Two Dancers, Watercolour

One subject I keep coming back to is the human figure, and especially ballet dancers. I prefer capturing them in between performances rather than on stage because I find the formal shapes they make more interesting when the dancers are at rest.

Before I was ready to do the actual painting, I prepared by doing colour notes and small compositional and tonal thumbnail sketches, as well as some detailed pencil drawings. Watercolour needs a lot more preliminary work than other mediums, but then the actual painting stage is really fast, which I find very satisfying.

I painted this on Bockingford rough, 30cm x 40cm.

Two Dancers, Watercolour

Cafe Spitz, Basel

Watercolour, 30cm x 40cm

The green shutters of this elegant cafe harmonised with the colour of the passing tram

Mittlere Brücke

Kayaking on the River Lea

These kayakers provided a welcome splash of contrasting colour to the blues and greens of the river scene.

 

Under the Bridge, watercolour

After completing four commissioned portraits, I am now back painting landscapes.  The elegant arches of this bridge made an interesting composition and I  love the simple shape and the turquoise colour of the wooden boats you find mooring on the river Rhein.

Wettsteinbruecke, Basel

Mein letzter Aufenthalt in Basel bringt mir immer noch Inspiration zum Malen. Hier haben sich die eleganten Brückenbogen und das einfache blaugrüne Holzboot zu einer harmonischen Komposition ergänzt. Der Blick geht vom kleinbasaler Ufer hinüber zu Grossbasel.

Summer lake

This is a small man-made lake above Lenzerheide, which we came across on one of our walks last summer. I liked how the water changed colour from the near edge to the distant shore.

Watercolour, 30cm x 40cm

Basler Muenster watercolour

Watercolour, 31cm x 41 cm

I painted this with very few layers, using the direct painting method by placing washes next to each other.

Heidsee Watercolour

The Heidsee is situated in Lenzerheide, where I spent my summer holiday. Lenzerheide lies in a beautiful high mountain valley in Switzerland and is mostly popular with Swiss, German and Dutch tourists. The lake showed strong reflections that day, which I captured with my camera to paint from back home.

Watercolour of Heidsee, 30cm x 40cm