Evening Light, Groby Pool, Leicestershire

I haven't been able to get out much to sketch because of the cold and its effect on my arthritis :>( and life getting in the way. Spring isn't too far away though :>)

But I have been out taking photos and plan to take a lot more. I especially love the light in the early morning and evening - it's so much more interesting, the skies are too.

These were taken at a local pool, a flooded ancient slate quarry. The sunset was subtle rather than dramatic but the light and soft colour was absolutely beautiful, with the skeletal winter trees silhouetted against the soft colour, the sheen on the water luminous.



So my new year resolution is to get on with a series of local landscapes - of course particularly those including water :>) - working from life and occasionally from photos like these.

On the other side of the water is an old 15C manor house with links to the Grey family of Jane Grey the 9 days Queen fame.

I bought a second hand pocket camera from a friend who was upgrading and I'm delighted with it (used for these). It means I can keep it almost permanently in my bag for all those times when the light/colour is special like this. (It's so annoying how often the most spectacular views happen when you are on a fast road with no hope of stopping!) I love my big camera but it can't be carried everywhere, all the time, this will fill that gap nicely and still has aperture priority/manual etc etc options and a 5x zoom for creativity :>)

I've also discovered a place I want to go back to for sketching with a high viewpoint over the canal in rolling countryside. The canal comes up a hill to the market town of Market Harborough via Foxton locks, with its long flight of locks enabling boats to come up a steepish hillside. The view I'd like to work from is further along, though at some point I should work here as well.

Photos of Cornwall, May 2010 - The Cot Valley and Porth Nanven

Just back from Cornwall - it has been hectic with work hours being long and then going down to Cornwall with the whole family.

I didn't get enough sketching done with family around but took loads of photos.

The one above is the stream running down the Cot valley, past the farmhouse where we stayed. and below are the little Cot arriving at the sea at Porth Nanven and joining the sea. (I painted her last year on a sunnier day)

view from the moor, moorland farms

and the view from up on the moors in the centre of Cornwall - in places you can see both coasts - Penance and St Michael's Mount to the south and Cape Cornwall to the north.



aerial map of the Cot Valley - though it flattens all the very steep hills :>(

La Loire in January

...fresh snow in Touraine...

Of the whole wonderful year we are affered year after year, January and February are the most difficult months for me...like for many others in the northern hemisphere. I am actually of opinion that the human was also meant to hybernate for the months of January and February, it will be an easy act for me! I have come to accept it now by, after fighting it for many years, and I know when March hits, it all changes; I wake up from my sleep, stretch out and move into the light. So you'll say I'm wasting two months? Probably. But then I do make up with gusto, the whole rest of the year!
In the meantime, life is still good, Beautiful. Especially the Loire.
This season we had exceptional snow and the Loire was spectacular, welcoming the opportunity to show off with swaggering flair.

...melting snow on a sunny day...

...footsteps...

...gentle winter flow...

...reflect...

...blanket of snow on ice...

On the Danube...

... not painting, not even sketching, but at least travelling.

I spent a few days in Vienna for work, ended up walking through some fabulous neighbourhoods on the way to and from the conference venue, gave general sightseeing a bit of a miss - I really think, the Habsburg dynasty should NOT have held back quite as much as they did on their architecture - I am sure they could have built some FAR more impressive monumental buildings, boulevards and other assortments than they did, but I managed to do a little boat trip.

It wasn't the trip down the Danube to nearby Bratislava (a mere 90 mins downwards on the river), but a trip down the Danube Canal and up the Danube.

It was a sunny day, plenty of birds, plenty of cargo boats passing us by and a lot of Strauss music coming from the speakers of the boat's sound system.

Take a look for yourself:

North Norfolk Salt Marsh Harbours

Boat in the harbour, Brancaster Staithe. photograph: Vivien Blackburn

The North Norfolk coast is totally unlike the Cornish coast - unlike the wild seas, steeper beaches and coves, clean sand and rugged cliffs of the south western tip of England, the coast here is softer, gentler, muddier from the silt washed down from rich farmland. I have to admit I love the wildness of Cornwall more but this area has its own charm.

Photographs of Thornham creek and Brancaster Staithe, North Norfolk

There is a short section of cliff at Hunstanton but most of the coast is salt marsh. Inland are low hills that dip down to flat land, fields that were once marsh but have been drained, marsh and dunes.

The cottage I sketched recently on my blog was being thatched with reed from this area - just a little further along the coast at Cley.

The harbours have creeks that thread to the sea through channels - the sea only reachable at high tide.

You may recognise some of these places in sketches and paintings on my sketchbook site and main website

Looking at pattern in the landscape or seascape

Patterns in the sand. Mawgan Porth, Cornwall. Photo: Vivien Blackburn

I really enjoyed the slide shows of Gesa's beachcombing and thought I'd show something similar ... but a little different :>)

I'm often attracted by strong pattern elements in the landscape (seascape) - the pattern of shining wet pools or ripples, the bands of colour, or textures and shapes of rocks. Here are a few from my files across the years. They were taken in Cornwall (Mawgan Porth, Cape Cornwall and Sennen Cove), Devon (Hele Bay and Lynmouth) and North Norfolk (Hunstanton, Holkham and Wells next the Sea).

