OCTOBER 2020 (9)

It is great to be able to welcome Larry back to the blog and he has sent three great paintings. He says, "Sorry that I have not been submitting any paintings for the blog for a while. I have been very busy refurbishing a buy to let house that we purchased this summer, but thats all finished now. I attach three paintings which you may wish to put on the blog."

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"This first one is of looking east one summer evening on the River Teme near the Temeside Inn. Unfortunately I had left my paints in our conservatory for several weeks without use and they had dried out but even after rewetting they were extremely granulating. From a distance it looks OK and does convey the rays of the late sun on the river and the distant trees."

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"This next one is a painting of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, recognisable from the Hovis advert on TV. I am not that happy with it as it appears quite dark and I think I have lost the luminescence of the watercolours."

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"This last one is a last minute, hurried entry, for the October theme of ‘Natures Bounty’. I used an old sheet of ‘unstretched’ Claire Fontaine 140lbs rough paper. Unfortunately it cockled and bubbled horrendously so the background wash leaves a lot to be desired.

I should now have more time to devote to my painting and I am determined to become ‘looser’ in my painting style over the autumn and winter."

Thank you for these Larry, I know what you mean about leaving watercolours for a time. After trying gouache recently I decided I would also try my watercolours, many of my tube paints had hardened completely in the tube.  I cut them open to use them but I have thrown them away as I just could not obtain the richness of the freshly squeezed paint. However, I don't think you need to worry too much, I love granulation in watercolour and think it is one of it's greatest features so I think it looks good in your Teme painting. 

Was Gold Hill from life, or a photo? For me perspective on buildings going downhill, away from the viewer are very difficult and yours work very well indeed so I wouldn't be too disappointed with it.  

Your teasels, I absolutely love!  They fairly jump out of the picture and I never even noticed anything amiss with the background.  Super.

I admire you having an objective for your painting over the autumn and winter and I think we should, perhaps, all follow suit?  If you agree with me please let me know what yours is and I will post them on the blog with your work.   (Don't be shy; let us all try to push ourselves to achieve something more!)