Saturday 26 May 2012

Nul points

Well, I hope we get more than that tonight (go Engelbert, go) ... and I hope you give me more than zero too for yet another painting of a field of rapeseed! I used a photo for reference for this large finished painting, taken yesterday on my phone whilst speeding at about 60mph along the guided busway towards Cambridge. I was on my way to buy more watercolour paper of course.

It was a scorching hot day (for the UK), the sky was clear and appeared an almost complementary violet to the endless fields of acid yellow.

Happy painting and good luck Europe!


Liquid Gold II, watercolour and pastel pencil on Hahnemuhle Cornwall 450gsm/210lbs matt, 30 x 40 cm/11.8 x 15.7 in


36 comments:

  1. Fabulous painting, Michael, beautiful, and I swear I can breathe the air!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, Sharon. Don't breathe in too far - think about the pollen!

      Delete
  2. Hi Michael, Liquid Gold 1 & 11 have really caught my attention. Well done my friend. You must be very pleased with what you have achieved with these two pieces. Don't forget we owe each other a beer sometime during Swanage Carnival, if you are holidaying in Purbeck this year. Best wishes Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Roger, thank you for your lovely comments. Great to hear from you again and I love the new website by the way! We're not holidaying in Purbeck this year as it's our tenth anniversary in August so we're hoping to get to somewhere a little further away :) Having said that, if things go to plan, we could be down there on a more permanent basis ... very soon!

      Delete
  3. Fabulous, Michael! I like the little details in the field that create great perspective! Do you like the Hahnemühle paper?
    Oh and good luck Europe sounds good! :) I'm not sure I'm going to watch the whole event.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Judy! Yes, I really like the HahneMuhle 450gsm Matt paper. The Rough version is not as nice as the surface is a bit too mechanical fro my liking ... apologies to our German cousins for the lack of an umlaut there! Poor Hump, second from last, but I fell asleep and missed most of it anyway :(

      Delete
  4. This is beautiful Michael.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for your lovely comment, Renske :)

      Delete
  5. Beautiful work, Michael, I like the extraordinary depth of the view, suggested by the eletric line and by the hills and trees in the distance!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Lucia! Being more of a sketching artist, I had to slow down and really take my time with this one, but I think it paid off :)

      Delete
  6. Beautiful work indeed! Great use of colour. Thanks so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Vinayak and thank you so much for commenting too!

      Delete
  7. Hi Michael, very beautiful work indeed. I like the sense of peace that transmits your painting. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tito! I'm really pleased that it gives that sense of peace. It is a peaceful place to be - if you remove the traffic noise - Ciao!

      Delete
  8. I have taken lots of photos of rapeseed fields Michael,(quite a few today) but know I could never turn out a painting as good as this. Field, trees ... telegraph pole, all superb! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ingrid and thank you very much! Oh, I think you could do something as good as this ... and now you have all those photos, why not give it a go!?

      Delete
  9. Lovely watercolour, Michael. Could never get tired of seeing quality work :) xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Pat, that's a really lovely comment :)

      Delete
  10. This is wonderful! I thought it was oil at first. To use pastel over water colour is such a great idea! You really have captured the heat of the day in this painting :0)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sandra! I think the thin layer of opaque cadmium yellow and yellow pastel pencils gave it that oil/acrylic feeling. I just couldn't achieve that acid yellow with watercolour alone ... but it must be possible :)

      Delete
  11. Hi Michael!
    I've taken a walk around your blog and have enjoyed of the landscapes. I love the synthesis and cleaning of your watercolors. You have really wonderful works. I am glad to have discovered your work.
    Thanks for joining me on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Conchi! Thank you for your lovely comments and for joining me on my blog too :) I am glad to have found your work through David Bellamy's blog. I hope that others reading this will pop over and take a look at your awesome landscape work!

      Delete
  12. I was in London and saw the show , what a pity for Engelbert, I hope he will get a commercial success though :-) The day was very hot and you captured a glorious heat in this painting, the effect of the liquid gold is stunning, superb painting !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jane for your lovely comments! Yes, it was a pity. I grew up listening to Engelbert and watching him on the TV in the 60s and 70s - he was one of my mum's favourites!

      Delete
  13. I really like this Michael. Your work just seems to get better and better. With scenes like this there is always a great temptation to use artistic licence to leave out the telegraph poles and overhead cables, but by leaving them in you've created a sense of perspective and space. Brilliant work. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, John. That's a very encouraging comment. I'm sure you feel the same about art .. sometimes we just feel that we've not improved after years and years of work and then sometimes it just all seems to fall into place. This was one of the latter!

      Delete
    2. i really like this picture dad. i would love to see more :) . xx you should put some of your old ones up if you have any still love michelle

      Delete
    3. Thank you very much, Shell! I've had no time at all recently to do any painting or sketching. Mmm, not sure about posting old ones ... then again some of them aren't all that bad and some do look better than more recent stuff LOL. xx

      Delete
  14. I like the atmosphere here. Crisp air and beautiful color. And composition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your lovely comment, Irina!

      Delete
  15. I write you an answer here on your blog also, in case you don´t see it in MY blog "art by Catharina Engberg":
    Thank you too Michael for becoming a follower of MY blog! You are most wellcome! Yes you are right; it IS "Sleeping beauty".
    Wellcome back! :)
    Best regards from Sweden and Catharina Engberg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you again, Catharina, for becoming a follower of my blog! I hope others will read this reply and check out the lovely work you have on your blog ;)

      Delete
  16. Beautiful watercolor Michael, has very good work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hola Manuel! Welcome and thank you for your very kind comment.

      Delete
  17. I must say: I like your soft and natural blend of colours! I am myself still struggling with my second painting of Poppies.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thank you Catharina! I wanted to capture the essence of the scene which was the complementary colour scheme of yellow land and violet sky. The hardest part was to indicate the green undergrowth of the crop without destroying the yellow.

    ReplyDelete

No silly verification words here - all comments are appreciated! Thank you :)