Paintbox Tips

"I keep wanting to get photos of those sheds, but always seems to be wrong time of day,  wrong tide or wrong weather for stopping. Or... we use the road on the other side of the estuary!"

This is what happens if you paint photo realism or you are too

I've been listening to lots of podcasts from artists who love painting en plein air like I do - the interesting thing is, I come from the school of painting what should be there but most of the artists I've been listening to seem very focussed on det

https://youtu.be/x6QB8doDyno

Wouldn’t I rather go shopping instead? 10 reasons to paint en plein air    

My annual painting residency in Lucca came about by sheer luck. Planning our well-earned holiday, we threw a map at a dart and hit Lucca. I paid upfront for our European ho

Always ... 

Have plenty of a4 drawing paper handy for practicing drawing and shapes.

Wash out and gently dry your brushes before packing away.

Squeeze out new tube paint before starting so that you don’t have to scrub at dry paint and damage your bru

a bit of a sticky subject but has to be addressed at least for educational purposes! 

copyright thoughts:

if you could go there and take a photo yourself then it’s ok to use someone else’s photo from internet for reference, however, if the origin

Some thoughts on drawing for the artist: 

Drawing skills are essential.

Shapes must be good - note I didn't say "perfect".

"Good" can also mean interesting, unique or beautiful.

Design your artwork with design principles in mind.

Accomplished drawers

The cool thing about Watercolour is that it is mostly not too difficult to fix. 

I know, I know, everyone says how it is the most difficult medium but truthfully, everything new is difficult and the myth sayers I've met and perpetuate these myths ca

One of the reasons I love watercolour painting is the speed at which I can achieve a painting. If and when I'm clever, I can have a painting today! It took me a long time to get to this point - I've been painting watercolour close to 25 years - it's

a difficult subject to draw so i broken it down to geometric shapes.  

I think its the foreshortening that confuses us PLUS we know what a car looks like - but do we actually look?

However, we need to remember to not confuse what we know with what w

this is a glossary of terms for all things art including watercolour   

in no particular order and under construction, so please do check back regularly for updates:

DESIGN TERMINOLOGY:

COMPOSITION: aka design, sometimes considered a dirty word i

 I had to stop painting halfway through a new work yesterday - my pet peeve - largely
because I struggle to get back into the zone of things when it's all dry and at that middle bland stage of light and mid values.

so I'm writing a list of what I nee

If i could meet the person who first said "your painting is not perfect" or "I'm a perfectionist" i would give them a jolly good talking to!!

Lets get a reality check here - there's no such thing as perfect (except for Mary Poppins and even she said

Nasty drawing always helps me to loosen up. I leave gaps and love wrong marks - curves where there should be straights and vice versa. to draw in preparation for a watercolour painting, as with just about anything, less is more. One of my secrets is

Mark Twain said, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story” 

Paint what your painting needs not necessarity what is in front of you.

Think about designing your painting - what are the elements that communicate your story or your message? w