White Roses in a Vase

Watercolour of white roses

White flowers are quite hard to paint in watercolour without losing the delicate quality of the petals. It is important to choose a shadow colour that doesn't destroy their freshness. As these white roses had a yellow cast to the white, I chose yellow for showing their form.

For the design, I planned to paint some negative and positive shapes; I am particularly pleased with the lower left corner, which I painted wet-in-wet.

A Turkey

Truthahn Aquarell

The model for this painting lives in an animal park in Zofingen, Switzerland. I have photographed him before but never captured him, just as he was strutting and showing his awesome display of brightly patterned feathers.

I knew I wanted to paint the bird in an expressive rather than realistic way and therefore chose not to include a background, other than a few washes.

~ ~ ~

Das Vorbild für diesen Truthahn lebt in einem Tierpark auf dem Heiteren in Zofingen. Ich habe ihn schon einmal im vorjährigen Herbst fotografiert, aber dieses Jahr war ich rechtzeitig mit dem Apparat zur Hand, als er ein Rad schlug. Dabei zeigen sich die Formen und Farben seines Gefieders erst recht. Mit meinem Aquarell versuchte ich eine Interpretation davon und war nicht an einer realistischen Wiedergabe interessiert.

Painting of Niklaus Thut Fountain, Zofingen

Niklaus Thut Brunnen

Quite a few Swiss towns have colourful fountains with statues of saints or medieval legendary figures. The statue on this fountain (erected in 1894) is Niklaus Thut, who was Zofingen's Schultheiss (similar to a mayor) in the 14th century.

He died at the Battle of Sempach in 1386, having fought on the side of the Habsburgs against the Swiss. Why Zofingen chooses to celebrate a defeat and backing the "wrong" side with this fountain is a bit of a mystery! He is best known, however, for swallowing the Zofingen flag to save it from being captured by the enemy, which has made him a local hero.

I enjoyed painting the different reds, purple and greens in this subject.

~ ~ ~ ~

Dieser Brunnen ist Niklaus Thut gewidmet, der im 14. Jahrhundert Schultheiss in Zofingen war. 1386 führte er Zofinger Soldaten in die Schlacht von Sempach, und zwar auf der Seite von Habsburg und gegen die Eidgenossen. In derselben Schlacht verlor er auch sein Leben. Der Legende nach kam Niklaus Thut aber zu Ruhm, indem er die Zofinger Fahne verschluckte, um sie vor den Feinden zu retten. 1894 wurde ihm deshalb von einer Studentenverbindung ein Brunnen errichtet, um diese Tat zu ehren. Es ist eigentlich erstaunlich, dass die Zofinger hier einer Schlacht gedenken, bei der sie auf der 'falschen' Seite kämpften und auch noch verloren...

Auf jeden Fall gefielen mir die lebhaften Farben des Brunnens, die ich in meinem Aquarell ausdrücken wollte.

Zofingen Old Town, Altstadt Zofingen

Altstadt Zofingen

Zofingen (Switzerland) is a town that still has a town wall, formed by a ring of houses encircling the town centre. This is part of the town wall, and what looks like a tower is really only a facade and probably not nearly as old as it looks.

The Old Tannery, Watercolour

Die alte Gerbe, watercolour

The many wooden shutters on these buildings in the old town of Zofingen made a great subject to paint. The shutters on the right hand building gave me the opportunity to paint in colourful greys. This used to be a tannery in the last century and still belongs to the same family; now there are residential flats upstairs and a business on the ground floor. The tannery, Gerberei Friderich, still exists and has long since moved out of the old town.

***

Dies ist ein Aquarell der Bärengasse in Zofingen. Das rechte Gebäude ist die Alte Gerbe. Mir gefielen, wie die vielen Fensterläden ihre Schatten warfen, was mir die Gelegenheit gab, für die Grautöne entsprechende Farben zu finden.

Die Gerbe ist auch heute noch im Besitz der Gründerfamilie Friderich. Während dies heute ein Wohnhaus mit einem Geschäft im Erdgeschoss ist, war es noch im frühen zwanzigsten Jahrhundert eine Gerberei. Dieses Foto um 1900 zeigt die Rückseite des Hauses, wo auf der Veranda Leder trocknen. Im Hintergarten waren auch die Gruben, wo die Felle bearbeitet wurden. Der Geruch war vielleicht nicht besonders angenehm!

