Thursday 8 July 2010

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

8 comments:

Caroline Simmill said...

Mick your watercolour is really beautiful! You have a loose and fluid style of painting in this medium and have captured the transparency perfectly. One of the nicest paintings I have seen recently. Please don't go and over work this to me it is finished maybe start another if you want to paint some more. The pot maybe needs it's curve at the base sorting out.

Unknown said...

Caroline - You are very kind. I'd like to say that the pot really is that shape but it wouldn't be true, just an example of my poor drawing. Your advice is good, leave it as it is and move in to the next piece after a judicious touch to the base of the pot.

Peter Ward said...

I like it Mick! Nice work.

Unknown said...

Peter - Thanks a lot you're a gent

Peter Ward said...

I should have said Mick what I really liked about this painting is the vibrant colour and excellent contrast between light and dark. The shapes of the pot and bottle could be slightly better but don't detract at all from the overall effect. After all as CR says `mistakes are part of it'.Down with nitpicking!

Unknown said...

Peter - Thanks a lot. The drawing wasn't as careful as it should have been. It's adjusting to contour drawing that usually foxes me. I've still not got it down as a natural way of working.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Mick,
Your adventures to the gallery sound very similar to things I have seen at some of the shows I've been in....must be universal. I've all but given up on judges...no standards there. I look at judging now as a matter of simply the luck of the draw. None of it makes sense.
I can also totally relate to the house maintenance too. We've had trees come down, numerous water pipe breaks and they are always underground and the last place you look. We've had pressure tanks go out and recently an ozonator for our water tank go out...all of 2 years old....$200. My neighbor who just moved in brought his 2 horses and so now his gophers are now my gophers...the yard looks like a WW1 battlefield. No fun at times. Looking forward to seeing your new work.

Unknown said...

Ron - Thanks so much for stopping by and sorry to hear about your own domestic travails. Keeping momentum going with such distractions isn't easy. Your opinion of judges is certainly in accord with mine. I think that art is something that doesn't lend itself easily to competition but often that is the only way that a working artist can get exposure for their work