Carpe Diem

 

For the past couple of days, I've been feeling off (more off than usual). This morning, things became completely out of control. I lost my address book (hard copy and digital) and am struggling to re-build it from scratch. 

Then, just before I was due to leave for the Introduction to Watercolour's final class, I couldn't find my phone. Eamonn always warned me not to go out without it. I phoned from the landline and it went straight to voice-mail. This told me that the battery was dead and there was no way to locate the phone from its ringing. I phoned the Settlement and told them I couldn't make the class. Tears ensued.

After lunch, I decided to continue working on Cat V2, but another project caught my attention. I'd decided to paint a portrait of Alf in the style of the Cat. I already had the photo I was going to use for reference, and thought I'd do some digital manipulation to see how things might work out.

First, I cropped the image to a head-and-shoulders and play with the pixels to create a 'painting'.

The colour intensity will be the guide for the blocks of coour in the painting itself.

Then I played with the style of painting. I know which one I favour but choose your favourite.

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The hard part will be marking the canvas to guide the paintbrush without stifling freedom. 

Alf's portrait will have to wait until i have finished Cat V2 

and Long Shore Fishing.

Working in a medium with which I am familiar (digital imagery) has helped regain my equilibrium.

Wet on Wet experiments

 

Today. in class, we experimented with wet on wet watercolour painting. There were a series of images provided for stimulus. I chose a sunrise and adapted it to a sunrise in a rainstorm.

I'm pleased with the progress at this point. I love manipulating the colours by turning the paper so that they flow into one another.

I worked a second version without the rainstorm. Not sure I like this one as much.

All stimulus images were of skies. I couldn't resist adding the sea below. When the class moved on to larger versions of other images, I pulled up the sunrise at Sandy Gulls on my phone.

We were working with a limited palette so this was a bit challenging. I enjoy a challenge if I think I can make a good attempt at it. With only dark(ish) blue, yellow, ochre, and red, this was the final version. 

In the last half-hour, I turned to another photo on my phone. It was taken at Long Beach on the October Road Trip, and had clouds with which to experiment - by leaving the paper dry so that wet watercolour applied to the wet patches didn't run onto the dry (It's magic, really.)

I made the mistake of overworking the clouds and couldn't mix the correct colour for the dark shadows. But today's class was great.

I'm learning a lot and will be sad when the course ends next week. Kate doesn't have a gap until next March to run a follow-up class. I am always very tired at the end of two and a half hours, but very satisfied with what I've achieved. Tomorrow will be another duvet day

Going backwards?

 

Mixed day today. I started off dreading the work needed to find out where my BP prescription had ended up. Was it still at the surgery, awaiting attenton, or had it been ovelooked at the pharmacy when I picked up the other meds, yesterday?

The sun was shining and the first bright event was that the pharmacy assistant answered the phone. The meds were there and ready for collection. I took Alf with me into town. There was some nonesense about having to wait for delivery from the supplier, but nothing was mentioned yesterday.

I walked with Alf, in the sunshine, and met a woman with her French bulldog (or was it an American bulldog - I can never tell the difference). Anyway, Beano (!) was charming and convinced I had treats in my pocket. He and Alf got on very well and my mood improved.

Back home, I had lunch and did some more painting of The Cat. (Alf got bored and had a nap on the sofa) I'm sure the paints with this kit are far inferior to the first one. They're not as vibrant and lack depth of tone. The paintbrushes are certainly rubbish and shedding hairs faster than I could ever imagine. I've started using my own brushes.

Anyway, during the bad last week, I had this insane idea that I 'need' a dedicated studio in the garden. Complete madness of course. I live alone in a house that has more rooms than I need. Still, I'm going to keep the consultation appointment next week (video) and will see if the company make me an offer I can't refuse. I've even thought about replacing the shed with the smallest studio they can provide. The decider will be if the space the shed occupies can be used without compromising the entrance to the garden from the yard.

I like the idea of a separate room in which to be creative. One that overlooks the garden and can be used all year round, freeing up storage space inside the house.

The bedroom studio is cramped and, when the weather is cold, I work in the conservatory which is solar-heated. 