Alte Gerbe, Zofingen

Die Gerberei Friderich  gibt es auch heute noch, ist jetzt aber ausserhalb der Altstadt gelegen.

Watercolour of Lenz/Lantsch

This Swiss village has both a German and a Romantsch name. I painted this from a photo taken on a bright summer day in August.

Lenz watercolour 

Watercolour of Son Maria, Lantsch

Son Maria, watercolour

You find this picturesque church in the Swiss village of Lantsch/Lenz in the Grisons. It lies on a hill just outside of the village and made a nice focal point for this mountain landscape.

I was struggling to get the separation of the foreground from the background, as the tones on the reference photo were very close together. I hope I managed to imply some distance by using warmer yellows for the foreground meadows.

Watercolour of Mountain Landscape Step by Step

I thought rather than posting in the finished result, I would show the different stages of this painting. The inspiration is a photo of a view of Zorten (Switzerland)  nestled in a mountain valley.

I usually start with the sky, but decided to lay in the foreground first, keeping the greens on the yellowish side to make them appear closer.

Next, I painted the sky and the distant mountain range. For the mountains, I used cerulean blue mixed with raw sienna, which greys the blue rather than turning it green. After that, I filled in the forested mountain in the middle ground, using cobalt blue mixed with phthalocyanine green and raw sienna.

Finally, I  added more detail to the far mountains, mixing cerulean blue with permanent alizarin crimson. This gives a nice greyish purple.

Mountain views are great to paint, as they make compositions easy, providing lots of zig zag lines.

Windsurfing on the lake

Watercolour

The windsurfers provide a splash of colour for this mountain scene.

Watercolour is known as a medium that can't be corrected, but I managed to wash out and repaint the mountains, as I changed my mind about the colours to use. If the paper is of good quality, a correction is certainly worth a try.

Three Cows

I saw these beauties in Lenzerheide (Switzerland) in August and knew I had to paint them. As artists, I suppose we are always looking for pattern and variety, which we find here in that they are all cows but differently coloured.

Stair Hole Bay

Stair Hole, Dorset, Watercolour

This is near Lulworth Cove in Dorset, a bay that is well worth a visit, although it gets really busy.

While the foreground was painted wet-in-wet, the rock structures needed more definition and were painted with several glazes. I also used a bit of lifting out with a rag in the dark shadow for added texture.

Durlston Country Park

Durlston Country Park, watercolour 

The Dorset coast is still providing me with numerous subjects to explore. To describe the texture of the rocks, I am using splayed brushes I drag over the paper, and lifting out paint with a rag wrapped around my finger. This knocks back areas that are too defined and the fingerprints add further interest to the surface.

I took the photo for this painting on our coastal walk from Swanage to Durlston Castle. This site will tell you more about this beautiful area and Durlston Castle itself.

Sailing Boat, Dorset

Sailing Boat, watercolour

I merged two different references for this painting, as I wanted to include a beautiful old sailing boat as a point of interest in this seascape. My husband remarked that it looked too near the beach, so might run aground any minute! Of course I could claim that the seabed drops very sharply on this particular stretch of the beach...

The water had a wonderful turquoise hue, which I managed to capture to my satisfaction; the main blue for it was Manganese Blue by Winsor&Newton.

Dorset Coast, Evening Light

Dorset Coast 2, watercolour

This is a view towards Old Harry's Rock from Swanage bay. I tried to capture the wonderful blues in the skies and sea on a sunny evening in June.

As most of my recent work, this is painted on a Saunders Waterford Rough block (30cm x 40cm), a paper that takes the washes well and gives the colours brilliance.

Dorset Coast 2

This painting is based on St Oswald's Bay near Lulworth Cove, Dorset. There is a steep path leading down to it, but I preferred to stay at the top of the cliff and admire it from a distance.

