THE TRAFFIC PAUSES ON THE STRAND, LIVERPOOL – WATERCOLOUR SKETCH

The sun shone brightly when I emerged from a Saturday life session and I decided to have a look around and take a few photos before boarding the train home. In front of the Liver building the light came from the direction of the Mersey. I decided to do this sketch from a few of the photos, getting a view down The Strand with  people crossing the road.

In hindsight I could put more detail and colour into the people in the road and have the person walking away, coming at the viewer, maybe with a companion instead. Then, if I manage to get the buildings upright and get rid of the orangutan scaling the ventilation shaft on the right, maybe we’re in business.

Other paintings of Liverpool are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

DEEPER INTO THE WOODS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Following on with my woodland series and again featuring the golden birches amid the conifers. I dont think the yellows and oranges work too well against the dull greens so some of the punch is lost. Perhaps I should have reserved more white. Anyway, you can but try.

Other woodland scenes and landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ENTERING AINSDALE WOODS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Last Saturday the weather was bright and I got off the train a couple of stops early on my return from the morning life session in Liverpool. I walked back through the woods. With the birches resplendent in their yellows and oranges I took a few photos as I walked home. This painting was a view at the end of my walk with a couple of figures borrowed from another shot. In hindsight I should have given the man the dog, so it stands out in the light. I might try a few more images from my walk.

Other paintings of woods in and around Southport are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

RECEDING TIDE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I wanted to try out some textures on this one with the sky, sea, rocks and pebbles all requiring different approaches. I would like to have added further detail and texture, such as building up the seaweed and pebbles, but was aware that I was getting too fussy. It was a good exercise and like so many paintings, you get to the end and realise that there were slicker and better ways of achieving your aims. So perhaps another go later.  

For other seascape and beach paintings for sale, visit my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

LIVERPOOL SLICE – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I used my liquid acrylics to start this off and am quite pleased with some of it. Other parts are a bit more pedestrian than I would have liked – and I dont mean the figures crossing the road.

I did a similar thing last year, which I posted,  even using a few of the same motifs, as you can see below, and got similarly bogged down with an illustrative approach. The liquid acrylics helped liven up proceedings in the latest  painting and, I feel,  opened up some options. Every time I see the painting, I add or  change bits of it, so maybe it isnt finished yet.

I need to try developing the approach on another image and see if I can avoid some of the pitfalls that beset me.

Other paintings of Liverpool, Formby and Southport are available for sale on my website: grahammcquaefineart.com

FIGURATIVE PASTEL PAINTINGS

I have been working on a more involved painting of late, that, and family visits,  have held me back, so all I have to show are my recent life studies done at the sessions I go to.

I am finding the poses very tedious and not very demanding or imaginative. Too much sitting stiffly in chairs for my tastes. I did get my oar in last week and managed to set the pose and got Arthur in a lying pose.

At least we had a different angle to work from, though I dont think I did it the justice it deserved.

Then on Saturday the organiser was sorting out something interesting when someone came in and made a request for a sitting pose with Eve reading. I wonder if these people ever look through the drawings they’ve made and see sets of identical drawings with people in the same pose.

And another sitting figure. This guy moved the  hand that rested on the thigh and had me making changes, not realising what he had done, that ended up with a rather swollen thigh. At that point I gave up and got the early train home.

Life drawings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

STAND – ACRYLIC PAINTING

This was another response to to the forest walks we went on, described in previous blogs.  In fact I completed this one before the last blog I posted. I tried some sketches first in pastel and in the end decided to combine them all for the final piece.

Any resemblence to Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie is coincidental and I did get increasingly aware of it  as I built up the painting, with its lines and small blocks of colour particularly as he  did some very inspiring trees as well – well worth a look at.

Other abstract paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SUNSHINE IN AINSDALE WOODS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I apologise for another version of sunlight through trees on consecutive blogs, but in mitigation they are in different media.

I mentioned in previous blogs about walking with a group of French visitors who had come to Southport. On the Saturday we had a sunny walk, taking lunch on the beach at Formby.  I posted a painting I did of the scene on 24th October. This is another painting based on views I saw, that day, on our way to lunch, walking through the woods to Formby and then on to the beach. I have done another, very different version of  these woods. I’ll post that in my next blog.

I tried to keep this painting very loose; spraying the paper with water and then throwing paint into the dampened area after which I then drew into and painted with a brush. As I was building up layers of paint I spayed in masking fluid both on dry and damp paper at differing times of painting, so the masking fluid covered different colours and tones.

Other scenes of Southport, Liverpool and Formby are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

 

THE LANE TO LITTLE CROSBY – PASTEL PAINTING

The other week when I went to get some reference material for an upcoming show, low morning sun-light exploded in between the leaves and branches of the willow trees which sat in the drainage ditches along the road I travelled on. Fortunately I had my camera beside me and I was able to snatch a few snaps. Even better was the fact that I managed to keep the car on the road at the same time and no passing motorists were harmed in the taking of these images.

I have been assembling and framing the paintings for the show and will be taking them in next week for hanging. I had forgotten about these images until I came across them the other day when I thought that I might make something out of them.

Other paintings of Little Crosby and Formby are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

MORNING CALM BY THE RIVER DOUGLAS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I did the original sitting by the river at the end of June and posted it at the beginning of July but thought that it might be worth having another go in the studio. I loved the different levels the river had created and their shadow lines and the light reflecting off the damp mud. I also scattered some animals about, all of which I had seen as I walked along the river. Having climbed over a fence to get there,  solitude and calm abounded on this still summer’s morning.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com