REMY'S CAFE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

• 

This is a view of my step-brother and his wife’s cafe in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex (on the south coast of the UK). I once posted a sketch I had done of it and decided to give them a more finished version.

The orange awning on the outside gives a great counterpoint to the cooler colours of the interior. Also the art deco decorations of the window and door make a great subject matter in themselves, though they are a bugger to draw.

The shop was once a dairy and has a decorated plaster ceiling and black and white chequered floor tiles on the outside along with other features.

John, my step brother, is stood talking to a customer by the doorway replete in his pork-pie hat.

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

VIEW FROM THE TERRACE – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I liked the mystery of this image. The original photo was even darker and more mysterious. I decided to add figures and reveal them a bit more and do it in a blocked style.

The actual place is a cafe on Beachy Head; the same headland painted on my previous post.

Other landscapes and seascapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

DECISIONS, DECISIONS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Last week we were showing some friends around Liverpool and stopped for refreshment. I couldnt resist this study in light and shade at one of the city’s cafes.

Other townscapes and Liverpool paintings are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

JAZZ NIGHT – PASTEL PAINTING

We went out to a bar in Liverpool the other night with some friends and enjoyed a few drinks and a little music. I thought that I would paint the scene and here is the first go. I may yet make some of the background colour more definite as it looks like a yellow mist is descending as it did after the fourth bottle of wine.

Other Liverpool scenes and figurative works are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

YOU CAN TAKE YOUR HAT OFF, TOO – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I started again with the painting I posted on my last blog and here is the result. It is a little rough around the edges but it now has the feeling of a mad hatter’s tea party – not that I’m calling my step-brother mad for one instant – he could be reading this. I thought that the first version was too static and it needed something, so along came a bit of humour and action. I did consider just altering the last offering but changing the poses and adding the bottle and hands blocked out bits I wanted to keep – so it was start again.

I will allow time for reflection and then perhaps refine a few bits, but I feel John will appreciate this version a little more or dislike it a little less.

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

IF YOU CANT STAND THE HEAT … TAKE OFF YOUR HAT – ACRYLIC PAINTING

This is John, my step brother. He gave up running a shopping mall and, with his wife, opened up an Filipino/English Cafe. She is from the Philippines and her son, DJ, is in the background, though he is soon off to a job in Japan.

When I was on my painting course, last week, we popped in for lunch and I thought I might do John a painting – though I think it needs to be livelier and more quirky than this.

I do like his pork-pie hat which seems to be fixed permanently to his head and the cafe counter is covered in paper and paraphernalia, so this may be another project I will be doing again. The second goes are piling up.

Anyone got a spare lifetime that they can let me have?

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

TABLE FOR THREE? – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I started a version of this last week whilst on duty again at the exhibition I was part of. I don’t think it is as successful an image as the painting I did of the dog walkers on my last stint at the gallery, but I do love the impatient anxiety of the woman trying to catch the waiter’s eye and the nonchalance of her husband, given charge of the lapdog.

In the gallery I followed my sketches and did  a version of this but by the middle of the afternoon I realised I had the scale wrong. So the painting displayed above was one I did at home. The half completed first attempt is below. As you can see I beefed up the figures and pulled in the scene.

As for the exhibition. In the end I sold 3 paintings which was a good result as far as I am concerned. Today I entered 4 paintings for a juried exhibition, so I wait to hear the decision of the panel’s deliberations,

Paintings fort sale area available on my website at very reasonable prices: grahammcquadefineart.com