Apart from masking out for the waves near the beach, I achieved all the other effects just using the brush (lifting out, wet-in-wet and splitting the brush hairs for texture on the rocks). Watercolour lends itself to a simple approach.

Dorset Coastline

This is a view of Old Harry's Rocks in Dorset. The closest I got to it was Studland Beach, a beautiful sandy beach maintained by the National Trust. The whithe chalk cliffs of Old Harry's Rock are one of those iconic views of Britain.

Moored Boat

sailing boat watercolour

This is another boat I took a picture of during my trip to Blakeney. I tend to use my photos for reference only and hardly ever use them without changing the composition. For this one I cropped a lot of the photo and zoomed in on the boat.

Tulips

 My cousin, with whom I stayed last April,  always has fresh flowers in her house. I took a photo of these tulips with a view to painting them at a later time.

I also had noticed that the tulips were in very little water and thought I was being very helpful by topping up the water in the vase. It turns out, however, that tulips stay upright for longer when one keeps the water level to just covering the ends of the stems. A tip I will try out myself some time!

Water Tower, Bruderholz

Wasserturm, Bruderholz

This water tower is close to where I grew up but I had never taken pictures of it before, probably because it was just too familiar to be noticed.

I came to see it again early this April after some years and thought it made a good subject. I notice that it is fairly close in composition to my painting of the Norfolk Mill.

The tree to the left isn't there in reality, and I took away a tree in front of the tower, all to aid the composition.

~ ~ ~

Der Wasserturm auf them Bruderholz ist ein Sujet, das ich zum ersten Mal male. Ich wuchs in seiner Nähe auf und sah ihn oft auf meinem Weg zum Klavierunterricht.

Nach langer Zeit verbrachte ich dieses Jahr einen sonnigen Nachmittag im frühen April auf der Batterie und interessierte mich ein bisschen mehr für die Geschichte dieses Orts. Als Kind dachte ich immer, der Name habe etwas mit Elektrizität zu tun! Wer mehr darüber erfahren will, findet hier gute Auskunft. 

Den Baum links gibt es so nicht, aber ich malte ihn, um die Komposition auszugleichen. Ein Bild hat ja seine eigene Realität und muss ohne seine Vorlage bestehen.

Yellow Iris from my Garden

Yellow Iris Watercolour

I don't have to go far to find inspiration for my painting, as the flowers gradually make a comeback in our garden. We have a group of irises that have been springing up for the last ten years but didn't make a show last year, when I thought I had lost them for good. I was therefore doubly pleased to see them again this spring and decided to have a go at their complicated form.

Apart from watercolour paint, I also used watercolour pencil to draw in the yellow veins.

Marktplatz, Basel

Basel used to be my home town, and after a break of two years, it was great to go back for a visit. Basel has a wonderful old town with the Marktplatz at its centre. What drew me to paint this scene were the late afternoon shadows splitting the houses diagonally.

It's always a challenge to simplify a busy scene and I decided not to include bicycles and street furniture, which I felt would detract from the main idea of the painting.

Painting a busy scene

Every so often, I have looked at my reference of Temple Bar and thought it would make a good painting. Certainly its architecture is beautiful, but the focus for this painting was going to be people going about their business.

Here are some progress shots about my process:

I usually start with the background but decided I would paint the crowd first.

I then started on the buildings:

Next came Temple Bar itself. I deliberately did not make it as tall as it is in reality to keep the people as an important part of the composition.

Finally, I felt it needed some directional lines on the ground.

Fish in a pond

Watercolour of Koi, 30cm x 40cm

I took some reference photos of fish in a pond at Wimpole Hall, with a view to trying out the watercolour methods of Cheng-Khee Chee. This masterful painter starts with an abstract background and then lifts out the lighter areas of the koi.

The first stage of dropping in paint and letting the colours mingle was really quite enjoyable. When next placing my fish, I was looking for a circular movement and let the composition happen organically.

Of course, my effort does not even come close to Cheng-Khee Chee's masterpieces, but I am nonetheless quite pleased with the result.

Rustic Pots

watercolour 30cm x 40cm

I found this selection of jugs and flower pots on a shelf in the gardeners' cottage on the Wimpole Hall estate and thought it made a nice found still life.

