Just a very quick catch up on some of this weeks paintings for the World Watercolour Month Challenge. My days have been busy with work so most have been done in the evening. It’s always interesting the next day to see exactly what colours you’ve used after painting in artificial light!
I’ll try and write a few lines for each one, but I’m running out of steam a bit. I’ll also split them over two days so tonight will be days 9 to 12.
Day 9 would have been last Saturday, and a rare foray into landscape painting. Until Christmas last year I lived near the Cook’s river and still miss walking the dog along the banks every day. I actually still live near now, but further upstream, and the river here is basically just a 20ft wide concrete storm drain.
I was flagging a bit by Day 10 and wanted something simpler. So I chose a Cuckoo from a book we used while learning to paint Chinese Spontaneous style. This is the first of two in this style completed this week, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the other one. I did cheat a bit because it’s just on a normal watercolour block, not on the proper paper which is harder to use.
The following day, Monday and Day 11, was the birthday of a very special friend so I took the opportunity to paint something for her. May I introduce Seamus, her border terrier. He’s a little guy with a big character who’s sadly no longer with us. This was a rare picture that just worked, straight off the brush, and I’m extremely happy with the result!
Finally for this post, Day 12 is a study of the leaves of The Chinese Tallow tree. It’s a beautiful tree I had never seen before moving to this house. It has small heart shaped leaves that turn the most amazing colours during Autumn. The one just around the corner still has a few leaves even though we’re well into winter now, and to be honest I haven’t really done it justice – the reds are much redder than I have them!