GREY WAGTAILS  Watercolour and bodycolour 31 x 41cm on 300gsm Arches.Not.

This is a sheet of Grey Wagtail studies made from two skins. The annotated sketch is the foreground bird in the watercolour and the far one is based on the top right sketch. I'd never actually seen a wagtail turn its head like the centre right bird which was drawn from a second skin - so I've not made use of it yet.

Bird painters seem to fall into two categories - first there are those who make detailed anatomical studies for identification and recording. Angela Gladwell - who runs courses at Ludlow Museum - was trained at the RCA as a technical illustrator used to be very keen on this kind of painting. I did two courses with her from which I learned a lot and I acknowledge the help I received from her tuition. The second class of bird painters try to capture their subjects in their natural surroundings. So Peter Scott, Charles Tunnicliffe from a previous generation, and contemporaries like Lars Jonsson, Keith Brockie and Darren Woodhead point me in the direction I want to go.

 

Even if you sketch outdoors the real challenge comes when the painting has to be composed in the studio. In the past I'd observed Grey Wagtails in the rocky steam beds which fall down through the oakwoods on the steep sides of the Afon Mawddach. Some years ago I'd used the sketches - not very successfully - in that location. On a summer holiday in Yorkshire I did this sketch from the side of the River Nidd near Knaresborough that seemed a suitable setting - though I didn't see any wagtails.

Having done the research and assembled all of the elements the most satisfying stage, for me, is bringing them all together in the studio.

RAILWAY ART - A NOSTALGIC GLIMPSE INTO A LOST AGE.

One aspect of the steam train era I get nostalgic about is the poster and carriage art. Before nationalisation the railway companies commissioned artists to produce posters to promote attractive destinations served by rail. There was once a fashion for showing prints of watercolour paintings in carriage compartments. Jack Merriott received several commissions both for posters and carriage prints.

Ceredigion Museum has a nice example of a poster designed by Merriott and the draft sketch design he submitted for it.

 

Here's a nice example of his watercolour of Mousehole, Cornwall used for a carriage print.

A WATERCOLOUR PAINTER IN THE ENGLISH TRADITION

I've been fortunate over several years to have been given advice from more senior members of the Ludlow Art Society. One I remember with particular affection was Kath Edfryn-Jones - she was Welsh, she taught art at Hafren College in Newtown and her watercolour presentations were always very informative. I once asked her to tell me of a good book on watercolour methods. Without hesitation she  recommended 'Discovering Watercolour' by Jack Merriot. "You needn't bother looking at any other." she said. At that time I'd never heard of him and the book was long out of print.  Edward Wesson was everybodys favourite and Ron Ranson wielding his Japanese Hake was beginning to make his mark. 

I was lucky though and found a second hand copy of Jack Merriot's book in a Tewkesbury bookshop. The book grew from a correspondence course which Jack Merriot devised with his friend Ernest Savage. So it was carefully structured placing initial emphasis on good observational drawing. Successive chapters then dealt with three basic methods first Line and Wash. Secondly The Direct Method which involves a direct attack on the main centre of interest on dry paper. This is a method for responding to the excitement of the first compulsive eye-catch with strong colour. Finally he describes The Controlled Wash method where the painting is built up with superimposed washes on slightly dampened paper. It's the method most frequently advocated by contemporary watercolourists - notably David Curtis.

When I'm in watercolour mode I often look at Trevor Chamberlain's plein air watercolours. They are usually very small 7" x 10" or 10" x 14" and display an attractive controlled looseness - where does he get it from?
There's an element of Merriot's Direct Method about them. I was pleased to discover Trevor acknowledged the influence of Jack Merriott in his early years in his book 'Light and Atmosphere in Watercolour.'  One of Merriot's wartime watercolours showing St Paul's after the Blitz is printed on page16.

This image of Merriot's painting appears on the Wapping Group of Artists website.

VALLEY IN THE DOLOMITES 2


Here's the finished half-sheet watercolour. I've made use of Titanium White as a bodycolour because it is more opaque than the traditional Chinese(Zinc) White. I'm not someone who holds strictly to the 'pure transparent' doctrine. The use of white 'bodycolour' has always been part of the watercolour tradition and it's use enhances the possibilities of the medium. You can play off opaque passages against transparent ones as Ken Howard does and it can be used to create crumbly textures on rocks and old walls. Only when it is thickly laid on like whitewash does it look out of place.

VALLEY IN THE DOLOMITES

This is a view near Siror done on holiday in the Dolomites some years ago. I've got a stretched sheet of Waterford on which I'm going to make the preliminary drawing for a watercolour.

