Head down this week working for the forthcoming St Andrew Blackadder Easter art show. This one is nearly finished with a bit of work on the prow and refelctions still to do. Slightly larger than my usual at 400mm square. These four buoys have featured in other paintings I have done - I find them strangely attractive :)
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What I love about this time of year is that the harbour has fewer vessels in it - many are lifted out for the winter. This means there is a greater expanse of water and on a clear sunny day there are lots of wonderful reflections. What I don't love is the fact it gets dark too early, and despite "daylight" bulbs I find it very hard to work into the evening! The results of an evening's endeavour are oft viewed with dismay the following morning - when the colours reveal their true selves in the cold light of day...
Busy working away for next weeks NB Art Group Show. I hope to have this one finished tomorrow. It has been ages since I worked on a boat painting, and with my colouring book off to the printers and a commission that I've been working on now finished and framed, I thought I'd get on with some new boats. This one is nearly finished, just a bit of fine tuning the buoys and some ropes to add
Just about finished this view of Anchor Green. I may add some lettering to the finger signpost. Or I may not. And I really feel there ought to be at least one seagull (maybe having a peck at the dropped cone?)
I have been wanting to get my teeth into a bigger drawing for a while so this morning I have started laying out this quirky view of North Berwick, looking towards the harbour and featuring the Lifeboat Station and the town's historic Anchor Green and Auld St Andrew's Kirk. There will be a lot of work in this! A few days later - making quite slow progress as I have had several meetings and a day of CPD this week. Although breaks can help with a drawing like this - it is fairly intense and requires quite a lot of thinking. I have also discovered that it is more or less impossible to 'wonkify' the Seabird Centre, as it then no longer looks like the Seabird Centre. Must be wonky enough to start with!!
Yes it's one of my boat paintings without a boat in it! Just a bit of work to do in the reflections I think.
I take so many photographs of the harbour sometimes it's easy to miss an interesting patterning or colour - the photo I was working from here, for instance, was taken on a duller day last August, and it wasn't until I looked very closely I noticed how unusual the patches and swirls of colour in the water were. The patterning reminds me of the silk fabrics of Emilio Pucci. The painting is nearly finished - I feel it needs a little more detail towards the top half, in the boat itself.
Been working on this one on and off for a week or so. I quite like the fact that the water has turned out the colour of rhubarb fool (in fact the harbour walls are fairly pink, in some lights) and the reflections of the granary windows made some interesting patterning - but I'm not yet entirely happy with my signwriting ribbon. Will look at it again with fresh eyes in a day or two...
Deep blue and orange is now a colour combination I wouldn't go for in any sartorial situation, but it makes for an interesting combination in a boat picture. Just blocking out the shapes and colours now, it's always fun to leave the bright orange to the last. Progress...
The yellow boat Barry B has gone to a new home away from North Berwick now, but he was always one of my favourites. I painted a tiny version of this some time ago.
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