The pictures of the sand, sculpted by the sea are near the low water mark at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall. The wild seas sculpt deep pools out of the sand and as the water evaporates it leaves miniature steps down the sides, where the water has washed against successive mini 'cliffs' in the breeze. The beach shelves fairly steeply so the tide doesn't go out too far. The pools themselves make a pattern across the beach at the seaward end. They can be over 2 feet deep and walking to the surf is a zigzag path around them.

In Norfolk in contrast, the beach shelves very gently and the tide can go out for a mile or two, moving in or out rapidly over the flat beach. Pools of water are much shallower here,and the water nowhere near as clear, as it contains silt from the rivers and drainage dykes that join the sea from the farm land around the Wash (a large bay).


You may well enjoy the work of Tony Howell who takes fantastic photos of Cornwall, I really like his close ups of rocks.

Sennen Cove, waves, changing weather and light

Sennen Cove in changing light last week. The last 3 are from last September when we had a wild stormy day with heavy rain. The lifeboat launch ramp, that shows in one of the last, is currently demolished and being rebuilt, so it doesn't show in recent photos. It wasn't an easy job for the builders, having to consider the tides :>)

This is why I love Cornwall so much - it's beautiful even in lousy weather :>) Though as you can see from the gorgeous blue skies and seas at the beginning, we were very lucky with the weather generally as most of the country had heavy rain.

The camera never picks up all the colours the eye can see and it can't cope with the same range of tonal values at once - so that's why it's so good to work plein air. You also have the scents and sound that somehow infiltrate your work. I never enjoy working from a photograph as much as working from the 'real thing'.

Take a look at these images of a storm there last year - they are WELL worth looking at.

Storm pictures

now with global warming making the seas rise and giving us more storms would I really want to live there? probably yes :>)

Plein air

Coin Perdu
Corréze
France

Dear Watermarkers,

I am still in Corréze and wanted to say a quick hi to you all!

I miss you and think of you when I'm putting down a stroke on my canvas. The weather is beautiful and sunny, the rivers are flowing undisturbed and I am already golden skinned from all my plain air painting!

I'm sending you some images of how it looks here where I am and what I'm painting at our hide away Coin Perdu in Puy d'Arnac, Corréze. You can see some more images here.

...in search of corners to paint...

Some proof that I am indeed "working":

...by the brook...

...see, something on the canvas...

...even on a rainy day...

...even putting my life in danger...

... and attacked by Billy the kid...

...safer ground...

In two weeks I hope to show some finished plein air work, which I am thoroughly enjoying doing, even though I mess up most of the time.
Browsing through all your latest work, has me once again in admiration of your talents and stunned at what you've all done these last few weeks; needless to say the inspiration has me itching to clean up my palette immediately and get out there again.

Well, that's it for now. I wish you all well and keep the pastels and paints flying wild wherever you are!
See you in two weeks, Watermarks...!

All my best and bises!
Ronell

Canvas and Paint Process 1

To start at the very beginning I pull on my boots, grab my little camera, my little pack of moleskine sketchbook, tiny paint box and water brushes, then a scrappy sketchbook and something to draw with in my pocket and the dog.
Then we set off down the lane to the sea...
The first thing I do when I have arrived at my destination is to take a little time just to look and listen, I am not here to make the finished painting but rather to try and absorb as much information that I can. After my zen like standing and staring I get the scrappy sketchbook out. It is a collection of rubbish scraps of paper and cardboard, it is designed so that I really don't care about it at all, so that I will never be precious about any drawing in it, they will never go anywhere or be shown to anyone (ha ha, here I am doing just that!) The point of this sketchbook is exercise, like stretching before a run, warming up.

Here are a couple of the warm ups, I left the rest on the boat the other day so I cant show them all to you. This should give you an idea of what I am talking about. In doing these I am also realising what it is that I particularly like about what I am looking at.

Light, line, shadow and texture.

After that I will take a huge bunch of snaps, not photographs, just snaps which will help with colours and other information.

If I have time and it is not too cold I might get out my Moleskine sketchbook and do a much longer sketch like this: "Masking Tape"

After all that I go home and work out my painting plan, the size and a very detailed line drawing. It feels like this is the longest part of the whole thing but it is necessary because I want to be certain that everything is just right and I want it all locked firmly in my mind!

The next post will be about preparing the support and beginning the painting.

Spring at Willow Pond

Ecology Park Pond Series #11 - Spring at Willow Pond - 8th April 2009

8.5" x 11.5", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The first time I went back to the ponds on 8th April, Spring had well and truly got started and there was a huge difference compared to my visit before my leg problem.

I wanted to capture the light behind the willows while they were still in that lime green unfurling leaves stage. However they look a bit stilted to me even though I know pollarded trees have a very definite shape.

I'm happier with the surface of the pond where I think the light and the surface changes are coming across quite well. I have to confess I could get into just drawing the colour and forms of the pond surface very easily. I so get what Monet was up to now and why he ended up doing 250+ paintings of the water in his pond!

