Mottisfont is a National Trust estate near Romsey in Hampshire. My reference photos are from early March, when there were no leaves yet on the trees.
Having painted them now (in April), I thought it would be nice to show the trees in blossom. This way, they make a nice contrast to the buildings in the background and generally stand out more from the other elements of the painting.
I have also moved the trees in the foreground closer together than they are in real life so they make a repeating pattern. In short, this painting is not a literal description of the place but how I feel about it.
A painting of Egyptian geese in dappled shade. I seem to come back to these scenes of light and shade.
The coastline of Dover, just beyond the harbour.
When we visited in February, there were still hardly any cars crossing the channel, so the traffic was mostly lorries. This was also before the time P&O Ferries made their infamous move to sack 800 staff overnight, something I hope they won't get away with.
The reason we went to Dover was to see Dover Castle, which showcases history from the Middle Ages to the First World war, well worth a visit.
Wimpole Hall on an overcast day. It was a challenge to show form in light conditions with few shadows but I am quite pleased with the result.
While I haven't been able to travel far these last two years, I have enjoyed visiting places like Wimpole Hall at different times of the year and observe the changes the seasons bring.
Especially at this time of year, it is good to get out and enjoy the sun when it makes an appearance, these two paintings remind me of a walk on just such a sunny late autumn day.
I was quite surprised to see so many pheasants at Wrest Park and have never had the chance to see them so close before. Their plumage really is astoundingly patterned and colourful, which was a pleasure to paint.
I painted the belly of the bird wet-into-wet (dropping paint into wet paint) and the back wet-against-wet (placing patches of paint next to each other, while still wet).
I found these striking flowers in Anglesey Abbey near the lode mill. I just loved their regular geometric pattern, which looks a bit like a chessboard or stone flags so it makes sense that one of their common names is 'chequered daffodil' or 'chequered lily'.
I painted this flower on a small postcard size watercolour pad that my son gave me for my birthday; it's just the right size for a small study.
The challenge was to paint the reflections and giving an impression of the ice without too much extra information. Wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry painting achieved the different textures.
Lockdown has given me a deeper appreciation of wildlife close to home. While we could not meet family and friends, there has always been nature to engage with. Over the last year, I had the chance to follow the life cycle of coots and observe the changing bird population on the river and lakes and this has given me a sense of normality that has been missing in everyday life.
Two weeks ago, I happened to come across a heron by the river and managed to take photos for reference. I hadn't noticed before the striking pattern of its plumage, and it seems both male and female herons look similar.
I first made a little study, before developing it into a painting.
 |
| heron study in watercolour |
 |
| heron and duck on river, watercolour |
This is a recreation of a dramatic cloudy sky I observed on one of my walks. I knew I wanted to paint it as simply as possible and used just three colours, the darkest being Teal by Ken Bromley instead of my usual French Ultramarine. It seems to me that it makes more transparent greys than the latter colour.
For the tree reflections, I just bled the trees into the bottom part of the paper and the reflections appeared as if by magic.
This painting took all of five minutes, but I am very pleased with the result.
This little stone chapel is part of a castle in Sion, the capital of the canton of Valais, Switzerland. Sion is in the French speaking area of Valais and looks very picturesque with is castles and fortresses overlooking the town.
I painted this on Hahnemühle Aquarell Anniversary Edition. This turned out to be an ideal paper for painting the stone church, as the structure of the paper helped with granulation, which suggested the stone texture in an effortless way.
Painting a winter scene in watercolour does not take too long, as the white paper does most of the work.
I painted this from photos of a few years back. This house has since been torn down and rebuilt in a different style.
The pink house makes a nice warm contrast to the cool winter colours.
I painted the snow on the fir trees in two different ways:
- by using white oil pastels on the two small trees and
- by leaving gaps of white paper on the big tree on the left.
To achieve the wintery branches of the trees in the background, I split the hairs of a Chinese brush before dipping them in paint and applying gentle upwards brush strokes.
A new year has begun; let's hope that this is the year we can finally get back to a more normal life.
This is the same park but with a view of the church.
I joined the live stream from 12 am and decided on using pencils for speed. I drew from the still photograph and surprisingly, the portrait came together within half an hour, without me consciously measuring anything. As I was refining the drawing, I started to lose the likeness and spent the next hour trying to get it back. I used a rubber at the end for some highlights.
Unfortunately, we are entering another lockdown phase in the UK and wonder if it's going to be even harder than the first one. At least, Portrait Artist of the Week will provide a welcome distraction on a Sunday.
