Watercolour number 10...yet more trees.

This is the tenth and therefore last in this series of water colours prepared for this weekend's festival.It's another view of the trees up on Radbourne Lane...So far the reaction to my water colours has been OK..but there are so many people producing pictures like this, they are commonplace and they do it so much better than me...people generally want to see and talk about the dot pictures. I don't know what I'm going to do next, it would be natural to embark on a larger sized painting,perhaps that's how I shall pass the time tomorrow.

Below is a photo of my co-exhibitor Michael Stewart's work.The painting uppermost sold yesterday was one that he had nearly not brought along to show..but it was eagerly snapped up by an enthusiastic buyer.I think it was a good choice to exhibit....I like it.

Oak tree on Radbourne Lane, Derbyshire.

Here is the finished painting showing the Oak Tree on Radbourne Lane I photographed yesterday. Again I'm happy with the progression of detail and and colour I've incorporated in the picture. Not a moment too soon as I'm off to hang the exhibition later this evening.

You might be interested to know that I'm this year selling enlarged prints of two of my most popular pieces (Ricky Rec and Reflections)...they look great. Also whilst picking up my most recently framed and mounted pictures, my framer has demonstrated his new printer which can print very large images onto canvas ...(we're talking 30x60 inches!)..not cheap, but he enlarged a copy of 'Bench' for me to see and it looks great..

See you tomorrow with a report of the first of my three days at The Willington Arts Festival.

Radbourne Lane...Derbyshire.

Here I'm working on the pencil sketch prior to painting..it gives you some idea as to the scale of each piece and some indication as to why I'm looking forward to larger pieces.

Here's the finished drawing all ready for me to start adding the water colours...hopefully I'll have the finished painting to show you tomorrow.

Twyford Trees.

As promised, here is the finished painting.I'm fairly happy with the result...light, sunny,spring time light.

Somewhere near Twyford, Derbyshire.

It was such a beautifully sunny spring day that I just had to get out and take some more photos..I had a lovely drive down miles of windy lanes stopping whenever I saw something that took my eye. One such occasion was for the drawing shown here..It was near to a very small village called Twyford near to Willington.The view I selected shows these slender trees bordering a field of rape seed in full bloom.Actually a road runs across the picture between you and the trees...but my point of view was to crouch down thus obscuring it.

I spent a few hours drawing before starting on the painting..it's late now and I still haven't finished as I prefer to work in the day light. (I'd not make a very effective Vampire I'm afraid...in fact, I think being a Vampire sucks!) So I'll show you the finished article tomorrow.

Trees in a field.

I've been going on about my clumsy brushwork....my limitations with this media.So today I decided I'd put to use the quality that exists through my Hyperpointillist work...namely: 'Patience' and attention to detail.For today's painting I chose to depict two trees in a sparse field. using photographic reference and imagination, I produced this example.It's taken me most of the day to complete as opposed to the one and a half hours the first in this series took. I decided that even if it takes two days, I'll try to achieve something satisfying.

The result is I hope you agree, a progression over the previous pieces and indicates the level of detail and texture I'm aiming at.I draw the basic forms of the landscape and trees, then apply water colour.When dry, I pick out details with a Rotring 0.5 pencil. I'm now feeling much happier with this medium and have started looking to larger works.

More trees...more pencil!

The picture above and the one immediately below were completed today...I found that my brushwork was clumsy and unrefined, so I thought I'd rework the images by adding more detail and texture in pencil.I was happier with the result, so I went over the paining shown at the bottom of this post..if you compare it to the earlier version, you'll see the difference.

I need to complete 10 paintings for the mounts I've ordered....I will continue the theme of countryside, trees etc...for the rest of this series .In my experience they are the subjects most likely to sell at the festival this week end....I hope I'm right!

Trees by the canal.

I've tried to be more subtle with this my third effort. I love trees and I love the way these taper off into the sky.

ST Michael's Church, Willington,Derbyshire.

Here's my second effort..I've been a little more diligent with the perspectives and proportions, but the foreground is far too heavy handed.It sounds strange bearing in mind the sort of timescales I normally deal with, I have very little patience for this sort of work. But I shall persever and see how well I can do in the next one.

Stenson Lock Keepers Cottage.

First of all, if you want to see how this sort of work should be done, you should head straight over to Paulo J Mendes at http://postalguarelas.blogspot.com/ where you'll see some fantastic little paintings. As for me, these are the first experiments really..I could go on about all the bad points and the bits I'm not happy with, but that would take all day.But the technique is something I think I could develop and refine.

For this painting, I drew the basic pencil work whilst sitting by the canal. then used a photo as reference when I got home to complete the detailing and colour work.In all it took around about one and a half hours...slightly quicker than Cello!

Watercolour didn't workout

I decided to produce six small pieces using simple washes...then adding washes on top, then adding landscape or other detail...I got the first and second washes down alright, but I'm afraid everything went wrong after that.I made a total mess and (no disrespect to a three year old) but my work looked like it had been done by a three year old....a colourblind one at that! So I'm going to shelve the watercolour experiments until after Christmas and get back to doing what i do best.

i love the delicacy of watercolour and the texture of the paint on the paper....but I'm going to have to practise a whole lot more!

I hope you enjoyed the previous post...the video is not very good but i chose it because it features the lyrics to the song. I've been a fan of Peter Gabriel's music since way back in 1970 when he was lead singer with Genesis.

Watercolour workout 2

Well, the watercolour didn't work out..and to make matters even worse, I felt achy and full of cold all day..I need to look after myself better.

On the good side ..Mr Postman called with a package from Preeti in India...above is '34 Bubblegums and Candies'..a selection of tasty treats from Preeti's own blog, 'Just A Mother Of Two'...I like to refer to Preeti as 'The Star Of India' as she's someone whom i value immensely as a friend. So I was anxious to see how the writings contained in the book differed (if at all ) from those on the blog...perhaps it was just me, but there seems an extra sparkle..an added something..to tell the truth, I had cried by the end of the first piece!...then I read on and laughed...a bit more..I pondered...then smiled... what a great little book,I shall treasure it forever and you could do no wrong by ordering your own copy here

Water colour workout.

Well...here I am after a prolonged layoff. I've had a viral infection which (similar to influenza), completely knocked any desire to work on the head.But today I've felt well enough to do some work. I did mention that I had a few projects which i was looking forward to launching. well, the first is in response to my readers comments about my water colour paintings. now, bearing in mind I haven't done any painting for around 10 years and before that nearly 20 years...I've got a lot of catching up to do technique wise. so I've tried a few simple little washes here just to get the feel of the paint and water.

i have to admit that I'm very impatient when it comes to painting..i want it to look perfect immediately and i hate making mistakes....something that rarely happens with my dot work! but I've got to learn to experiment and try out things .....I'm perhaps confining myself to a too smaller size and need to 'breakout'....the one hard and fast rule I am going to set myself is that i will complete each picture in only one day!