Category Archives: Vintage paintings

The Bigger the Better – sometimes

Large watercolour painting of Stiffkey marshes
Stewkey Blue – the saltmarshes at Stiffkey, Norfolk. Watercolour 22ins x 30ins.
Large watercolour painting of view from Massingham
Distant View – Sandringham from Massingham, Norfolk. Watercolour 22ins x 30ins.

Today I thought I’d show you a couple of my larger watercolour paintings. These are both full imperial size, 22ins x 30ins, which is the largest piece of normally available watercolour paper. Yes, there is the delightfully named ‘double elephant’ at 27ins x 40ins, but you probably won’t find that in your local art shop!

Both these paintings show that, despite their size, less is more.  A huge sky and a landscape with the most minimal of features is often a great way to show the real beauty of a watercolour wash. And if it doesn’t work well you can always crop it down to a smaller size. I once cropped a full imperial painting down to  six inches square, but it worked!

Both these watercolours are from my personal collection, so they’re not seen very often. But you can buy prints of them, and these will be on sale at my Open Studio event on the 28th and 29th November. Ten artists around the village of Dersingham will be taking part in the Dersingham Christmas Art Trail. you can find out about all the studio in the Trail by visiting http://dersinghamarttrail.org