The composition perhaps needs a little attention. I'm going to push the donkeys further back to simplify the foreground - I may include just one. Then I think the building needs more space so that will have to go further back too. Maybe a hint of peaks at the head of the valley would be nice.

TREVI FOUNTAIN


Digital cameras are a great aid for the painter. I'm showing a way of using a digital camera to help paint a watercolour of a complex subject. The subject is the Trevi Fountain in Rome which gets so crowded I would find it impossible to paint on the spot. I had to resort to taking lots of photographs.

The first stage is to crop the photograph to find a good composition. I did this in Corel Photopaint an alternative to Photoshop. These programs also let you superimpose a grid. This is useful when you have a complicated subject. Here's a screen grab of the active Photopaint window

I set the grid size to one quarter of the width of the paper I was using. It's easy then to feintly draw the grid on the paper and make a careful outline drawing. Using a grid to transfer an image to paper or canvas is a well established method.

I painted the watercolour with the image displayed on a laptop. It's obviously not a straight copy. I've left out much of the background detail so that the focus of interest is the falling water. This was painted by first using masking fluid and later using 'drybrush' (ie with little paint on the brush and dragging it sideways rather than using the point.) This way you can exploit the grain of the paper to achieve a nice broken texture.I used a heavy Waterford rough.

WINTER GULLS

These gulls were scavenging on the sea front at Ostend. It was December last uear, bitterly cold and I was with friends. Not the occasion for sitting sketching so I took lots of photographs. This sheet of studies was made in preparation for a composition. Trouble is I can't decide what species of gull they are. My best guess - based on the shape of the bill and the colour of the legs - is that they're immature Blackbacks.

GARDEN VISITOR











This grey squirrell was under the apple tree in my garden - an easy target for a 300mm lens I took 6 photographs and based this drawing on one of them.

I've used Wollf Carbon Pencils - Artifolk sell them in sets of B, 2B, 4B, 6B and they make rich black marks. They don't go shiny like graphite when applied thickly. I was taught a very traditional technique in the Life Room - tones built up gently and gradually with hachures. It's a lovely way of drawing

DIGITAL STUDY AFTER DEGAS

This study is taken from one of Degas’ late pastels. He did a series of them at the end of his life when he was too ill to go to the ballet and his eyesight was failing. They are some of the best things he ever did.

I love these late pastels of Degas and I’ve made two or three studies of different ones using conventional pastels on Tiziano paper. Although this digital study doesn’t really capture the true feel of pastel it is a good way of studying the technique of a great artist – you’re not using up paper and chalk.

I suppose applying the computer in this way is a bit like using a flight simulator when learning to fly a plane.

For comparison I’ve posted another study this time in pastel. The source image is in 'Degas Pastels' by Alfred Werner and I've taked the foreground figure from the composition.

This time Degas used a more painterly approach which is reflected in the study. I can’t be sure what Degas underpainting was like but for the purpose of this exercise I used an acrylic ground on a heavy cartridge paper.

MEET 'LITTLE DIGGER'

He's a Burrowing Owl another bird from the collection at the Rare Breeds Farm at Kington, Herefordshire.

His species is native to Central America and he's about the size of our Little Owls.

The medium is watercolour and the background is suggestive of thelikely habitat.

SNOWY OWL AGAIN



It was good to get back to this project. I’ve completed a quick composition sketch from the drawings. Charles Tunnicliffe did a lovely large watercolour of a snowy owl – it’s in ‘Tunnicliffe’s Bird Life.’ His model was a dead bird shot on Anglesea and he’s used the location where it was shot as a background. The background here is loosely taken from a charcoal drawing made in the Lake District – I’m not sure what the skyline is it might be Crinkle Crags or possibly Coniston Old Man.

I’ve used watercolour and kept the background deliberately loose – the bird will eventually get more detailed treatment. The bird in the Rare Breeds collection was large standing approx 24in. It really needs a full watercolour sheet like Tunnicliffe used. I’m unhappy working on such a large scale in watercolour so i think I’ll go for Heavy Body Acrylic on board.

I forgot to add that although its predominantly pure watercolour there are touches of White Acrylic Ink left foreground and on the distant snow patches. In fact there are also some touches on the bird - got carreiad away rather!

SNOWY OWL



These sketches were made at the Rare Breeds Centre at Kington, Herefordshire. This seemed a very shy, nervous bird who didn’t like being sketched! As soon as I made a few cursory outlines it would flit to the back of it’s enclosure and seek cover behind a thick tree trunk. So the details were completed from several digital photographs.

