Rain, rain, go away ...

I  was hoping to get out to do some plein air sketching in the next couple of weeks, the first time in many, many months, and even though I'm feeling a lot fitter now, the weather is still pretty awful ... and the long range forecast doesn't look good either! The hills in the area around my home town in the NorthWest will be getting some snow very soon apparently - What on earth is happening, it's May!

But, despite the cold and the almost continuous rain, I did manage to get out to the summerhouse (aka garden studio) over the weekend. I decided to have a bit of a sort out and stored away anything that I thought I wouldn't need  for a while and just left out the materials I thought I would need over the next few months.

I had been working on a drawing while I was off work convalescing and I originally had the intention of adding watercolour to it. I generally don't do a lot of preparatory drawing for my watercolours, preferring instead to draw with the brush as I go along, so it all felt a little too rigid for me. It's quite a large format too to what I generally use (12in x 16in) and so I got out the biggest brush I could find - a one inch bristle wood preservative brush (!) and worked lots of lovely rich Daler Rowney tube colour over the drawing like it was going out of fashion! Well, I must admit, it looked absolutely dreadful ... and no, I didn't take a photograph of it ... way too embarassing! Not wanting to commit it to the waste paper bin, I took out my Carbothello pastel pencils and my Derwent hard pastels and set to work, covering the watercolour washes with dry opaque pigment. I quite like the result - not bad for a watercolour painter anyway :)

Happy painting to you all.

Cambridge 1, Pastel on Langton 140lb HP, 16in x 12in

Fields of Gold

I can't believe it ... A year ago yesterday I posted my very first entry to this blog. How time flies! So, in celebration of Blogiversary No 1, I thought it would be a nice idea to run a little competition. The lucky winner will receive one of my watercolours, chosen personally by me, and framed by a local gallery. Second prize is TWO of my paintings, third prize is THREE ... Chuckle, chuckle, you get the idea ;)

So, I decided that I would keep things simple and just pick the winner based solely on Google statistics. Based on the trafffic from referring sites, made to my blog in the last year and without further prevarication, the outright winner is ......

Tah ta-ta-ta ta taaaaaah .... Judy at De Draad Aquarellen !!!

Congratulations Judy, and a special thankyou for all your support over the last year, I believe you have commented on almost every single post I have made. Of course the same thankyou goes out to everyone that has taken the trouble to follow me, to leave comments and suggestions, or to just simply 'pop by' now and then. It is all very much appreciated and so thank you again, everyone. A special thankyou also goes out to Sandra at Sandraws,  for encouraging me to start my own blog in the first place !

And last, but not least, I offer this watercolour, with fond memories of my much missed mum, Iris, who was born 85 years ago on the 17th April. 'Fields of Gold' was one of her favourite songs in her later years.

Happy painting, sketching and drawing!

Fields of Gold, watercolour and BrushPen on Cotman Cold Pressed, 25.4 x 17.8cm/10 x 7in

Rough Stuff

The two watercolours posted here were painted with Winsor &Newton Artists tube colours on 140lb/300gsm rough paper, the first on Daler Rowney Langton A4 and the second on Arches 9x12/23x31.
Hope you are all well ... Me, I'm still feeling a little rough but generally on the mend :)
Happy painting!