Here are a few sketches that weren’t completed while I was in France. I finished them later in the studio. I always enjoy myself in Paimpol and Ploubazlanec. Nice memories as usual.
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More from Brittany
Tag: painting watercolour
This is the last watercolour I will show from my trip to France. The house belongs to my mother-in-law. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place, as you can see. A young man lives in the van, he’s been there for four years. It’s the way it is. I look forward to visiting again next year.
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The tide is out, it’s time to paint
I mentioned in my last post that I liked it best when the tide was out. Looking through my watercolours from the trip to Brittany it’s clear that it is so. These were painted just outside of Paimpol harbour. Lots of abandoned boats to try and capture. I had a lot of fun that day.
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Tidal watercolour painting
I just love it in Brittany. So nice to go out painting everyday while visiting my mother-in-law in Ploubazlanec. The tides are pretty extreme. A ten metre difference between high and low. The view of the sea is always changing. I enjoy trying to capture the low tides best.
I returned to France after a four year break.
I love spending time in Brittany. I get on really well with my mother-in-law, and the scenery there is just fantastic.
This painting is of the view from the garden. It’s the first of many watercolours that I painted during my stay.
It’s so easy to be inspired when visiting far off places. It’s a little harder to get excited closer to home.
Yes, like I mentioned in the previous post, my wife was at a conference in Noordwijkerhout, Holland. I tagged along for the chance to discover a new place and to find inspiration to paint a watercolour.
I left the hotel after breakfast with my easel and painting gear. It was day two, what should I paint? I wandered around for a while and then decided to make it easy for myself. There were only flat fields, as far as an artist could see. It was a hot, sunny day, so when I found shade, it decided the view of the tulip fields.
While painting, a local carefully asked, why was I painting the field? It was empty after all, the tulips had been harvested two weeks before. She smiled, mounted her bike and cycled away. I had no choice did I! I had missed the harvest and was in the middle of nowhere. I probably made the fields redder than they really were, because of that little encounter with the lady on the bicycle.
I have just returned from a two week holiday. Sylvie, my wife was attending a conference in Holland and I just hung along for the ride. Later, we took the train to Paris and then visited her mother in Brittany, France.
I didn’t look at the exact location of my wife’s conference on the map. It was in a place called Noordwijkerhout. A farming region, flat as a pancake, south of Amsterdam. Small towns dotted around but mostly just farmland. No windmills. What could I paint? A field? A field that once had tulips? And, they had been harvested weeks earlier …
It’s fascinating how, when one stares long enough at a seemingly mundane landscape, one can find beauty. I did my best to capture it. I had walked around for hours with my easel. It was late evening when I settled for this scene.
I painted this watercolour back in the summer of 2021. We had sailed to Åland from Stockholm and as usual our first port of call was Rödhamn. While there I painted this plein air sketch of the Radio Station Museum and a nearby navigational sign.
I basically was unhappy with it and I placed it in my failures tray back home. Saw it recently and said to myself maybe I can tweak that watercolour a little and it will be okay. This is the result.
Happy New Year! 😃😃😃
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Just doing it
In the beginning of the week I took the ferry on a short trip across the water to Djurgården here in Stockholm. I wheeled my art gear behind me and looked for an inspirational spot to paint from. In the end it was the weather that decided. I needed protection from the strong easterly wind which was making 7 degrees feel really unpleasant.
The day’s subject became some oil storage tanks on the other side of the water. I was more interested in the sky but I needed a point of focus for the sake of the composition.
The finished watercolour may not be a masterpiece but for me just getting out and painting was the biggest achievement of the day.
Have a nice weekend.
Cheers 🙂