Last week I acquired a good second hand copy of ‘Tunnicliffe’s Birdlife’ which had a watercolour of a Snowy Owl. He was presented with a bird that had been shot just inland from Carmel Head on Anglesea. He painted the bird against a background of the Anglesea coast with an offshore lighthouse.

This set me wondering about a background I might use for a portrait of the bird in this sketch. The Snowy Owl is an Arctic bird so a winter Welsh or Lake District scene may be appropriate.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE BIRDS

This is a sketchbook page of moorhen studies drawn from digital photographs taken on a recent walk along the Worcs. Birmingham canal. They are based on images from several photographs and the beauty of digital images as reference for wildlife is that you can zoom in to individual birds and observe visually useful details.

Charles Tunnicliffe did hundreds of notes like this in sketchbooks some of which were published a few years ago and were very popular - he compiled his from life returning each evening to make more refined compositional studies from notes made in the field. I think it's a practice worth following even if the starting point is a digital photograph. To catch the life of any living creature it's prudent to make some preliminary sketches rather than to go straight in and try to produce a finished painting.

Incidentally the drawings were made with a 2b Carbon Pencil and for the colourwork I used Caran D'Ache Neoart watersoluble wax crayons. I'm trying these out and I've created washes by taking the colour off the crayon with a wet brush just as you would from a cake of watercolour. As a bonus you can also draw with them - see the seed heads of the rushes.

Today's Wake-up Call


When preparing for a day in the studio it's nice to do a practice 'warm up' study from a sketchbook. Today I came across this little sketch done at a favorite location. It caught my eye though it was done some time ago - I've already used it for a watercolour called 'The ending of the day – Aberdovey'



Seeing the sketch again I realise how far the colours in the finished watercolour had drifted away from the original. In taking the original sketch further I've tried to recapture the original mood. I did think of framing this but I don't think it's good enough. I'm unhappy that the original pencil drawing is distracting. So it will have to be a fresh start – no bad thing a new beginning might lead to further discoveries. The wake-up practice has helped me get my eye in.

Why I always stretch paper

This is a plein air sketch I did a few weeks ago at our week-end workshop at Clunton. I was using 300gsm Fabriano Artistico Not. It's a nice pure cotton paper but with a rather bland grain. I was working with the sheet held on a piece of mdf by two bulldog clips. Since the workshop it has been stored flat between the pages of a sketchbook.

After a day in the field you face the dilemma of which of the sketches to taken further. Usually I hold the best as reference for the future. A few like this I decide to take further. It's obvious from the photograph that the sheet has cockled. It's tempting to try a quick fix by taping the sides down with masking tape but that could cause the centre to lift and there will still be some cockling when the masking tape is removed.

Others may have a different solution but the only sure way to achieve the nice flat surface I like to work on is to stretch. With partly completed work I only spray water on the back before taping the sides with good old gumstrip.

Incidentally there's an unightly 'bloom' just above the ladder on the left. This was once regarded as a serious fault but I notice Shirley Trevena frequently makes use of the effect in her paintings. How taste changes! I might be tempted to exploit the 'fault' in this work and call it a 'happy accident.' They sometimes happen don't they?

Peter De Wint

I’ve just been reading about Peter De Wint in the October issue of the A&I mag. It was a surprise that the article described him as ‘almost unknown today’ because his work is represented in many public collections and careful study of his work is a ‘must’ for anybody who is serious about painting in watercolour.

The main lesson to be learned from him is the fundamental importance of sound drawing. He was a superb draughtsman and much of his work is constructed on a sound underdrawing. There’s a marvellous example, ‘West Front of Lincoln Cathedral,’ featured in the A&I article. In this painting - apart from the fine draughtsmanship - there’s a little wisp of smoke on the left deftly applied with bodycolour which is a masterly touch.

Here are links to a few more examples:

Constable Tower Dover Castle – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Fine drawing in the architecture combined with looser handling in the foreground.

Sunset – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
A lovely painting evoking a quiet mood at the endng of the day.

Sheltering from the sun – Birmingham Museum & art Galleries.
Unfinished perhaps. It has the feel of a plein air study with lovely fluent directly painted brushwork.

The End of an Era

Two events this summer have made me aware of the passing of a generation of artists who were an inspiration. The first was the NEAC exhibition in Hereford which commemorated the life and work of John Ward. He had many admirers in the circle I befriended when I began to paint seriously. I went to see the exhibition again this week partly to admire John Ward’s pen and wash drawings of Rome and also to enjoy the diversity of the work by a group of painters who are working in the figurative tradition.

