(101 x 66 cm) Watercolour

I was fascinated by these three women who meet each day to have a chat and feed the pigeons. The backdrop of a bullet-riddled wall is a reminder of the 1990s conflict. I see this as a positive painting- “Life goes on!” One of the most important aspects of this painting is that the women were painted not as separate entities, but as one connected shape. The clothes touch, overlap and flow into one another. It was important to paint their clothes wet into wet allowing colours to bleed and folds to be soft. Notice the woman at the end is looking directly at you- a compositional ploy to draw you into the picture. The foreground was painted wet into wet and kept simple to give a welcome respite from the busy background. The foreground and background were also painted after the women were completed, which is a reversal of the classic watercolour technique of working from light to dark.

(56 x 76 cm) Watercolour

This painting of one of my favourite cities in the world makes use of a very limited palette of colours. The painting is based around warm colours, but the lamps, clock face and clouds create cool accents necessary for the painting to work. The colours, tones and business of Princess Street all add up to create that late afternoon feel which is what I was after. Notice how the composition drags your eye in along the road and to those beautiful spires. The painting is done with two washes or layers of paint. The first rather wet and free wash establishes the sky and road. The second layer (applied when the first is dry) creates all the buildings, lamps and trees. All these are painted in one go as a connected shape, making things darker as they come forward to create a feeling of depth.

(101 x 66 cm) Watercolour

I never tire of painting marine type subjects. They offer such a wealth of subject matter and visual stimulation. What I was after in this painting was the sense of light, heat and a lazy kind of day. To create that sense of sunlight it was necessary to have a full range of tones/values-”There is no light without the dark”. The sunlight hitting the boats is emphasized by the strong violet shadows cast by the boats and the dark background wall. The lovely glow in the hulls of the boats was achieved by dropping blues/violets and raw sienna into wet paper and letting it run and flow on its own. It is crucial not to play with the paint while doing this. The static horizontal composition adds to the relaxed feel of the subject.

(76 x 56 cm) Watercolour

This large painting was a class demonstration emphasizing the importance of wet into wet work and colour accents. After the paper was covered with water (apart from the pure white highlights), the paper was covered randomly with a variety of colours letting them bleed and run at will. This is such an enjoyable part of the painting process and there is a real sense of freedom when applying the paint. Once this first wash was dry, the background was painted darker to bring out the shape of some background pumpkins. In essence, the negative shapes were painted. The middle distance pumpkins were darkened making sure that a little extra warmth was added and the grooves and cast shadows were painted while they were wet. Finally and importantly, the three small foreground pumpkins were painted with rich cadmium orange and the dark shadows were painted so that they would bleed into the pumpkin. It is important to paint the cast shadows at the same time as the object so that they seem connected. The rich colour accent is just one of the techniques used to draw the viewer to the main motif.