The fine weather is here at last - Yay! Apparently we could see temperatures of 27C/81F here in the East of England today, and for the next few days, so the raincoat and other previously essential warm outer layers of clothing have been left at home and there is now some space in the cycle pannier for my sketching gear!
I painted this quick watercolour sketch on my journey home from work on Wednesday, diverting through the town and along the riverside to make the most of the first day of sunshine we have had for ages. I find I it easier to do art at the end of the working day, although I generally completely reverse things when I'm on holiday and prefer to get out early before everyone else is awake so it has little or no impact on fun family stuff!
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| River Great Ouse, Huntingdon |
And here's my watercolour sketching kit (cleaned up and ready to pack away) on the bench where I sat and sketched the river scene.
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| My watercolour sketching kit |
When I got home, using the sketch, and aided by visual memory and a little artistic license, I did a more 'finished' painting of the same scene. This was painted using Daler Rowney Artists tube colour in a Seawhite Artists Journal ... so I suppose it's still really a sketch ;)
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| River Great Ouse, Huntingdon |
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While I was happily rediscovering how well the paper in the Seawhite journals handled watercolour, I did a couple of loosening up sketches, this time using Royal Talens Rembrandt watercolours:
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| Beachscene |
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| Sailing by |
Finally, I was delighted, nay chuffed, to receive a beautiful original watercolour, together with an equally beautiful handwritten, handpainted card, from one of my 'bestest' blogfriends
Judy, to say thank you in return for the painting I had sent her recently as a well-earned PaintBytes Blogiversary prize. THANK YOU JUDY! I'm pretty sure that Judy needs no introduction from me, particularly considering most of you came to my blog from hers in the first place ... but if you haven't already seen her beautiful watercolour work yet then I suggest you pop over there .... NOW!
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| Judy's hand-painted thankyou card |
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| A genuine, 100% original, Judy Barends watercolour! |
Happy painting to you all ... oh and of course good luck, Englebert !
Fab sketches, Michael! Good weather, finally! I love both river scenes.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Englebert from me too, we are not through to the final... again. :(
Thank you Judy! We seem to get similar weather either side of the North Sea? Yes indeed, I'll be watching and shouting at the scoreboard later. Royaume Uni ... douze points, Jedward-land ... nul points !
DeleteVery nice sketches Michael, you reminded me of my walks, along the river Ouse when I was in England. Ciao!
ReplyDeleteThank you Tito! I'm really pleased that they brought back some memories of your time here in this area :)
DeleteIsn't it lovely to finally see the sun again? It is boiling here today!
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely to see your blog up and running again and your sketches are beautiful :0)
Hi Sandra and thank you! Yes, I was beginning to think I'd overslept and missed summer ;) I'm not back up to full speed yet, just happy posting a few times each month at the moment :)
DeleteGreat to see you here Michael, and as always your paintings are so fresh looking.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you landscape artists do it.... but you do.. !!!
BJ
It's great to be doing a bit more out here BJ, thank you! I've struggled for the last twenty years nearly to get fresh colours so your comment is really special ... thank you again :)
DeleteGood morning to you Mickael.
ReplyDeleteI love your `River Great Ouse` mate. You paint Water just right.
Well done for painting this after a hard days work. Full marks there
michael. All the best.
Vic.
Good afternoon Vic! Water is quite tricky isn't it but at least using watercolour gives you a fighting chance of capturing the effects. All the best my friend. Michael.
DeleteHey great paintings, although I am little concerned about the missile fire over the sailing ship. Really like the quality of both Ouse paintings and your rape sea in the next post (which I confess I haven't read). Why is everyone talking about Englebert?
ReplyDeleteHi Sue and thank you! Missiles ... LOL, yes indeed, it was supposed to be sunrays of course but I was just messing about :) Did you not see Eurovision then ? Engelbert came second from the bottom :( I think we have forgotten how to make pop music here!
Deletebeach scene and river ouse are both lovely michael ..make the most of the good weather to sketch .
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Jane! It's raining again here in the UK :(
DeleteReally enjoyed browsing your blog Michael and just about to pop over to Judy's as you have suggested! Have added you to my blog list so I can return easily for a proper look, thank you for sharing your work
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Sharon, and welcome! I think you will love Judy's work! I hope others will take a look at your new blog too .. you really have got off to a cracking start with some truly excellent pieces :)
DeleteHee hee thank you for removing those annoying verification words - much appreciated they are a pain!
ReplyDeleteYes they are a pain (hint, hint others) which is why I took them off mine! The threaded comments are a nice option too but the commenters avatars all disappear if you enable it :(
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