MORNING SKETCHES – WATERCOLOUR

We are having a spell of good weather, which for August in the UK is unusual. Unfortunately, with a few commitments, I havent been able to take advantage. One exception was last Wednesday when I dawn broke without a cloud and I was awake enough to get out. These scenes are from the village of Halsall, close to where I live. I have seen this view many times as I cycled to work, but I noticed a gate had been cut into a field which allowed me space to sit away from the road. This was the first view I painted and the dampness and coolness prevented the paint from drying quickly and there is a softness in the image which I quite like.

The next painting was done as the morning started to warm and the edges are much sharper due to the quicker drying. I only had to move a few feet from where I painted the first painting to get this view. I had just set up when two tractors and a wagon waited to go through the gate. The driver who unlocked the gate wanted me to paint him, though his enthusiasm seemed to drain when I told him he needed to take off his clothes.

With the rush hour over and the vehicles away and out of sight down the track you can see, I did this final painting – about 180 degrees from my first painting. Again the edges are much harsher and I can detect a tiredness creeping in.

It was a great way to spend the early morning, sitting contemplating the views, meditating and painting in the quietness of a still, sunny dawn ( well, apart from the brief disturbance of the tractors ) made better by the fact that I had only to move a few feet to get three good views. Then, as an added bonus, I saw a potential scene for another painting on my way home. Hopefully, some good weather will allow me to explore that one fairly soon..

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

MANOR GARDENS 2 – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

This is the second painting in the Manor Garden series. Once more it is of the rose garden but looking down the terraces from the main house. The previous painting, displayed on my last blog, viewed the garden from right to left in this painting. Here, the view is more into the sun, so there are some juicy contrasts of light and shade.

The roses are a bit more florid than you might see if you visited, but they are probably in line with what the gardener was intending.

Both paintings have been dispatched, and the lady seems to be happy with the two pieces although she didnt recognise herself in the first painting. Hopefully she now has a constant reminder of a place she loves.

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

MANOR GARDENS 1 – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

On holiday the other week we visited these gardens in Bexhill’s old town, in Sussex. The area was part of the old Manor built in 13th century and its remains can be seen. There are also other ruined buildings. These create small walled gardens and enclosed spaces. Many of the walls are made of flints, held together with mortar, a common method of construction here, as flint is found in the nearby chalk hills and beaches.

These gardens are well maintained and the present main building is used for weddings. The gardens are a favourite haunt of a lady who asked me to paint some views of it for her. This is the main rose garden and some of the buildings and ruins can be seen. This rose garden is used as a backdrop for wedding photos and garden parties.

The second painting is being worked up and I will post that on my next blog.

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

IT’S DOG EAT DOG OUT HERE – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I used to run almost everyday – for 53 years – until the surgeon who replaced my right hip socket advised me against doing any more. I miss it, and the feeling of well being I felt afterwards – maybe a result of the adrenalin. So these days I get up early and walk the course of my shortest run around the neighbourhood. And my mind starts to wander at this slower pace. A version of this vision above, popped into my head the other day on my walk. Well, some of it anyway. Then as I started painting, more got added. It kept me occupied for a morning.

When I completed it, I googled ‘dog eats dog’ and unsurprisingly, it’s been painted before – but not in red stilettos (the dog’s not mine – mine are blue) Just dont ask questions it’s solely here for your amusement.

Other, less quirky, paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SUNSHINE IN KING’S GARDENS, SOUTHPORT – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I hate sitting doing nothing, so as I manned our exhibition the other day, I started this painting. I got all the drawing completed and put in the initial washes and background details in, between greeting the 30 or so visitors who dropped by. Some of the visitors are interested to see someone painting and it can be an ice-breaker. For this reason I left the wall until I had a quiet moment at home, as it took a bit of concentration to paint.

The park is quite near to where we are holding the exhibition and the painting also features some of the town’s buildings. There is a tower behind the couple, that I painted in an earlier session at the exhibition, I posted the result a couple of weeks ago. That painting is now hanging in the gallery.

