Watercolour at Wisbech

I’ve been on the road again, this time to the Wisbech Art Club who meet in the Elm Centre, a lovely hall in the village of Elm just outside Wisbech, Cambs. On Saturday 11th March we got together to paint in watercolour and had a really nice day.

Demonstration watercolour painting of Old Barn in Norfolk
Old Barn at Ringstead Downs. Demonstration watercolour painting 22ins x 15ins on Waterford 140lb NOT paper.

You can see my two demonstration pieces here. The first one, which was the Old Barn at Ringstead Downs, we painted through as a group, following my demonstration step by step. I find that this gives me the maximum chance to show and explain my watercolour techniques and for the group to follow them.

Demonstration watercolour painting of a boat on the mud
Moored at Morston. Demonstration watercolour painting 15ins x 11ins on Waterford 140lb NOT paper.

Later in the day, I did another short demonstration at the easel, with some of the group gathered round. This piece was a scene of a boat on the mud at Morston Creek. Both subjects are quite simple compositions, but there are plenty of things to learn even from the most basic of paintings. I’ve used both the Old Barn and the Morston Boat compositions before but they are ideal for learning many tricks of the watercolour trade!

My palette of colours was a very limited one in both paintings. Ultramarine Blue Light, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Primary Yellow in the Old Barn painting and Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Avignon Orange in the Morston work. All these colours are MaimeriBlu watercolours. If you’re using other brands then Ultramarine Blue Light is the same as standard French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna are pretty universal, Primary Yellow is a bright yellow tending towards lemon but a little warmer, Prussian blue is the same the world over, and finally Maimeri Avignon Orange is a reddish brown not dissimilar to Brown Madder. For both these demonstrations I used Saunders Waterford 140lb NOT surface paper. All these materials can be obtained from the SAA.

I had a really enjoyable day with the Wisbech group, so thank you all be being so friendly and I hope to see you again in the future!

Watercolour at March, in March

Yes, the title of the post sounds confusing doesn’t it? But by a strange coincidence, on the 2nd March 2017 I gave a watercolour demonstration to the a group of artists who meet in the library at the town of March in Cambridgeshire. So, March in March!

watercolour painting of barns in kent
Barns in Kent, after Rowland Hilder. 22ins x 15ins on Saunders Waterford 140lb rough paper.

You can see my demonstration painting here. I based the composition on a scene of old barns in Kent, which I found in one of my books about the artist Rowland Hilder. Rowland’s work is really well worth studying for any watercolour landscape artist, as he was a true master of the genre, particularly the landscape in winter. Here, I’ve made the trees a little more summery than Hilder would probably have done, but the palette of colours is fairly typical of his work.

I used MaimeriBlu watercolours for this demonstration, the exact colours being Ultramarine Blue Light, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Primary Yellow. The Raw Sienna is only used for some warmth in the lower part of the sky, and Primary Yellow was used for the greens, mixed with Ultramarine and a little touch of Burnt Sienna.  All the browns, blacks and greys are mixed from Ultramarine with either Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber. Rowland Hilder often used Lamp Black in his paintings, but I didn’t do that here, preferring to reflect the colour of the sky in all my mixes. Most of the painting was done with a 1 inch flat brush (ProArte sable-synthetic), but the barns and trees were done with a number 8 round brush.

The artists at March were a lovely group and I had a really enjoyable afternoon. See you all again at some point in the future!