AND WINTER STARTS ITS GRIP – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I was experimenting with a series of abstracts inspired  by the changing of seasons. One of the forms I was considering was colour and I saw the birch which overhangs my garden and played around with backgrounds and colour combinations which I might use on the abstracts but this time I employed them in a representational image.

We haven’t yet got snow but the white in the image seemed to lift the image. It could be snow or light coming through the leaves. I tried to blur the background to infer form but not describe it. I will work further on this.

Other abstracts and representational work can be found on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

CONVERSATION -WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I saw a photograph of a garden in low light in a copy of a National Trust magazine. Primarily I liked the lighting and all there was just a bench and tree in an empty garden. I thought it could do with some figures for  narrative  so I found a couple of figures in some old photos. Once they were in I felt the tree had to be moved for better balance. Despite these changes I’m happy that  the image retained a great atmosphere. I used a lot of blue in the background shrubs, which was grey/green in the photo and that has given it the shadowy intrigue I was after.

Other landscape paintings are on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SPRING IN THE FOREST – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I took a photo off the television of a deer running through some woodland. I liked the lighting  in the image and got some photos of deer I took on Richmond Park a while back  and combined them . I don’t think I got quite what I was looking for but I am happier with this than the one of the horses I recently posted.

Other landscape paintings are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

MARK -PASTEL PAINTING

I went into the life drawing session with my pastels and decided to try a blocking approach  that I have been using with my acrylics. I started without any drawing just putting in warms and cools in approximate positions. This lack of planning meant I only got down to the tops of the legs before  running out of paper. Once I got the patchwork in I then started the drawing.

Working on black paper seemed to give the work a lift and not rubbing or blending gave me a  pleasing freshness -although there are some areas where I succumbed to old habits, but that was mainly due to me not sketching out first and then having to correct.

I will have another think about the way forward, but I am reasonable pleased with the result so far. I will have another go this week if we get a decent pose.

Other figurative work is available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EVENING ON THE BEACH – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Early evening on Bexhill beach I spotted a group crossing the sands and took some photos. I rearranged the figures and added some seagulls for narrative. In hindsight I could have left out the parents and focussed on the two kids chasing the gulls. I might have a go at that version and see how it turns out. The sun coming from the right lights up the breaking waves, which was another aspect I liked.

Other paintings can be found on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

 

I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA … WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

A couple of watercolours I did recently which I had high hopes for, but they fell a bit flat by the time I had finished. Both were contra-jour. The horses in the evening sun seemed to come out rather flat. The actual horses in the photo were in coats so I  took some images of horses from other photos and arranged them in the field  but perhaps I had  the  tones a bit wrong – being wary of overdarkening the horses. I felt the finished painting lacked a bit of punch.

The view from the canal seemed to finish up with a mass of reedbeds and rather little else going on.

Anyway – I tried. On with the next painting.

Better fare is to be found on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

TWO VIEWS OF NEW CUT LANE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

New Cut Lane is a road that leaves Southport, where I live, and goes inland across the moss, which is low lying arable land behind the sand dunes of  the coast. It was a road I took to go to work in Kirkby, North Liverpool, each morning either in the car or on my bike. Starting the sixteen mile cycle on mornings like this with the sun low on the horizon was a pleasure. Coming back was harder, as you cycled into the prevailing wind across the exposed, flat land. There were other hazards, like facing oncoming cars overtaking at speed across the straight, but undulating road. On one occasion I was faced with two tons of oncoming BMW being driven by the Company doctor – a man purportedly looking after my health. Fortunately he missed.

Other landscapes can be found on my website grahammcquadefineart.com

MORNING IN ST JOHN’S GARDENS, LIVERPOOL – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Out and about in Liverpool one morning this summer I walked around St Georges Hall and came into St John’s Gardens which was once an old graveyard for the city. They got rid of the bodies and turned it into a park. The light was coming in from the top, behind St George’s Hall – the building on the right. I liked the array of blue/greys, blues and purples from the shadows and buildings which was added to by the lavender in the flower-beds. The light coming in through the low branches of the trees lit up the leaves giving a yellowish tinge, to complement the dominant colours. Not sure if I’ve got the full impact here, but I was wary of overdarkening the image and losing detail. I might have a go at glazing with a little more blue before consigning to the bin.

Other images of Liverpool are available on my website grahammcquadefineart.com

A SLICE OF ENGLAND – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

We were moving up and down the country recently and travelling down the east side we stopped off at St Ives near Cambridge where we lived many years ago. We took a walk along the River Ouse and I saw a number of scenes which individually had some charm and interest but I felt could be combined to give an archetypical image of England on a summer’s day.

At first I couldn’t work out how to combine the different aspects I wanted to include and then I realised I could do it with a long thin format turned on it’s side, giving a long depth of field. It was almost as if I’d cut a slice of the countryside  and served it up as a painting.

Other landscape painting is on my website : grahammcquadefineart.com

LADY IN GREY – PASTEL PAINTING

I did a tonal pastel painting on a warm grey support paper of a model at the life painting group. I was pleased with how the simple approach came out. I think the warm colour of the paper added an additional hue and gave the painting a lift.

Other life studies are on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com