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

MEMORY JOGGERS- WATERCOLOUR AND ACRYLIC PAINTINGS

Still on holiday, we visited friends near my home town. One couple have just moved back to the area and they were showing us around their new house and on the wall was a familiar painting – one I did around 2013. It was pleasing to see it again, after all these years. I dug up this image of it from my files. I called it Early Start.

Here is another long forgotten painting I saw yesterday. I sold it to a lady who lived in the same block of flats as my step mother. The lady has since moved to a care home due to dementia and her family cleared her flat for renting out. This painting was then hung in one of the corridors of the block of flats. I just caught sight of it as I was passing and it made me pause. I had to ask my stepmother about it, who assured me it was the painting I had originally sold to Shirley.

Apologies for the light reflections from the glass. I like the almost abstract shapes at the bottom of the painting which slowly evolve into vegetation and buildings. I have used this approach before, and was pleased with the result here.

Landscapes and seascapes are available for sale from my website: https://grahammcquadefineart.com

CUCKMERE SCENES – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

I mentioned in my last blog that I was on holiday. We are in the south of England and yesterday I walked along part of the River Cuckmere in Sussex which flows out into the English Channel. This scene, above, was painted when I was close to the end of my walk at the village of Alfriston. In the distance you can see Alfriston Church across the water meadow. The river is behind an embankment in front of the church.

When I completed this sketch I walked up past the church. There is a bridge to cross the river to the right of the church. As I approached the bridge I saw that the river had breached the embankment – this was what was filling the water meadow you can see in the sketch. I had to cross a couple of breaches, knee deep in fast flowing water. Fortunately I reached the bridge without any slippages watched on by a crowd of onlookers stood on the bridge.

You do your best to entertain the crowds.

The second sketch was earlier on my walk, in drier times. I liked the red roofs of the buildings peeping from behind the trees and the layers of vegetation banding up from the River Cuckmere, up the chalk hill, to the higher ground.

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

THE FOOTPATH FROM CRAIL TO ANSTRUTHER – PASTEL PAINTING

Being on holiday at the moment I dont have much to show, so here’s an old painting I havent posted before. I was on a painting holiday in Scotland years ago. It was in the fishing port of Crail. Crail is in the Kingdom of Fife, just south of St Andrews.

One evening, after a days painting, I took a walk along the coastal path from the old fishing port of Crail to Anstruther, another small fishing port. The low golden sun threw long shadows across the grassland and tinted everything in an orange glow.

Later I did this pastel painting of the walk and I eventually gave it to a friend. In fact I am shortly going to visit him at the end of a walking holiday in Portugal, planned for the end of September. He lives not far from Faro. Well. that is if the borders aren’t shut down again.

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

BESIDE THE RIVER EAA, CARTMEL – ACRYLIC PAINTING

It’s not a subject I would choose, but the view means something to someone and so long as it has a resonance with a viewer, that’s all that matters.

I had previously painted someone’s cottage in Cartmel ( which is at the southern edge of England’s Lake District) as a small commission, and it was spotted on the web by a lady wanting a birthday present. She asked to do this view. It appears I have become the go-to artist for Cartmel.

I have only been to Cartmel once, in June of 2010. On that day a gunman was rampaging a few miles north of the town on a killing spree. Fortunately Cartmel was well out the way of his trajectory, but earlier in the day we were closer to the incident, which unfolded over a number of hours, before the gunman shot himself.

It was only when we got home, later that day, did we hear of the incident.

Anyway, the lady who commissioned it for her father seems happy with it and I hope it gives her father – whose birthday present it is – some fond memories.

Other townscapes and Lake District scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SMALL LANE SOUTH, HALSALL, AGAIN – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Those who read the text in my last blog may recall I had little hope regarding sales at our latest exhibition, which is now running. Well, the very day I put out the blog this painting sold. I must admit I was pleased with it when I put it out on the blog in October last year, and am still pleased with it. Certainly, enough to give it a second airing.

Here it was, by the chair, but no longer.

I had put it in a solo exhibition around Christmas, but no one seemed interested – despite other sales – and the painting followed me home. I thought that perhaps muddy puddles and broken roads were not what other people wanted, but they certainly interest me, and obviously, someone else.

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