Horse statue

This is based on the stables courtyard of Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust property in England. I just loved the horse statue (by Edgar Boehm), which looks so full of vitality and energy.

Some of the proportions and architectural details are not accurate but I think it works as a painting nonetheless. I also changed the white of the sun umbrella to blue, as I thought it suited the overall colour scheme better.

Waddesdon Manor is a very elegant property, which emulates the architecture of a French chateau, and is well worth a visit.

North Yorkshire Moor

I was walking the moors in August on a day that started clear but with the mist rolling in fast, which made the landscape look quite autumnal. 

At first, we spotted just the occasional grouse, but the further we walked, the more birds scuttled out of bushes and ran away from us. They are quite well camouflaged. I wonder if you can spot the one in this painting?

Thoughts on achieving a likeness

This is the portrait of a chocolate labrador I painted towards the end of the summer and I am pleased with how it turned out. 

People who know the dog have commented that it is a good likeness and particularly referred to the eyes as a true reflection of the dog's character. 

On a practical level, when trying to achieve a likeness, it is not enough to focus on just painting the eyes correctly. Instead, the same attention must be paid to the attitude of the dog and all the apparently less important parts of the head, as they all contribute to an eventual likeness. This is why I finish the eyes last in my painting process (be it in humans or animals). 

Portraits need reference photos with good lighting to be successful and I find natural light without strong shadows the most pleasing.

Inspired by Sorolla

Before visiting the National Gallery Exhibition of paintings by the Spanish impressionist painter Sorolla, I knew nothing about this artist. I gather he is particularly popular in the United States and his home country. I loved his light-filled oil paintings of beach scenes and gardens and his painting style reminded me of John Singer Sargent, his contemporary.

The lesson I took away from his garden paintings is not to worry too much about a finished look to a painting, as his quite often had areas that were not fully developed. In the same way, my own painting of a fountain in Bridge End Gardens (Saffron Walden) has a background that is just floated in wet-in-wet and left fairly vague, so as not to compete with the foreground.

Two paintings from Devon

Sidmouth

This is Jacob's Ladder in Sidmouth, England, painted on Hahnemühle paper in watercolour.

Ladram Bay

Just a few miles along from Sidmouth is Ladram Bay with these sculptural rocks, which makes a great nesting place for seagulls. Ladram Bay can be easily reached on foot along the coastal path from Sidmouth.

Painting with a Chinese watercolour brush

My first introduction to Asian brushes was through reading an instruction book by Ron Ranson, who painted with a hake. I found it very difficult to control, as it held a lot of water and I was relatively inexperienced back then, so I soon put it aside, never to be taken out again until maybe a year ago.

Since then, I have bought some round brushes made from goat hair, which give lovely random effects.
This has encouraged me to explore a wider range of Chinese brushes so I bought a set of three weasel brushes  from Jacksons. They come in a beautiful box and are really reasonably priced.

Unlike Western style brushes, these Chinese brushes need to be prepared for painting first, as they are coated in some protective substance which glues the hairs together. From the Jackson's blog I found out that they need to be soaked in warm to rinse the coating off.

I have tried this on my smallest brush and found it took a good five minutes (it definitely needs to be warm water, as the cold water hardly lifted any of the substance). Once I could ply the brush head, I knew the brush was ready.

I then tried it out on khadi paper (see photo below).

The brush on the top is the one I used for these marks. 

For the blended green and purple washes, I used the belly of the brush on its side, which makes more random marks.

For the scribbles on the top right, I used the tip of the brush, lifting and pressing the body down to get different widths. The brush comes to a good point and can make really thin lines.

For the circles further down, I splayed the brushes' hairs first before putting it to paper. This way I could achieve fine multiple lines, which could be used to paint hair or fur, or to add texture to a wash.

So far, I am very happy with this brush and expect the others to be as good. 

Montacute House

Montacute House is an Elizabethan Manor in Somerset; you can learn more about it here. It has an impressive long gallery, which affords lovely views over the grounds. I understand that there are changing exhibitions of paintings in the rooms leading off the gallery.

The weather during my visit was overcast, which meant that I wanted to push the colours more in this painting.

Water always provides an opportunity to paint loosely and wet-in-wet to give an effect of movement. In fact, I think watercolour is one of the best mediums to portray water.