Wednesday 26 August 2020

Teasels and Bales over the Welland Valley

Watercolour, 7 x 10 inches

Still dabbling with the liquid medium…just a smaller one this time on Arches paper, which is a joy to work on – seems to have more size on the surface than the Waterford paper of my previous couple of paintings.
Going to try Canson paper next…

 

Farmstead, Great Langdale

                   Watercolour, 7.75 x 11 inches
 
Playing around with the watercolours again – just fancied doing a Lakeland subject, with a white cottage and some gorgeous Herdwick Sheep. I love this breed with their stout legs, built for the fells.

Hay Bales at Preston

                                      Watercolour 7.75 x 11.5 inches

 Another watercolour effort - such a different discipline to oil or pastel painting, like painting upside down, reserving the lights at the start,rather than working from dark to light. Quite enjoyed it though!

A View of Semerwater, Yorkshire Dales

                                          Oil on board, 12 x 17 inches. 

I painted this one from a reference photo. What's not to like about this view - beautiful, lone Oak tree on left mid-ground, rolling hills, dramatic sky, sunlight on the distant fields above the lake, the lake itself, and some foreground sheep (artistic licence).

Across the Chater Valley, Lyndon

                                  Oil 7.75 x 14 inches. 

Driving home the scenic route from golf last Friday, my eye was caught by the gorgeous blue/mauve of the distant trees on the road from Lyndon. I was starving, so raced home, grabbed a quick sandwich, then shot back with my kit, parked up and walked back to get the optimum view and quickly got started using a slightly more letterbox-shaped board. It was difficult to get a good composition, because the downhill road was going straight out of the picture plane, so I positioned myself looking through a gap in the avenue of trees. Purely by accident, my car was in the perfect position to stop the eye and poke it back into the picture.

'Bea'

 

                      Pastel 11.5 x 10 inches

A recent commissioned portrait.

The Winding Welland

                      Pastel 13 x 19 inches. 

This started life as a demo sometime last year. I had forgotten about it after stacking it in my custom pastel storage boxes, so I completed it in the studio yesterday.