After the Deluge

I don't know about any of you out there in blogland who aren't here in the UK but recently we seem to have been having quite a bit of weather - in fact some days you could say it's been of biblical proportions! I stopped off in town again today with the intention of getting a sketch done but it was just too wet and even if I could have sheltered from the rain, there was absolutely nowhere dry enough to sit!

To satisfy my desire to paint today, I decided to try out my latest, and probably last, addition to my gouache palette - Red Ochre. I use Light Red or Venetian Red in my watercolours quite a lot so this was one I had planned to get as soon as possible. It's a gorgeous natural red that mixes beautifully with Ultramarine to give nice atmospheric skies. My latest offering for you is the third in my series of seascape practice runs. I kept the use of  white gouache to a minimum and applied the paint quite thinly for this, so it's almost a pure transparent watercolour (well almost).

Seascape III, gouache, 6" x 8"

And here is a snippet from the previous page in my Canson HP watercolour sketchbook showing all the colours I use in the Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache range. The Zinc White is barely visible in this scan - a bit like a polar bear in  a snowstorm I suppose LOL.  I hope you can read my engineer's scribble! Happy Tuesday :O)

My gouache palette