Getting in some practice

As regular readers will know I've done very little work with watercolour in recent times and discussions with a couple of painter friends have had me feeling a bit guilty about neglecting the medium. Fortunately the commitment made to one of them to complete a painting by the month end has prompted me to set out the watercolour box and take what few opportunities arise to make a picture.

After a couple of plein air pieces I dug out a few bits and pieces to create a still life on the kitchen table and this is the result. Rusty in moving the paint around and clumsy in producing vibrant washes at present, it was still an interesting exercise. A bit of bedtime study is required before wetting the brushes again tomorrow. Loosen up, Mick.

Still life - Watercolour on Not paper

New Challenge

My friend Peter Ward, whose blog is well worth a visit (watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com), and I have been communicating over the last few days and are thinking about making some joint attempts at creating images from the same photographic source material. It could be interesting to see how our different visions produce different results. The idea came about when I decided to have a bash at a subject that Peter had already painted and I thought if I can sit and analyse what somebody else has done it might be a good idea to give it a go myself. It was also a self kick up the rear to get the watercolours out, they've been neglected of late.

Anyway you'll have to wait till the end of the month to see how we got on. In the meantime I've been out to look at some of my favourite haunts with a bit of this rare light on them and returned with lots of pictures of stacks and seaside furniture. This is one that could make it as a joint effort at some stage. I'd enjoyed the walk so much I couldn't resist a quick sketch when I got home. As you can see from the accompanying photograph I did a little bit of judicious editing to make a better composition, or at least that's what I hope.

Souter Lighthouse - Watercolour sketch 10" x 8"