Having a studio in a bedroom doesn't motivate me. I rarely go in there as it's dark and cold. So, I never see the work I've been doing in class, which reminds me that I'm not completely hopeless at painting, and I forget the joy that it can bring. 

The 'hard week', made me lose confidence and I resorted to going back to painting by numbers to take my mind off my troubles.

Watercolour class

 

Today we were mainly blending colours again and attempted a painting in the style of Monet's Westminster Bridge, Sunset.

Using only reds, yellows, and blues, limited the pallet with which we could work. Everyone created something unique, and made a good attempt at capturing the mood of the sunset over the Houses of Parliament.

I had great fun, not even attempting a straightforward copy. For a start, I made the sky stormy and added the building in a different place. At one point, I forgot where the Thames began and ended and just used my brushes to create an effect. Kate, our Tutor, said mine was very Impressionistic.

It looks quite good in a frame - my first watercolour.

We worked on dry paper but next week we're going to do some skies and seas using wet on wet technique. Then I can have a go at creating a watercolour version of Longshore Fishing. 

In the meantime, I'm going to adjust the colours on the acrylic version, before adding the details.

Original Painting - Longshore Fishing

 

I made a start on the Longshore Fishing canvas this afternoon. I don't know why I started with acrylics. I haven't any experience with mixing acrylics colours.

I had marked out the canvas a couple of days ago. Day 1 has been spent laying down the sky, sea, and beach. I'm not altogether satisfied with some of the colours and really should have stopped before putting in some of the detail. However, my experience with acrylics is that, unlike watercolours, the shades can be adjusted once the paint has dried. 

This canvas is much smaller than the others I have done, just A4, and I am finding it much more difficult to work with less space.

Tomorrow, I have another session with my GP,  so I may not get around to tinkering with it until the weekend. 

Marking the canvas and paper

 

Alf is at Dog Pack, the second wash is going through the machine, my BP is almost down to normal, and the van is back from safety checks and ready for winter.

I did some prep for the next lot of paintings, this morning. I'm looking at two photos - Gun Hill Huts, and Longshore Fishing. I am going to try watercolours and acrylic for them both. 

Acrylics need a canvas. Longshore Fishing is marked on an A4 canvas and watercolour paper, but I didn't have time to do the Huts on canvas.

Preparation includes marking out the main shapes, and using masking fluid to make laying down the sky and beach, easier.

Next painting

 

The next painting I'm going to try is another photo, taken on Southwold Beach - Longshore Fishing.

Going to try it in watercolour, laying down the sky and beach, before adding the figure of the fisherman.

Beginning Watercolour Sunday, 7 November 2021

 

Having realised that James' Watercolour classes were too advanced for me, I signed up for a four-week Introduction to Watercolours at the Settlement.

The first class focussed on mixing primary colours to create more shades. The first colour-combination was red and yellow. After we'd all experimented for a while, and most people had covered their paper, we set them out on one of the tables. 

The thing that struck me, immediately, was that, not only had everyone else covered their paper, they'd painted rectangles, just like the colour charts that come with paint sets.

The same thing happened with red and blue. I was concentrating so hard to make the purple shade of my winter wool coat, that the tutor, Kate, gave me a brighter shade of blue to help with the quest. 

All my shades were even more splodge-like, rather than rectangles, and there were far fewer splodges than other people's rectangles.

I decided that the other class members had probably done this before. The man working across the table from me even had his rows organised like paint charts in DIY stores. I asked him if he was an engineer and he replied 'no, a builder.' It was then that I recognised him as the builder who had converted the garage into Eamonn's study, and the side passage between house and garage into a wet room and utility room, in 1984. Robin remembered Eamonn, the Headmaster, who had subsequently hired him to do some building work at QE. Small world.

After tea break, we were given leaves to paint. My first attempt was going well until Kate recommended adding a certain shade. I then 'overworked it'. With 15 minutes left, she gave me a small red leaf. The quick work on that is much more pleasing, in my opinion.

I've been practicing with leaves over the past two days. I think these are not bad.

Watercolour is much harder than working with acrylics. Once a colour is dry, it is very difficult to change things.

Experiments with Leaves

 

Did some watercolour exercises with leaves from the Crematorium. Nothing is  completed and two of these are real leaves. Nice, relaxing end to the afternoon. Bad light stopped play.