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.