You can see photos of what April looks like at the Ecology Park Ponds here - Ecology Park Pond April 2009

Birds of La Loire

We were bathed in sunlight this past week, which made Sunday a perfect day to pack my bike and sketch the birds of the Loire. Here is a photo of the protected islands in La Loire((Montlouis) where the birds come to nest in spring.

...a close up of the activities...

Two sketches; done from the riverbank, with the road passing right behind my back. I even had cars honking at me, not that I was anywhere near blocking them, so I can just assume it was encouragement!! I wasn't exactly sure how to capture all those birds. These sketches actually do look a little better in my sketchbook than here on the screen.

...les mouettes...

Sketches done in rotring pen and watercolour in sketchbook, 24x19cm.

Then I just captured two pages of some of the birds in flight. Most of the birds on this island are La Mouette melanocéphale. They are white all over, like the normal mouette, but have a black head and red beak, as you can see on the first page of sketches. They are rare in France, but are found on this island here on the banks of Montlouis, where they share space with La Mouette rieuse, the normal loud mouths.

...fly away...

Sketches done with rotring pen, sizes 0.2 and0.7 in Fabriano sketchbook, 20x14cm.

The biggest surprise of the day, was having Hartman show up on his bicycle a while later with a backpack, stuffed with picnic goodies. We parked ourselves next to the Loire on a green patch of grass and shared in a bottle of Loupiac and baguette with cheese. I made a rapid sketch of le pique-nique,...and the effect of the Loupiac can clearly be seen in the sketch!

...surprise!..

sketch with pen and watercolour in sketchbook, 24x19cm

My trusted bicycle, that takes me everywhere. Unfortunately, it doesn't have enough gears, so you'll always find me pushing and puffing on the uphills.

...push and pedal...

Back home I did some oil work from two photographs. These were done one after the other on Sunday afternoon along with a coffee one after the other.. In the second one I used some palette knives along with a broad flat brush.

...birds of the Loire 1...
Oil on canvas block, 20x50cm.

...birds of the Loire 2...
Oil on canvas block, 30x50cm.

It is days like this that I love being an artist. Being completely absorbed in what you're doing. Maybe not producing an "oohh, aahh!" painting, but being totally present in the moment of painting. So much so that you can feel yourself growing, changing and adapting to the demands of the moment.

Not any of these paintings/sketches I did today, is really notable as beautiful artwork and won't see the inside of a gallery. I see many areas which I could've taken on differently, areas where I could've been more patient, where I could've used more bolder daring colour, areas where I could've been more risky as well as areas I could've been less bold, but when I look back on them, I see my process, and that gives me a huge kick. I am already reflecting on how to take the process on in my next painting, using this past process as reference. We all know that to be an artist, is to have 99 percent of experiments and "failures" and 1 percent of finished presentable artwork! It is in the process that we artists find our happiness, no?

Look the to skies

Here's another tip for painting water - look up.

This sort of falls under the "paint was you really see rather than what you think you see" school of lessons. Many beginner painters look at lakes, ponds, puddles and want to paint the water. That flat (or not) area that surely is blue, right? Nope!

Water is reflective. How much will vary on:

• the angle you're viewing from
• the water activity (still or churning)
• any materials in the water such as mud

So if you're a bit stuck on the colours you see in the water surface, then look at the sky. The water will always reflect the colours and tones of the sky to some extent.

Here's some easy ones to start:
First image, a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds reflected in fairly still water. Then the same kind of weather reflected in water with bits of wave. So these need blue and white in the painting.



Here's a night example:
In the first image we see the dark blue tinge of just normal night light, with touches of yellow light from building windows (most normal lightbulbs emit a yellow wavelength of light). In the second, however, it is the reflected reddish lights from nearby buildings and Greenwich Pier reflecting on the surface.



How about a more subtle example? This is the same view in slightly different light and weather. First is a clearer day, second is an overcast day. Can you see the subtle difference? A stronger blue in the first one? (both were late in the day so there's a pinkish tinge from dusk approaching too)



Finally, about that angle of view. The first photo here shows a bit what I mean by the angle you view from and also what's in the water. While it was a bright day I was looking straight down, so didn't get a reflection from the light from the sky. The water is almost opaque because it's very near the shore and mud is being churned constantly by the waves - so this gives the water it's colour instead of the sky above. The second photo is from an angle looking outwards over the water, so there's much more reflection of the daylight on the water surface. In sea views this can be why the near water is a different colour than the distance - you're near enough the area where sand is being moved around creating an opaque area in the water while the further water is deeper without materials being churned around and your angle of viewing means you see the reflection of sunlight on the water. So sea paintings can have several colours changing as you move from shore to horizon.



So if you're ever in doubt, forget what you're looking at. Look up, see what the light is like in the sky, then look back at the water. Try and see where the light is reflecting strongly or not. Then start mixing those paints.

Hope you have bright sunny days!



All of these images can be found on my Wavemechanics photo project page, and all have Creative Commons copyright so you can use them to create your own paintings. While I haven't posted any new photos in a while I promise there are many on my harddrive just waiting for editing and adding later. :)