meldrum art
I am in Salina, one of the seven Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. I filmed myself painting this watercolour today. I found a shaded spot to paint the trees in the village square. Shade was the most important word in existence as it was 40 degrees out of the sun, really hot in other words. Anyway, I am going to try and edit the material I filmed and hopefully I have a demonstration video up on YouTube very soon.
We are sailing north of Sicily visiting Salina, one of the seven Aeolian Islands. So nice to have time to sketch again.
I am continuing to experiment with light and shade. It is also interesting to try and find exciting compositions from the streets of my home town. In everyday life we stress and don’t study our environment, we should from time to time I think. There is a lot of beauty out there is we take the time to slow down a little and look around.
These watercolours are from my Saunders Waterford Sketchbook which is 28 x 38 cm
I painted this sketch yesterday, I just wanted to practice so that I feel comfortable with the subject. I also wondered what the composition would feel like with one of the sailing boat’s masts tilted by a small gust of wind as it rounded the island. I like it, much more dynamic, so I will go with this when I paint the demonstration version this Saturday.
Many people want to be in the workshop which is great considering I advertised it so late last week. Still a few places left if you are interested! 🙂
The sketch is about A5 in size and painted on Saunders Waterford paper.
Yes, I am going to try my hand at teaching. I am very late getting this out to people so I’ll be happy if only two come. It’s on the 9th of March which is next week already!
I spent so much time thinking about how I wanted to teach and what I wanted to paint that now time has run out. You got to start somewhere, it doesn’t matter if not so many turn up the first time, the main thing for me is that I start. That’s a major step forward and I am happy with that.
Here is the link to the workshop, it’s mainly in Swedish but I do explain in English at the bottom of the page.
Have a nice weekend folks!
I am getting better at just sketching for fun. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to improve which is good but at the same time I know it’s not recommended to be deadly serious all the time. So, yesterday I had some fun. It’s fun having fun. Sounds like I am trying to persuade myself that relaxing is a good thing.
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I visited the Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska) yesterday with my friend, Daniel Luther who is also an enthusiastic watercolour artist.
The museum is a great place to come and practice sketching during the winter months here in Stockholm. It’s -5 degrees outside and snowing at the moment so not great weather for plein air painting.
I chose to paint a swan first. When I opened my palette I discovered that red paint had leaked out into the mixing area, so I decided to us it as a background to the swan. It’s pretty dramatic but I like it 🙂
The duck sketch is definitely influenced by the famous Swedish watercolour artist, Lars Lerin. He has been to the museum in the past but I do not know if he actually sketched at the museum or just took reference photos. Does anyone out there know? Anyway, this sketch is homage to his style of painting.
It was a great day, I really should sketch away from the studio more often.
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Yesterday, I went to life drawing and I couldn’t paint to save my life. Today, I couldn’t put a brush stroke wrong, an over exaggeration maybe but it certainly felt so. What a difference a day makes.
I continue to practice my portraits as often as i can. This one I did this morning before meeting my Urban Sketcher friends at the The Maritime Museum here in Stockholm.
Painted on Saunders Waterford Fine Grain.
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Click the thumbnail below for full-sized image.
I am still practising my watercolour portrait painting techniques. This one took me a day to complete and I’m happy with it. It’s not perfect of course, not as far as I am concerned anyway.
I should be editing a film for YouTube, I will have to force myself from doing more portraits until I’ve completed the editing. The next Watercolour Journey episode by the way is from the Gaint’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Click the thumbnail below for full-sized image.
