BIRKDALE BEACH – PASTEL PAINTING

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With the morning light on the dunes the marram grass glows and glistens and cajoled me into working up this view of the beach at Birkdale where I live. I had forgotten I had done a very similar piece before in April and it was only as I was storing this painting that I saw the earlier work. I had forgotten it, probably as I wasnt too taken with the regularly repeating rows of grass I had managed to get on that one. So I got the old painting out again and gave it a dose of reworking and here it is:

On the top painting I blocked in the dark areas with dark acrylic paint before applying the pastels and that saved a lot of time and layers of pastel in achieving the shadows and darker passages, In the lower painting darks were built up with pastel alone.

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

THE BIRKDALE DUNES AT DUSK – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I did a sketch of this in an earlier blog and decided to have a go as a painting. I like the ethereal feeling the light gives and I managed to get the shimmer on the foreground marram grasses by scratching out rather than using masking fluid as I did in the sketch. For me, this approach yields a more dynamic and varied result.

I also tried to enhance the diagonal sweep of the dune forms to try and inject some dynamism to an otherwise staid subject.

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

LOW TIDE AT SOUTHPORT – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

The joke is that the sea goes so far out here, it always seems like low-tide.

I went down to the beach the other fine day to get some driftwood for a mobile I am making, which hopefully I will post shortly. There were some great cloud formations and whilst I was searching for suitable pieces I managed to find time to snap a few photos and later used them to give you a flavour of the beach here at Southport UK.

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

ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Well it’s actually a Drive where I live – but Alan Lerner apparently lived on a street- so you do what you have to, to make the title work.

I was putting the bins out the other day and looked up the Drive to see the autumn sun piercing the remaining leaves on the sycamore trees and patterning the pavement. I thought that it would make a good painting.

I added the dog walker as a focal point. There are plenty of them about as evidence on the pavement abounds.

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

ROYAL BIRKDALE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

The final painting of my local series on Birkdale is of the main golf course ( one of many around here). It had to be included in a series on Birkdale. I had painted it before, but from the outside and the 1920’s modernist style with its angular shapes is really set off in the morning light. This time I did it from the ‘playing’ side – so it had to be from photos – they dont allow riff-raff  like me to trample over their lush greens. I wanted a long format to complement the previous painting I did of New Cut Lane, I posted last week and thought that the long clubhouse would fit the bill, but as you can see below, halfway through I didnt feel it was working and turned to a landscape format. Not too sure about this even, but that completes the series. I now have 14 paintings – so that should be enough. The exhibition isnt until December, so I have time to reconsider and change. Now on to the next project…

Paintings of Southport and Birkdale are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

WAKING UP IN NEW CUT LANE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I am just completing my local series. I wanted some long format paintings and selected this view which I have painted before. It is the road out of Birkdale, across the low lying moss away from the sandduned coast. In the early morning  the light is low and casts long shadows and concocts mysterious shapes in the distance.

Other views of Southport are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ST PETER’S CHURCH 2 + – WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

Well, I did post a version of this before which was very similar. This is another for my exhibition of local views. I put the first one in an earlier exhibition and it sold – hence the revisit. I am particularly interested in getting this view in, as the exhibition will be held at my framer’s shop, which is opposite the far end of the church – so local interest.

As compensation for a repeated image, it is birthday season in these parts,  so here are a couple of cards I have painted for the celebrations.

 

Paintings of animal, vegetable and mineral subjects are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com or grahammcquadefineart.co.uk

SPRING EXPLODES ON WALMER ROAD – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Yep, another of the local series. Perhaps it was the pollarded tree,  spearing its overgrown branches heavenward, emphasising the outpouring of spring growth, that caught my eye as I walked to the newsagents this early May day. It foretold days of promise with summer yet to come.

Fresh greens and yellows against  purpled shadows – it was pleading to be painted – I couldnt refuse.

Other scenes of Southport are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com and grahammcquadefineart.co.uk

 

 

 

BIRKDALE LIGHT – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Back to my build up of local paintings for the  Christmas exhibition. This is just around the corner from the location of some of the previous ones I have posted recently.  In fact, I posted a version of this particular view on one of my first blogs in November 2013. It sold and later I found out is was my next-door neighbour who bought it. That was a bigger painting in acrylic.

Since then things have changed and the grasping claw of big business has pushed itself amongst  the rows of independent traders that make up the commercial community. A Sainsburys opened a convenience supermarket on the other side of the road. The newsagent – next to where the two figures are standing – diversified and became a very popular real ale/cider/coffee shop ( you can see the segregated, outside seating area) when Sainsburys proposed the selling and delivery of newspapers. The cafe/bar still sells newspapers and runs delivery rounds, but now you can get a coffee, or something stronger, if you, like me, pick up your paper. It was a very shrewd move by the owner.

Other local Southport scenes can be found for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com or grahammcquadefineart.co.uk 

BIRKDALE MORNING – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Continuing with my painting of the locality. This one is again of the ‘Village’  with the train station behind the two figures and the level crossing behind the central car. A previous post ‘ Sitting Pretty in Birkdale’ is situated in front of the last house in the main grouping. I did like this mass of buildings with all the internal shapes and the early morning sun shining on one of the faces. I added the two figures and was quite pleased with the outcome.

Other paintings of Birkdale and Southport are available for sale on my websites: grahammcquadefineart.com or grahammcquadefineart.co.uk