Market Hall, Chipping Campden

Built in 1623, this Market Hall caught my attention on a recent visit to the Cotswolds. All of the buildings in Chipping Campden, and other towns in this area, are constructed of this yellowish, locally quarred, limestone.

The Shambles, York

This is a pen & wash of The Shambles in the City of York. For any who don't know, this is a well-preserved medieval street of timber houses. Though I'm very pleased with the end result the painting hasn't turned out as I'd wanted. What I had intended from the outset was to draw the scene with a pen and then add only a minimal amount of colour, leaving the pen lines to do the 'talking'. Regrettably, as is so often the case, I didn't know when to stop and I've applied a lot more colour than I'd ever intended. I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to NOT paint up to the lines and to leave some white spaces here and there. I also think the picture lacks a focal point.

So, I had a second go at this scene. The first thing I decided was to draw in the people jostling past the shop windows. This helped with the focal point issue. The other thing I did was force myself to use weaker colours and put my brush down once I'd laid in some washes. This still isn't the 'minimal colour' effect I was aiming for, but it's much closer.

I would really welcome any comments with regards to which version works best.

Knaresborough

In the Autumn of 2008 my wife and I holidayed in Yorkshire, not far from the market town of Knaresborough. The town is situated on a cliff top overlooking the River Nidd. The cliff makes a fine natural defence and so it was a logical choice to build a castle. The castle has largely gone now but it's remnants are well displayed in a perfectly manicured park area that overlooks the river valley. The view from the park towards the railway viaduct with it's fine arches bridging the valley, is quite breathtaking.

This pen study will never do justice to the beautiful view, but it was fun to do. I find the challenge of going straight in with the pen (no pencil guidelines first) very rewarding.

Ingrid J Ormestad

I'm delighted that my very good friend Ingrid Ormestad has agreed to be the subject of my first "Artist Showcase". For this first showcase we have selected a range of her work from one of her first watercolours, through to her most recent acrylic. In future showcases we will concentrate more on a particular genre, such as Ingrids superb mountain landscapes.

Artist Showcase

As a new feature in my art forum I've decided to 'showcase' the work of selected artists. Each Showcase will be a selection of up to 6 paintings or drawings, complete with text that can either be about the artist, or about their art. The Showcase will be by way of a dedicated page on my web site and will also be linked to from my other art site, the forum and this blog, as well as being mentioned on Facebook and Twitter. Each Showcase will stay on the net for at least one full month, or until such time as another artist requests Showcasing. Any artist who already has a web presence will be able to link to their site from the Showcase.

The first Showcase is under construction and I hope to launch it any day.

Hover Fly

I am gradually building a collection of photo's of the flowers in my garden with the objective of showing that the garden has something flowering every month of the year.

You can see what I have so far on "My Garden" page.

On this particular occasion I was taking a photo of a Dwarf Dahlia that has a lovely peachy/orange colour but it was being visited by a Hover Fly.

I brushed the fly away a couple of times, but he insisted on coming back, so in the time proven spirit of working with what we have, I made the fly the subject.

For the technically minded, I was interested to learn that there are over 6000 species of Hover Fly. Looking at the most common, I suspect this one is Episyrphus Balteatus. Despite their wasp-like markings, they are harmless and gardeners should delight in their presence as they feed on Aphids.

Before taking these photo's I hadn't realised how colourful and beneficial these little chappies can be. We live and learn. ;-)

Cadair Bronwen

Cadair Bronwen is another peak in the Berwyn range of Mountains in Denbighshire, North Wales. This view is looking South towards Cadair Berwyn.

More watercolour paintings can be seen in the Gallery's on my main web site.

Here are links to the Art Galleries on my main site ...

Watercolours

Pencil

Pen and Ink

Line and Wash

Other and Mixed Media

Art Forum