Ringwood Hall

It's probably not a very intelligent way of trying to loosen up but I do enjoy working with pen so I thought I'd try a fairly quick sketchy painting and try not to be too fussy over straight lines and precise detail. I feel I was partly succesful but don't particularly like the end result. I would have been very happy if it was just a little more like the work of David Webster (http://www.david-webster.co.uk/) whose work I really like, though I do accept I'll never be in his league. LOL. Still, regardless of the end result, I really enjoyed doing this, and that's what it's all about, right?

An exercise

When discussing my "Modern Home" painting with an artist friend I commented on how 'tight' I was feeling with my work and how I wish I could loosen up a lot more. My friend, an extremely accomplished artist, set me a simple exercise. He told me to do the same painting again but this time allow myself no more than 5 minutes for drawing a pencil outline and no more than 25 minutes for the painting. Given the detail in the original (which took me many hours over several days) this seemed like an impossible task. However, I gave it my best shot and although the painting is not one to be proud of, I am nevertheless quite pleased with how well it turned out. This is an exercise I will definitely repeat again from time to time because, despite the result, it was great fun not being so fussy about keeping within the lines.

Red Breasted Friend

While moving some conifers in my garden I was joined by my friend the Robin. An inquisitive little chap, he was forever getting under foot. Mind you, if I put down my spade and picked up my camera he would hop it. And so we played our cat and mouse game all afternoon. I would do some digging while he dodged my spade, then he'd hide in the trees while I held my camera. In the end I finished my digging and cleared away my tools ready to go indoors. My playmate then sat on a tree and sang and I like to think he was thanking me for a couple of hours of fun.

Ringwood Hall

Some time ago my daughter announced that she and her partner were to marry. We discussed various aspects of the proposed wedding and during that chat they asked me if I would do a watercolour of the venue that was finally chosen for the ceremony. I was obviously delighted and agreed enthusiastically. A few weeks ago the happy couple tied the proverbial knot by civil ceremony at Ringwood Hall near Chesterfield.

I don't wish to be unkind to Ringwood Hall but finding a suitbable viewpoint from which to make a presentable painting was not easy. I took dozens of photo's from all angles. Doing a painting of any part of the building wasn't going to be difficult, but making it a 'Landscape painting' rather than picture of bricks and mortar was a different matter.

After much deliberation I decided to try and recreate what the Hall might look like from a higher-than-normal viewpoint. This allowed me to pull in landscape from the surrounding countryside as well as include the wonderful relaxing and tranquil formal gardens. Getting my head round this 3-D object using only ground-level 2-D photo's was not easy but thank goodness for Google Maps. The satellite view of the Hall provided me with a wealth of useful information not only with regards to what was on the roof, but also the way the various parts of the building fitted together.
A lot of time was spent on preliminary pencil sketches and in drawing out the building itself onto the watercolour paper. Perspective was obviously going to be tricky.

At first I wasn't pleased with the finished result. One of my weaknesses is that I am too timid with colour, especially the darks. The 'finished' painting looked flat and disinteresting but some arty friends nudged me into getting some more darks in there and it has made a world of difference. Now I am very pleased with the painting. My daughter and Son-in-law haven't seen it yet and I'm keen to see their reaction .... just a tad nervous about it too.

Bellis Perennis

I've long been a fan of these wonderful little flowers but only recently have I noticed their flowering habit. They are the Daisy family and only grow 4" tall but put out masses of little flowers. What has fascinated me about the way the flowers form is how it gradually develops from a 'daisy' type shape to a pom-pom.

First they create a tiny yellow head that looks much like an unopened bud, but it is only a cluster of stamen (I think). Very soon the yellow stamen around the outside edge of the flower begin to open producing tube-like petals. From time to time a stamen will produce a flower 'out of turn', as in this shot.

Gradually more and more stamen convert to petals ....

... nearly all done ....

.... until finally all we have is a perfectly formed pom-pom. It is only through the eyes of the macro lens that we appreciate that the pom-pom consists of scores of tiny tubes.

A modern English family home

A while ago I was approached by a friend who wanted a painting doing of her daughters house. I was very happy to oblige and she provided me with plenty of reference photo's and some very clear guidelines as to how she wanted the whole thing to look.

The painting is a combination of pen and watercolour. I do call it Pen and Wash but in my mind 'wash' implies loose transparent colours whereas this is more a pen drawing that's been coloured in with fairly strong colours.

Using pen has enabled me to add quite a lot of detail that I wouldn't normally include in a watercolour painting, like the house number set into the stained glass panel in the front door. Of course, these details aren't visible in small interent-based jpeg's.

Barmouth Viking II

Some time ago I was on holiday in Snowdonia and visited Barmouth for the day. As we wandered around, I was snapping scenes that I thought might make potential painting subjects, as you do. One of my photo's was of this catamaran, Barmouth Viking II. She was sitting on the beach at low tide with her skipper doing a bit of routine maintenance on her.

As a small thank you to Skipper John for the use of the photograph let me tell you that Barmouth Viking II is 10 metres long and licensed and equipped to carry up to 12 persons and 2 crew for fishing trips up to 60 miles off-shore. Full details can be obtained from the Barmouth Viking II web site.