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We had to do some paintings at a large scale for my monthly painting class, and I thought you might like to see my attempts. They are A2, so I couldn’t scan them and the camera doesn’t take a very good colour likeness. We were supposed to be trying for an illusion of distance. The pond is opposite our house, the photo taken when a glorious low sun shone (Sun? Must have been in another life!)
I wanted to do a painting to illustrate Marvell’s poem The Garden:
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness :
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade.
I was stingy and reused some paper, scrubbing the old painting off it, which unfortunately removed the surface also, so any mark I made bled in a starry fashion into its surroundings.
I tried to be completely imaginative, like when I drew and painted as a kid and worked on it a lot to get the shadowy glade feeling. I’m not tremendously impressed with the result, but I felt I learned a lot while doing it, so I’m not unhappy.
On a sunny day the cat sneaks into our bedroom and makes herself comfortable in the sunshine on our unmade bed.
Another drawing ruined! I did the drawing on such awful paper that the delicate wash I attempted for the background is lurid and blodgy. I could try the scrubbing under the shower technique, but I thought it might erase the drawing, so I’ll just post it as is. The exercise has taught me that drawing carefully from nature reveals more lovely shapes than I’d invent, and that using old bits of rubbish paper isn’t worth it!
As you all know, the word chaos comes from the greek for chasm or abyss, hence the subject of this painting, and I thought the jumble of rocks was rather chaotic. I wanted to practise getting distance right, so picked a picture with several levels front to back. I found lots of difficulties – getting the extreme foreground bold enough without losing the glare of the sun, getting the middle ground dark enough without losing the colour of the rocks, showing the sun shining on the far slope without bringing that too far forward. As usual it’s too worked on, and too brightly coloured, but I’m not letting it get me down (or only a bit).
My swiss chard has been very colourful this year – I’ve had yellow, pink and white stalks. They glow in the sunlight, and make amazing gravy on the plate! I used a big brush and applied all colours neat.
Birds are a bit of a theme for me (mainly because I have reference for birds). This nightjar is disguised to blend in with the pine bark and twigs on the forest floor. John said it looked like a design for a carpet – not too sure what to make of that 
Mainsgill Farm is a fantastic farm shop and cafe on the A66 between Penrith and Scotch Corner. They brought out a calendar of their talented staff, from which this painting is done. Sadly, the poor man has come out like a strange porcelain doll or a Cranach venus. If I had any chance of doing a better version I wouldn’t post this, but this is my second attempt and I’m getting too far behind. Excuses, excuses.
I got the idea from a photo in Birds Britannica – gulls enjoy the debris from our days out. I just don’t know how to do a traditional watercolour – I always seem to need to firm things up or there’s no focus or dimension. I’d like to work on this even more, but I won’t send good time after bad. I tried to do a wash on the sky, but the paper is wierd, just gave it that hessian effect.
Fallen leaves, mostly from our hawthorn tree. I used the liquid watercolours for this – they give really intense colours and bleed into others colours, even when they’ve dried.
