Month: April 2018

Sketchwork on Bosham Harbour

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I have been away for the last five days or so, in Spain with perfect temperatures of around 20 with gentle sunshine plus sea air. I’m back now to something like 12 and wet so feeling cold. Yesterday I rescued my garden and allotment. Today I am catching up on other things like my blog

I started last time with an indistinct photograph of Bosham Harbour, which I have done so many times, but this time in evening colours.  Before I went away I prepared some sketches and finally decided on the one which I have illustrated.

I have kept the distinctive distant shore line without much detail. That broach spire identifies the village of Bosham unmistakably.  From my archives I have included a different boat, which will add something to the foreground.  There were beached boats in the photograph which in my opinion did little, although I did include a couple of these to close off the side of the painting to he right.

I think I will use a mixture of violet, yellow and brown for the painting. I am more interested in how the colours work, than in the actual image, so the result may look like an impression of Bosham rather than a record of the harbour itself.

Before leaving this subject, I will mention that I am setting up an exhibition in Leatherhead, in the theatre on Monday morning.  Leatherhead is a town about twenty miles distant, so new territory, which is always exciting

Coming back to the Bosham painting, I will finish with another image, which is the basic line drawing transferred to watercolour paper. We are now ready to paint.

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A different aspect of Bosham Harbour

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i think I may have mentioned ad nauseam that Bosham Harbour with its ancient church is a favourite subject for painting, and is widely known

If I am preparing for an exhibition, I usually like to have at least one view of this beautiful little place. The problem is that everyone wants the same shot, across the harbour with the church against the skyline, so painters, like me, are continually looking for a way to paint this view, and yet make it look different every time.

I came across the attached photograph a few months ago, which interested me. As you can see, it is a gentle evening shot, with some bright sky and some very deep silhouettes. The details are blurred, which is not something I usually do, but found myself intrigued nonetheless. The effect could be impressionistic, which again is not something I usually do. The other thing I liked, is that, when translating this into a painting, one could use a very limited pallette, which I find improves the effect very often. In this case, we are looking at yellow and violet basically, which generally work together very well.

I haven’t used these two colours for a while, so the idea is attractive

I am not sure about how I feel about the beached boats in the immediate foreground. They are certainly an aid to perspective, which I can appreciate, and yet in your face just a bit. I think I will draw some of these separately on tracing paper and chase them round the composition to see what I like best. I have been through my archives of boats too, and have sketched one or two of those, again to see what works.

Despite what I said about getting away from detail for a change, I don’t want meaningless shapes either, and unlike photographers, artists can choose what goes into a composition, which gives us an advantage, so I might be able to get away from that rather shapeless foreground.

I think there will be quite a lot of work with little bits of tracing paper, before we hit on the right composition, so we will see what happens. Yet another journey into the unknown.

Goathland ( or is it Hogsmeade ) Railway Station Finished Painting

/ davidrpharmer / 5 Comments

Goathland or Hogsmeade Railway Station

The finished article

I had no idea how this might turn out. I was attracted by the colours at first. Whoever thought to paint the station and rolling stock in that bright red, and then place them all against all that greenery, certainly had an eye for colour

I am old enough to remember the old British rail rolling stock, which was long past its sell-by date, fifty years ago, perhaps without us knowing. In the 1970s I worked for a company manufacturing furniture, and remember sending consignments in the old British Rail B container down to Switzerland. They were cheap is about all you could say. The journey took several days and the containers let in water, because as I said, they were old. We changed to transport by road using a Swiss haulage company, and the service improved dramatically, but sad nonetheless.

The colours were familiar though. Perhaps more weather beaten which faded the colours, but nevertheless I remember the trucks either as a worn pink or perhaps a deeper browny red

In any event, I have left the colour of the goods trucks slightly on the bright side, in order to stand out against the trees. Who could remember what they looked like as new. We only ever saw them after wind, sun and rain had taken their toll, not to mention smuts from the steam engine, which would have been shunting them in those days

I ended up liking this painting. I can spot mistakes, of course, but enjoyed working on it. Whether the painting will prove saleable is yet to be seen. I have stopped trying to predict what will sell and what won’t, as I am wrong so often

I have the Leatherhead Theatre exhibition coming up, so may try to get it in there.

We shall see