, then any bare arms and legs. Shadows for me would be the last stage. I think maybe those 2 palms on the right could have been a touch lighter in tone.
Landscape Watercolour of Athens, 15" x 11".
Monastiraki was the site of one of the largest monasteries in Athens. So little was left of the complex - and only this little church remains, hence it's name 'monastiraki' or 'little monastery'. The area around the square here has many tourist souvenir shops and traditional Greek Kebap Restaurants. I very rarely go back to paintings to rework them, but the yellow taxi was an afterthought (there were tow many plain cars, so I washed over one with a Cad Yellow bit of paint).
On Saunders Waterford Rough Paper, 140 lbs.
Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11"
The rear entrance to Ridgewood Community Centre in Chipping Sodbury, home to my local art club up there on the first floor. Not an obvious choice maybe for a sketch, being a fairly ordinary building with an older part of the left and the newer bit on the right. I took the liberty of reducing the height of the building in order to accommodate the larger foreground car park (sorry Ridgewood).
Landscape Watercolour of Piraeus, 15" x 11"
Pireaus, the port for Athens and the largest port in Greece. This is the main road / dual carriageway that runs around the perimeter and is punctuated by at least two dozen gates and ferries leading to all the Greek Islands and beyond. The building is probably a government office but offers an interesting contrast to the shadows of the larger apartment blocks on the right.
Landscape Watercolour of Tel Aviv, 15" x 11"
A street corner in Tel Aviv. Well it could be any city. The painting is based on a holiday snap. The first thing I do if the picture has some white in it or the stripes of the zebra crossing is dull it down a bit with some dirty or blueish paint, and not to make the stripe too perfect but cut across the edges.
Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11"
A traditional fruit and veg shop on Chipping Sodbury High Street. A few washes went into the background buildings and a good bit of yellow ochre for the shop in the middle. I deliberately made the roof lines sag in the middle to hopefully emphasize the age of the structures.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Rough Paper 140 lbs.
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