The next event was prompted by a flier which dropped out of the September issue of ‘The Artist’ magazine. It announced the publication of a book celebrating the life and work of James Fletcher-Watson. His loose rather understated watercolours in the Wesson – Seago manner had many followers among the older Ludlow Art Soc members when I began exhibiting. J F-W was an architect and for me he was at his best when painting buildings. Although he still has many admirers and a lifetime of achievement that will make copies of the Hallsgrove monograph greatly prized he belongs to an era that is passing.

It was an article by Frank Whitford one of the judges of the Singer and Friedlander Watercolour competition in the same issue of ‘The Artist’ that confirmed this opinion. He was writing about his favourite entries amongst the shortlisted prizewinners. Contemporary watercolour now admits the use of any waterbased medium whether opaque or transparent. Though this development would have upset Wesson who would never countenance the use of Chinese White I don’t have a problem with incorporating gouache or acrylic in a watercolour painting.

I have to say though Frank Whitford’s favourites are not to my taste but then taste is a subjective matter anyway. I’ve always enjoyed the work of David Curtis and David Prentice – both past prizewinners – as among the best exponents of contemporary watercolour. I’m pleased that David Curtis is now on the S&F panel of judges and that David Prentice is a 2007 prizewinner.

At the New English

Happened to be in Hereford last week and was delighted to discover an exhibition by members of the New English Art club in the Museum and Art Gallery. It seemed to have been staged in memory of John Ward CBE, RA, NEAC who died earlier this year. He was born and educated in Hereford before going on to the RCA after service in the Royal Engineers in WW2. He left a set of drawings which he made on active service to the Hereford museum which were on display.

The NEAC was founded in1886 - one of founder members was Sickert he and others imported impressionist and realist ideas from France. Augustus John’s work aroused a concern for sensitive draughtsmanship and his influence is still traced in the work of current members.

The NEAC claims to represent the very best of contemporary British figurative painting. There are some fine medium sized oil paintings that look well in a large gallery space and are well worth studying. There’s also encouragement to be gained by seeing the smaller works painted with a directness of touch maybe as studies. There were two little oils of Padstow by Tom Coates – they left me with the feeling that with a little effort and practice I could pull off something almost as good! A touch of conceit? – perhaps but at least Tom's paintings inspired me to push myself a lttle further.

The exhibition runs till 29th August - do get to see it if you can.

stagestruck at midsummer

Around midsummer my wife and I become stagestruck. It starts in early June with visits to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and this year was special because we got into the final performance in the old theatre before it closed – it was Coriolanus. There’s a nice busy atmosphere in Stratford upon Avon around Midsummer – it’s nice to hear the different accents Japanese, American/Canadian and a few French.

It’s a surprise to find that each year significant numbers of Japanese visitors come to enjoy Shakespeare. Glen Walford who is directing ‘The Comedy of Errors’ at the Ludlow Festival this year has just returned from Japan where she regularly directs Shakespeare plays in Japanese theatres.

The Ludlow Festival takes us over for a period of four weeks or so. I’ve been preoccupied updating the Festival website – posting pictures of the cast and making last minute changes. Today we’ve been in the Castle arranging things backstage ready for the arrival of the costumes. Next week the company will be holding rehearsals so I can leave them to it and get back to painting.

Wardrobe management is one of the less glamorous jobs in the theatre and I don’t know why my wife enjoys it. It has its compensations because she has worked with some charming actors who remember her. Last week we were at Malvern to see David Suchet in ‘The Last Confession.’ Another member of the cast was Clifford Rose who she had ‘dressed’ at Ludlow on couple of occasions. She just had to leave him a card and a box of chocolate fudge at the stage door. She was delighted when he rang her up the following day to thank her – that was a nice gesture from an actor who has is well-known for the work he has done in the theatre and on television.


Here’s the set for this year’s Ludlow Festival play under construction – let’s hope the rain goes away!

Mill on a Bruges Canal


Pen Study – This windmill stands on the banks of a quiet canal between Bruges and Dammer. I discovered it while taking a boat excursion and there was barely time to get down a scribbled impression so I had to work it up with the aid of a photograph.

Mills, waterways, and canals occur in many of Rembrandt’s drawings in pen and bistre. Occasionally he worked them up as etchings but mostly he seems to have done them for relaxation – a form of escape from his studio enterprise perhaps.