ARNSIDE: OYSTERCATCHERS FLYPAST

This is a recovery of one of my ‘Possibles’ It is a watercolour I did several  years ago after a visit to Arnside on Morecambe Bay.  I tried to include a flight of Oystercatchers lifting off the sands, they were some distance off and they were badly placed and too small to make an effective compositional motif.

The landscape area worked well so looking at the painting afresh with a more experienced eye I thought it worth trying to repaint the birds. I restretched the painting and sponged off the oystercatchers.  It was impossible to remove all traces but by making the new group of birds larger I was able to cover up the old ones by making use of Chinese White as a body colour.

The paper I used was Fabriano Artistico Rough. I had a friend who swore by this paper and he produced some lovely watercolour landscapes on it.  I have to admit I never got on too well with it and generally took better to a NOT surface.