meldrum art
As I mentioned in the last post, we are having amazing weather here in Stockholm. It’s totally inspiring and all I want to do is paint and sail. So this weekend that’s what I am doing!
Watercolour 36 x 29 cm
The weather is totally amazing here in Sweden at the moment. The month of May must have been the sunniest on record. The farmers aren’t happy as it hasn’t rained for ages but city folk like me are ignorant of agricultural needs. Still, I do worry about climate change and what will happen to the planet if we don’t change our ways.
Anyway, I went sailing last weekend. I sailed by myself for the first time on the new boat, “Aquarelle” and it went well, one is always a bit nervous when it’s a first. It was a working weekend, I installed Lazy Jacks, changed the reefing ropes and added an extra solar panel. I did find time to do a few sketches. My personal challenge was to make interesting compositions out of what I could see from the cockpit of the boat. I was happy enough with these two. Tomorrow, we go out sailing again, I am so looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll have a few new sketches to show next week.
Yashiro Island, Japan. A beautiful archipelago very far from home.
From my sketchbook.
This was a fun sketch to do. I didn’t take me long and I am happy with the result. I will definitely paint a finished version of it in the future. I am obsessed with capturing the light, I think there is nothing more beautiful than the rays of sunshine.
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I have a lovely project to illustrate a book. It is associated with Sandhamn, an island that is a meeting point out in the Stockholm archipelago. This is the first of many sketches I will be doing during this year. It’s a lovely place to visit but I try my best to avoid it during the short summer months – that’s when the flash trash arrive in their oversized pleasure cruisers.
The sketch is about A5 in size and painted in my Moleskin watercolour journal.
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One of the really beautiful things about the Stockholm archipelago is the numerous old ferries that are still in service. Most of which are over 100 years old. Storskär is one of my favorites. It is owned by Waxholms bolaget. I don’t think I could ever tire of painting these beautiful boats.
Title: Storskär
51 x 33 cm
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A small composition test 34 x 24 cm on Fabriano fine grain. I plan to paint a large version today.
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I haven’t sailed all summer but now I am and it’s wonderful. The holiday season is over so the archipelago is quite empty of boats. No motor boats just a few sailing boats and most of them seem to be visiting from Europe. So it’s very peaceful. We have bought a new boat, not new exactly – it was built in 1975. So we are getting to know how everything works. Next week my wife returns to work but I intend to continue sailing as much of September I can. I want to sketch, paint and take reference photos. It’s going to be an experience.
This watercolour sketch was painted at our first stop on the trip, Gällnö is the name of the island, we stayed for a day then moved on.
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Another quick sketch while on my way home from work. I wish I had designed the clouds a bit better. It was just one long cloud in reality but it would have been better if I had broken it up. I am satisfied otherwise, actually I quite like it!
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