Month: June 2022

Sunset Over South Parade Pier, Southsea

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This photograph of South Parade Pier in Southsea, Hants is a picture I intend to try next in watercolour. It will be interesting trying to capture those bright colours in watercolour paint, and how successful that will be is yet to be seen

So far I have done the drawing which took quite some time, and followed that up with first and second washes. I have uses a mix of cobalt blue and violet for the outer sky and for the lower part of the picture. Cadmium orange for the sunlit sky and reflections with some permanent rose. The orange works well but still the blue/violet needs beefing up. How to do one without the other though? I have managed to block out the bright white sun, so far and will see how that works on the finished painting

I am indebted to Vicky Stovell of Smiley Sunshine Photography for giving me permission to use her fantastic photograph as a reference for a painting

This pier is part pf my childhood. My parents used to take us kids on the pier to play the fruit machines which weren’t called that in those days, just a ballbearing that whizzed round and hopefully went in a slot that gave you a small payout. Fond memories too of going to shows in the theatre at the end of the pier. So this painting will be a pleasure to work on, albeit slowly

When I reach an interim spot i will post that. What I have done so far is too pale to photograph

Marzamemi in Sicily- a different view

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Fishing Boats in Marzameni Sicily

I have painted a view of Marzameni before some years ago. It is a delightful fishing village, where we stopped just for a coffee break, and then wandered down to the water’s edge. Many of the boats were obviously old and maintained by their owners, Some of them were hand painted, just bright Mediterranean colours, vivid reds and blues, together with dazzling whites.

The sea was the brightest blue, and as always I hope I do the colours justice. I used Pthalo Blue modified with Cobalt Blue for the sky and the sea, which seemed to work. The same colour strengthened seemed to work for the boats as well, although I did get an opportunity to use Windsor Blue for a really deep blue stripe on one of the boats

As we watched ,the boat with the umbrella hove into view and rowed slowly by, eventually finding a place to tie up. This boat was smarter but the colours were more muted

I enjoy painting Sicily. Always the colours are so vibrant, and the shadows so pronounced

I am exhibiting at the moment at Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking, and have sold a painting of Horses in the Wetlands, another favourite subject

Berlin Wall Art

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Part of what is left of the Berlin Wall (Der Mauer)

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Explanation of pictures

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Meaning is clear

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I am conscious of the fact that I haven’t posted anything for a while. the reason being that i haven’t painted anything for a while, so have had nothing fresh to say

yet having said that, in my archives I have images that haven’t seen the light of day, for some years, and on reflection, are well worth dusting off and bringing into the sunlight. I found a number of pictures recently of the Berlin wall, that I had taken some years ago. We went to Poland by train, and on the way in and on the way out, we had a night in Berlin. There was so much to see. The Reichstag was incredible. We went to see Sir Morman Foster’s extension which was fairly new then. we went int he evening when it was lit up, and very dramatic

The most emotive experience though was looking at what had been left of the Wall, der Mauer. I took several pictures and can share a few here. I think the pictures will speak for themselves. The themes are clear. Oppression, loss of liberty, suppression of speech and thought, these came to an end in East Germany when the wall came down. Sadly we see them reappearing in 2022.

Just a few images from my collection. Food for thought perhaps

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