Wimpole Hall is a national trust estate just north of Royston, which we visited last weekend for the first time. It is quite a large estate with a beautiful mansion and is also popular with families because of its working farm.


The paper I used was Saunders Waterford rough. For the paints, I chose a limited palette of Jacksons cobalt and ultramarine blue, raw siena and Winsor & Newton permanent alizarin crimson.

Sailing boat at Blakeney

I came across this boat along our coastal walk to Blakeney, Norfolk, and loved its bright colours and the strong reflections it cast in the water. In my painting, I cleared the spit of land of the many cars that were parked there, but added some dog walkers, of whom I saw many in the area.

Sailing boat at Blakeney

Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk

Watercolour, 30cmx40cm

I visited Oxburgh Hall for the first time in February. This is a stately home in a beautiful setting and doesn't seem to get too crowded, although it might be busier in the summer than early in the season. We had a guided snowdrop walk through the grounds and found out not only interesting facts about this plant but also more about the history from knowledgeable guide David.

There are staff in each room of the house, who you can ask for information about the exhibits etc. I preferred this personal approach to the usual way museums are organised, where you have to read the information yourself or listen to an audioguide.

I always love painting water, probably because I like the colour blue, and wanted to bring out the lights and darks in this painting.

The Rosin Box

Dancer watercolour

Another figure study to ring the changes from landscapes. With an "empty" background, this was easier to paint than landscapes, as I just had to adjust the background values to bring forward the subject.

Dancers dip their soles into a box of rosin to make the shoes less slippery. The only other time I have come across rosin is the one used for violin bows.

Norfolk Landscape

Watercolour, 30cm x 40cm

I started this painting at the art evening of the Lea Valley art club. Although the official theme was monochrome painting, we don't have to follow the brief and can do our own thing.

Whenever I think I have the whole painting process sussed out, I tend to come a cropper.  I duly made an unsuccessful first attempt and found that the colour choices did not work together and the composition was lacking, too. This is the second version, where I made sure that I used the same colours throughout, just with a warmer cast in the foreground and a bluer mix in the background.

By the middle stage of the painting, I was again ready to bin it, but decided to keep working on it and treat it as an exercise, trying to bring in more texture and tone. On hot pressed paper, the paint stays more on the surface than on rough paper, I have found. I think I have just about made it work.

Norfolk Mill

Norfolk Mill, watercolour

We walked from Morston Quay to Cley next the Sea on a sunny February day, stopping frequently to take lots of photos of the marshy landscape. The dark fields and bright reeds created beautiful contrasts and rhythms in the landscape. I must admit that I had expected to see the sea on our walk, but we were a lot more inland.

Incidentally, this wonderful windmill in Cley next the Sea can be rented for holidays.

For this painting I used some gouache to restore the highlights that were lost in the background. I am quite relaxed about using other media with watercolour and am not a purist about using just transparent watercolour. This is again painted on Saunders Waterford Rough paper, which takes the paint really well and keeps the colours bright.

Lilies

With this painting, I went for a more minimalist approach, keeping the background mainly white and painting the flowers with just a few brush strokes. I hope that this conveys the freshness and delicacy of the lilies.

Lilies, watercolour

Watercolours from Saffron Walden

These watercolours are all based on a visit to Saffron Walden and especially the Bridge End gardens, which are beautiful. I found the lemon plants in one of the greenhouses in the gardens. They were the starting point for the still life painting.

Saffron Walden has a beautiful old town and is well worth a visit.

My paper of choice these days is Saunders Waterford Rough High White. It is very sympathetic to my brush strokes and a high quality paper. I am also using my Jackson squirrel brush a lot more and love the marks it can make. Another recent addition is the Pro Arte Connoisseur size 12 brush, which replaces an older one I had for many years and was very happy with. It lost a few bristles at first, which concerned me, but it seems to have settled down now.

Urban Fox

Have you noticed how many more urban foxes there are now than there were a few years ago? They have become regular visitors to my back garden, where on one summer night, I watched three fox cubs chasing each other around the lawn.

My husband spotted this one earlier last year, basking in the sunshine in the middle of the day. It made a great painting subject.