I had trouble with the painting and almost abandoned it on one or two occasions. The right-hand-side stair pillars gave me inordinate trouble. The shadowing required a skill I don't have. I also made an error late, when I'd almost completed the painting: I didn't leave a gap to suggest the light that spills through the left-hand-side stair pillars onto the steps and I had to scrub away at the wet paint with a sponge and repaint it. However, I'm moderately pleased with the resulting rescue. This is one watercolour which I feel I might get framed one day. Lambay Island is off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland. I copied this from a photograph in a lovely book called "Ireland's Islands" by Peter Sommerville-Large.
I'm most pleased with this lady's dress, which is painted in a very loose, suggestive style, colours bleeding nicely and with hard edge errors allowed and accepted. She has a certain twinkle in her eye.
The Dodo Terrace in Mount Stewart. Parts of the foliage are well done, other parts not so well. The leaves of the trees in the upper left-hand corner are without depth and lifeless. The subject is not well constructed either. I like the paving stones in the foreground though.
I'm a big fan of this quite loose and fluid watercolour which suggests a lot more than is actually painted. Much of the work was done wet-in-wet. It's also quite a large painting, on 20 x 16 inch paper.
Mount Stewart is on the east shore of Strangford Lough, County Down, Northern Ireland. I'm only so-so pleased with this painting. There is nice definition in the pool's reflections, but the plants and trees at the top of the steps are ill-defined.
I hate this painting! The sea is unsuccessful, the foreground daisies and thistles are overpowering and the rocky shore very poorly painted. Overall the composition layout is dreary, formulaic and without interest. The only reason I've kept it is the sky, which is simple and subtle, consisting of a single wash of various blues, purples and greys and is much better than this photo shows. St John's Point is one-and-a-half miles south of Killough in County Down, Northern Ireland.
I don't like advertising Ballykinlar beach. It's one of my favourite spots and it's rare to see anyone else on it, and I want it to stay that way. This painting has the snow-tipped Mourne Mountains, which Donard's famous shape sweeping down to the sea. I'm happy with the effect of the horses' legs disappearing in the surf, and also with the seaweed strewn beach. This painting was done fast and furiously in little over two hours, and most of that was drying time.
Yes, I'm partial to both hens and windowsills, and here I've combined both. I'm pleased with the thatched straw of the roof and of the grubby, dirty whitewashed wall. This is perhaps my favourite painting so far.
For once I quite like the finished work. I think I got the whitewashed walls and the crumbling paint of the door just right. Also, the straw of the thatched roof turned out well. I'm also pleased with the subject matter. Who doesn't love hens?
Believe it or not, the rancid green window actually was that rancid. I don't feel this painting is a any particular success. The subject matter is the problem; it's just too dull. Still, it didn't take me more than a hour to paint.
I think the geese need a little more work, and I don't like the way the farmer himself has dead eyes, like a zombie's. The wall is poorly coloured, I feel. However, as always, the best bit is the bit in which I've done very little, and here it is the almost blank whitewashed wall.
Philip Jamison is my favourite watercolourist and this is a poor copy of his gorgeous painting "Farm on Frank Road No. 2". If you compare the two (available in his book "Capturing Nature in Watercolor"), you will find mine is very, very much the inferior and I blush to even mention it.
I am happy with the way Doc's jacket and pullover turned out, and the cap, I think, is quite nicely done, but otherwise I'm not overly pleased with this. I dislike portraits in which the subjects stare straight out at the viewer. I like the shadow on the righthand-side of Doc's face; there's a touch of ultramarine blue in the shade. I'm not so keen on the lefthand-side, which is a little too tan.
I painted this because I was specifially interested in the shadows of the thatched roof and the upper window flower pots. The wheel spokes are painted dark when against light background, and light when against dark. Quite stupidly, I managed to misspell "stout" and had to scrub it out with sponge and redo.
