View of Corfe Castle

An early summer painting in England, which is always particularly green at that time of year. This has caused a problem of recession, and maybe I should have used a bluer colour to make the castle sit more in the background.

I am sure I am not the only one to think that beautiful subjects don't automatically make for beautiful paintings...

Whitby Harbour

This was quite a complicated subject and needed a lot of simplification to get to grips with it. It always helps to make a tonal plan. I usually break it down into just three values (light, middle, dark) and do a little thumbnail sketch in pencil.

Greenhouse

Watercolour of a greenhouse

With the first few days of sunny weather, I have spent more time in the back garden, seeing it slowly come back to life. The snowdrops are already blooming and the first few daffodils are also coming through.

I thought the shadows on the greenhouse made a great subject for a painting, even though a challenging one. The key was not getting too distracted by the detail and simplifying where possible.

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.

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.