Month: August 2022

Categories
akvarell watercolor Watercolour

The advantage of painting small

If you have been following this blog, or my Patreon page or even my Facebook page you’ll know that I suffer from seasonal depression (SAD). It has held me back enormously over the last three years. Thankfully, I am now getting the help that I need and therefore feel pretty positive.

This is where the small paintings come in.
It is way too much for me to paint a large watercolour right now. I’m a person in recovery and so my ability to focus is pretty shot. This is why I think small. 18 x 13 cm usually. If you know about painting on quarter – sheets then you’ll understand when I say, I paint on quarter – quarter – sheets. For the rest of you, it’s about A5 in size.

This little watercolour is from a reference photo I took a few years back when we visited Trosa in the southern Stockholm archipelago. I’ve painted it before, I like the composition. Yes, it’s 18 x 13cm in size.

Take care of yourselves.

Trosa
Categories
akvarell Sketch watercolor Watercolour

So windy. It was time to go home

It was a very windy summer. We spent so much time trying to find protection from the strong winds. Survival stuff it was sometimes. After two and half weeks we had had enough.

So this watercolour was the last of the paintings from my holiday. It sums up the the end of our adventure pretty well. We were in a small natural harbour on the island of Kallskär which is in the outer archipelago. After this we headed west towards Stockholm dodging strong winds and squalls that hunted us.

Kallskär 18 x 13cm

Kallskär 18 x 13cm
Categories
Sketches sketching watercolor Watercolour

Islands and trees, that’s it!

Hasselö #2

Trees, there are a lot of them in the Stockholm archipelago. So difficult to paint, green is an awful colour to work with, appears flat and lifeless any chance it gets. There is so much for me to master while out sailing, patience being number one.

Four small sketches of the the same scene, 18 x 13cm, Hasselö, 2022.07.20

Categories
Sketch sketching watercolor Watercolour

Four interpretations of the same scene

Watercolour #2

While out sailing in the archipelago we would sometimes take a day off and just hang in a beautiful spot. This would give me the opportunity to paint. The four watercolours here are of the same scene on Själbottna island painted over two days.

I realise that my first watercolour is usually rushed and therefore not so good. I guess it’s a necessary evil, a process to slow down and really see what is in front of me. The third watercolour was an attempt to capture the advent of rain and dark thunderous skies. Finally the last watercolour was painted the next morning just before we lifted anchor and sailed off in some direction I cannot remember.

The watercolours are 18 x 13cm in size and were painted on the 16/17th of July, 2022.

Categories
Sketches sketching watercolor Watercolour

My first post in almost a year!

I became very ill with depression last October and it’s only now that I am starting to feel good again. The summer repairs but in recent years the seasonal window has been getting smaller. I’m seeking treatment and in the worse case I’ll probably need to move south for the winter, let’s see what happens.

So while I’m all depressed my website crashed in November 2021, and I wasn’t able to fix it due to a scrambled brain – trashed by antidepressants. I’ve ditched the medication, it was impossible for me to be creative. It may work for others but it’s not the solution for me.

So, this is my first post for a while. I haven’t been so productive so nothing missed really. I am so happy that I’ve started painting again. I began in May, I visited Ireland, stayed with friends and sketched for a week. It was so beautiful, the weather was just wonderful. Recently, I was on my annual sailing adventure with my wife. I painted a lot of watercolours of the Stockholm archipelago.

These featured watercolours were painted one after the other on the 7th of July in a natural-harbour called Norra Gränholmsviken, Gällnö. 18 x 13 cm in size, it’s a quarter of a quarter sheet for those of you who paint watercolour. It’s really interesting to paint the same scene several times. I discovered new patterns, new shapes and new compositions each time. A really good exercise when trying to improve.

Nice to be back. See you again soon. 🙂

Gällnö
Gällnö, the first attempt.
Gällnö