THE STATIONMASTER’S HOUSE – PEN AND WASH SKETCH

I have been asked to do an illustration for a neighbour. It is of the building involved with a project that he has been running. The building is, in my eyes, boring, but the project means a lot to him. This is the second sketch I have done. The first involved combining the front with the back of the building in an effort to shake things up a bit. He didnt like that, so I went with a bog standard view – though on the right of the illustration above, I did a pen and wash whilst on the left it is a standard watercolour format. At the moment the jury is out and he will be getting back to me.

The project is about replacing the old council- run local library which the council sold off and is now a small housing estate. Locals got together and established a small library and community centre at the old station masters house that is owned by the Mersey Rail Company and loaned to the group. This house is attached to the local railway station and, up to this point, was empty. The community centre is now up and running and my neighbour wants a momento of the hard work put in by him and the rest of the team.

I find commissions quite challenging, as left to my devices I would be off in one direction, but as a commission I feel I must be meeting the tastes of my client – that’s where it can get difficult. Hopefully a compromise is in sight.

other townscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EARLY MORNING ACROSS THE MOSS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

One from the archives – it’s been a busy week.

This is the view I used to see as I cycled to work across the fields behind our town. The sun rising and a mistiness still clinging to the low reclaimed marshland. Occasionally you’d spot the ghostly form of a barn owl swooping above the ditches and reed beds.

The painting now resides in my neighbour’s house. They used to take the same trip – but in a car, not on a bike.

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

PLAYTIME – ACRYLIC ABSTRACTS

I need to force myself just to play around with art materials. Most times when I face an easel or board I have a purpose – an image I want to create. So I have changed pace in the last few days and just got some paper ( in the case above, and most of these below, an old discarded painting) and started putting paint down over it. This one I’ll call – Fallen.

Coming from a scientific background I do veer towards structure and the next two show a development of an old theme based on an imagined cityscape, done with mainly square brushes.

I was looking at form on a flat plane and the painting on the left, though I like texture, just felt too busy – even messy, so out came the brushes and paints again to turn it into the painting on the right. Comparing them, I dont think I have moved forward very much – but then this is just about playing.

So, after that cul de sac, I forced myself to into a more organic approach with emphasis on light and shade – a theme I explore in my more representational pieces.

Again, working over an old painting. I think that there is potential in this one. It has a forest feel – similar to some of the representational paintings I’ve done of late. There are some lovely soft edges contrasting with the hard lines I’ve created with acrylic ink.

Bouyed by this, I struck out in a similar direction with the final piece, below.

This is done in a much looser style – mainly using just my fingers. I added moulding medium that allowed some texture which I highlighted with the mix of yellows I still had on my fingers. This use of texture is certainly one I’d like to further incorporate into my painting.

So I might be putting some of these ideas on canvas in the near future – just a warning.

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

BIRD FEEDERS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Well, I couldnt resist taking a few pictures of this couple down at our local lake, feeding the birds. More so, because it was into the sun and the birds sang out like jewels – helped by the dark shadow cast by one of the stores in the nearby retail park. Then there was the plastic bag held by the woman, the biggest diamond, catching the sunlight.

Not one I’d like to do plein air neither for its complexity nor because of the chill wind down there that day, but it was a nice little exercise in the warmth of my studio, arranging and adjusting the players and building up the tones.

Other park scenes and animanl paintings can be found on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EDGE OF THE FOREST – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another view of my local woods at Ainsdale. This time it wasnt so much the light that attracted me – but the colours. The orange and yellows pitted against a blue grey background. I also loved the mistiness and mystery of the forest beyond, with ghostly shapes of pine trees appearing and disappearing.

Then there was the bracken – always a pain to paint – well it is for me. I viewed it as a challenge and I think it comes over as the ragged mess that it always seems. I did think of leaving it out altogether but the dead orange foliage might have been too much on its own and the bracken sets the scene and leads the viewer into the action. Well, that was the plan.

Many other forest scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

THE HYENA DEPARTS – ACYLIC PAINTING

I painted this at the back end of 2017 and posted it shortly afterwards. I did it along with other animals I had seen in Namibia at that time. None of them sold and I never even exhibited this one, though I did like it and I put it on my website where it has resided for around five years. Then, last week a buyer popped out of the ether and purchased it.

It just goes to show that many paintings have only to find an admirer – the problem is finding this elusive creature. This is the second time within a few months that a buyer has suddenly popped up to claim an old, floundering painting of mine. The previous time the actual painting wasnt even on my website. I think the purchaser googled it from this blog. In fact the painting she saw was in a larger format – in an effort to try give it more legs for a sale, I cut it down to focus on the subject matter. Anyway, despite its new size, the lady still wanted it and away it went.

I suppose it’s like angling – you cast them out there and hope for a bite.

Other bait is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

AZALEAS 2 – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I have had a few distractions of late and dont have much to show except a reworking of some azaleas I posted a week or so ago. In this rework I made the flowerheads larger so that they occupied more of the painting surface – after all they are the subject of the painting. I also modified my colour palette to echo the yellow/orange of the flowerheads in the foliage area and pushed the purples and blues in this same area to complement the yellow/orange of the flowers. You can only hope it that it makes a difference.

My original version is below.

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

LIGHTING THE PATH – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another in my sporadic woodland series illustrating the magic conjured by light and shadow. You may be flagging of the subject, but I never tire of these scenes that I happen upon in our local woods at Ainsdale. This is one of the many pathways that criss-cross the forested dunes and at the end; a beckoning light, just over the horizon. It makes me realise how superstitions grow.

Other woodland scenes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

CALM ON THE CANAL – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

On the Leeds to Liverpool canal near Scarisbrick I happened upon the cluster of bankside trees set against the morning sun and the reflection they cast on the water. In the distance the ducks and a huddle of moored boats hopefully drag the eye through the painting. Most of all I loved the serene peacefulness of the still hour – worth the early rise.

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