Friday 6 July 2012

Cloudy memories

It  has been raining for most of the day ... again ... and the Met Office forecast a deluge of almost biblical proportions ... but thankfully it hasn't happened, and now it's a pleasant, dry evening here in the East of England. I painted this view of the lush green flood meadows across the river from visual memory with more than a hint of artistic license of course ;-)

Happy painting to you all!


Great Ouse and flood meadows, Huntingdon, watercolour on Saunders Waterford 140lb Rough, 10x11", 25x28cm

41 comments:

  1. Like this a lot Michael - it's still pretty grim over in Wales - had a gorgeously sunny evening last night followed by one of the noisiest thunderstorms in the night and it hasn't stopped raining since!!! Your painting pretty much says it all! Love purple/green combo!

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    1. Thank you Sharon! It's all a bit changeable here at the moment too ... hot and sunny then a few hours of vertical rain :( Guess what? It's raining again now !

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  2. Hello Michael:) Very nice technique you've used in this painting! Love the colors and the view. Considering done by memorie; very great job!

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    1. Hello Renate and thank you very much :) I like to paint from memory - I think it stops me fussing about getting the colours and details right!

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  3. I like it very much, Michael, love the purple in the sky and the interesting greens of the meadows! We had a few nice days, but I think the next few days that rain is going to come down here.

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    1. Thank you Judy! I guess you're having pretty much the same weather as we are here in the UK. It's nice to listen to the rain on the conservatory roof as I sit here at the PC ... but it's gone a little too long now!

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  4. That's an awesome painting of England. You have a distinctive artistic style. I love the details you worked into the painting.

    I do watercolour paintings too, although I'm still practicing. I love to be very creative too. Matter of fact I have a blog of my own where I feature my art. If you have the time you should come over and take a peak. BTW I am your newest follower!

    Have a great day.
    Michael Lounsbury
    www.michaelsmedley.blogspot.ca

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    1. Hi Michael and thank you for your generous comment and for being one of my newest - and possibly youngest - followers. I think you have a distinctive style too and I hope others will take a look at your work as I have done ;-) Have a great day too - hope you come back to take a look again!

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  5. Hi Michael, you can have all the license you need, love the painting..
    BJ

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    1. Hi BJ! Thank you very much for your lovely sweet comment :)

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  6. Lush and green...but still menacing, gorgeous sky ...what a memory !

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    1. Thank you Jane - it's probably 10% memory, 90% imagination ... but who will know ;)

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  7. A wonderfully atmospheric painting, Michael. You've captured the wetness of the countryside perfectly in this - that's exactly what it feels like around here at the moment.

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    1. Thank you very much, Vandy. Yes, it certainly is a bit wet around here at the moment isn't it?

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  8. Good morning Michael.
    Lovely painting. I like it very much. The Sky, the Landscape the Water. All brilliant.
    A great atmospheric painting all over. All the best Michael.
    vic.

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    1. A belated good morning to you too, Vic. Thank you very much. I'm so pleased you like it - just wish I could have done this plein air!

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  9. Hi Michael, very attractive landscape with the Great Ouse river, I like your beautiful sky and the nice contrast of green. Have a good w.e.

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    1. Hi Tito, I hope it brought back memories of your time here and the beautiful river scenes and Cambridgeshire skies! Thank you very much :) Ciao.

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  10. My stomach is protesting! Getting hungry! But think I still have a little time for a coment :)
    Beautyful with the pink and yellow behind the dark clowds! This is mostly a dry painting isn´t it? I think about the small white spots on the paper.Sunshine glowing through the clowds and down at the ground. I think it´s difficult to controll how much pigments that sticks to the paper when I paint like that. Don´t you?

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    1. Hi Catharina! I hope you managed to quieten your hungry stomach but thank you very much for holding on long enough to leave a lovely comment. It started out more wet in wet but I wiped out a lot of the original wishy-washy layer with paper towel. The paper I have been using (Saunders Waterford) stays damp for quite a long time so I added more pigment to compensate. But yes, some of it was definitely dry brush - a very hit and miss technique, quite literally!

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  11. Hola Michael.
    Beautiful sky, with the contrast between the yellow and violet, although it remains menacing. I love those green meadows and the effect of water flooding them.
    On Wednesday there was a great storm that destroyed my router .... Today is a sunshine day, I have internet conection again!! :DD
    Hugs.

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    1. Hola Conchi.
      Thank you for your lovely comment. Sounds like you had a really bad electrical storm over there and I'm very glad that you got your connection back so quickly :) Let's hope we see a break in the weather soon!

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  12. This is brilliant Michael, nice deep colours. Dark clouds that seem very threatening.

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    1. Hi Renske. Thank you very much for your lovely comment. Those dark clouds weren't just threatening. I think it rained very soon afterwards!

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  13. I'm not holding my breath but I can see a patch of blue as I type! I think your biblical rain landed here yesterday ;o) These stormy skies can be quite inspiring as you have shown.

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    1. Thank you Lisa! I heard the words Dorset and deluge on the radio yesterday and thought about you! Hope you start to get better weather soon:)

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  14. Very nice. I especially like the use of complementary colours in the clouds.

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    1. Thank you for your compliments on my complements, Sue :-)

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  15. I thought about the complementaryclolours in the clowds too Michael, as Sue over here, and you managed not making it green. You got skills there! :)

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    1. Hi again Catharina and thank you too for your lovely comments. You're absolutely right, it is difficult avoiding making green skies!

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  16. Lucky you've got a great memory as well as lots of talent Michael. This weather is certainly not giving us any breaks this summer. Just love this and I can imagine myself in amongst that lush green world even with it's moody mauve clouds. :-)

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    1. Hi Laura! Thank you very much for your lovely comments. Lets hope for a better July so we don't have to rely on memory too much:)

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  17. Very nice Michael. It is very typical of our climate right now with that very threatening sky. I like how you can do these from memory ... I struggle to remember where I left my brushes. ;-)

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    1. Thank you very much, John. I may do a couple more like this from memory ... now where did I put those paints ;-)

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  18. Hi Michael, your work is outstanding. The fact that you can paint from memory is nothing short of brilliant. Michael, quick question, have you ever worked in gouache. I have just ordered a set of Holbein artist gouache, hope they will be good for plein air. Keep these lovely paintings coming.

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    1. Hi Joan and thank you very much! I only retain a little in memory, just the key parts of the scene, and the rest is made up, pure artistic license :) Yes, I have used gouache and can recommend it. I have only used W&N gouache but I'm sure that Holbein will be just as good. It is basically opaque watercolour but the way it gets its opacity varies from brand to brand. Cheaper brands tend to use use white to fill them out, but that weakens the intensity. The better brands (like W&N) use higher pigment concentration. Search for 'gouache' on my blog - I have used it quite a few times :) Have fun with it!

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  19. Flood plains, so very typical of this awful weather.
    Love the feeling in your painting, Michael xx

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    1. Thank you very much Pat! The floodplains here and deeper on in the Fens get a lot of use in this weather:)

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  20. Hi Michael,

    Thank you for the Ralph Parker blog. His post was very helpful and I will be returning to read more about gouache. I hope it wasn't a mistake ordering the Holbein set, will soon find out.

    All the best to you,
    Joan

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  21. You're very welcome, Joan. We're all here to help each other :) As I said on your blog, I think the Holbeins will be absolutely fine.

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  22. Hi Rose and thank you very much. I like to think that I'm improving so it's nice to get reassuring comments like yours :) We've all had enough of the rain here in the UK now so if you have any spare good weather then please send it this way Have a great week too yourself :)

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