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.