TIDAL STUDIES – PASTEL AND WATERCOLOUR

I was not satisfied with an earlier version of this painting which I’d posted a while ago. The foreground of the original had some of the scoured beach, but I felt it wasnt convincing. So out came the pastels and the tide came in a bit further.

Whilst I had my watercolours and pastels out I thought I would do a sketch of another seashore scene. I liked the way that the main wave seems to be sliding shoreward and I put in a gull just to complete the picture.

It would be nice to get down to a suitable beach to have a look at some stormy waves and get some inspiration. Our beach is sandy and slopes too gently seaward to get good crashing waves like these – leastways I’ve never seen any. I’ll just have to wait until I can get to a suitable coast – perhaps a holiday is due.

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

INCOMING TIDE – MIXED MEDIA

Last month I published a set of sketches for a watercolour and pastel beach scene. I combined aspects of two of them to produce this on a half imperial sheet – 35x52cm. I will display it in a group exhibition we are staging in the Southport Wayfarers Arcade from the end of November until Christmas. So book yourself a flight to bag a bargain at our pop-up exhibition before someone else grabs them. Alternatively I can post it to you.

Other seaside and beach scenes can be purchased on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

WAVEFORMS – MIXED MEDIA SKETCHES

With my daughter visiting last weekend we took some time out for a walk. It was centered on the village of Parbold in Lancashire, which has a great art gallery housed in a disused windmill alongside the canal. The gallery is run by James Bartholomew who does a lot of work in pastel over gouache. Well, he certainly did when he came to do some demonstrations for the club I once ran. I dont think he does them anymore as the last time I tried to book him he said it wasnt worth his time.

His prices bear this out and are well deserved. Some time later,I was looking at entering a painting into the open exhibition of the Royal Society for Marine Artists in London. I looked them up to see what was doing well and discovered that he had won the main prize the previous year.

He does a mixture of subjects, but his seascapes always catch my eye. I have done similar work in watercolour, but seeing his work I thought I’d give the mixed media approach a go. So here are three sketches I did this week.

My base media was transparent watercolour, not gouache. The addition of pastel over the watercolour base allows for some vigorous markmaking in keeping with breaking waves and swirling wash on the beach.

I just wanted to give it a go and see what came out. I may try a bigger one for an upcoming exhibition.

We didnt buy a painting, but one of the reasons for the visit ( apart from climbing the steep hill behind the village) was to purchase some of the big mugs he stocks which have images of his work on the outside. They are good, bucket sized mugs. I had bought a few before, but the penultimate one cracked, spilling coffee over the table recently.

Anyway, now, we are fully stocked with big mugs again and the visit has inspired me to try out a new technique. Let’s drink to that.

Other seascapes and beach scenes are available for purchase on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

BREAKWATER – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Just two colours were used to paint this – a warm red and a cool blue. I wasnt sure whether it would come off, but after a lot of dry brushwork and the splattering of masking fluid, it started to take shape. I was pleased with the starkness of the image – you can almost hear the shingle being raked by the incoming waves.

And by way of contrast, a scene from the same beach, but with the tide out and the winter long forgotten.

This was an acrylic study and I used a few more colours here – but not many more.

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

THE RED BUCKET – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Well, summer seems to be peeping around the corner around here, so why not paint another beach scene. This is a subject I tackled a long time ago, but the figures were just part of a bigger beachscape. I love this grouping and thought that it might be worth focussing in on the four of them walking along the wet sand in the morning.

And whilst I am the subject of repeats, here is another version of a painting I did post a few weeks ago. Breakout, though in that version not all the figures were breaking out – one seemed to be very occupied with their phone.

So I got rid of the texting man and added a running female. I also pushed her and the dog closer to the smaller boy and reduced the size of the painting from 52x35cm to 35x25cm and in doing so, got closer to the action. Hopefully I’ve got more of the exuberance of a summer’s day than I first had – days to come.

Other beach paintings are available for sale 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

BLUE BECKONING – WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

After this dose of waveforms I will return to dry land on my next blog – promise. The handing in day for the exhibition is this Thursday, so I am still looking for a painting to replace the original wave I was going to submit, as I mentioned in my previous blog. After doing this one above, I realised that a simple waveform could convey more energy than the more complex one in my last post. I was certainly pleased with this and the serenity it conveyed but I wanted to have another go at the one with rocks and here it is, below.

So one goes into the exhibition, well to the selection panel, anyway.

Other seascapes and sea related subjects are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefine.com

BREAKER’S THUNDER – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I  was assembling some paintings for the town’s big exhibition which takes place in the main Art Gallery. I had a few lined up for submission but last Saturday  I got a call from my framer who asked if I still had my painting of  a wave. This was going to be one of my entries. I  took it around to my framer who duly sold the painting to a guy who had seen it when it was displayed there in March and who  waited until now to make some enquiries.

It was a nice problem to have and  I thought I would do another couple and see how they turned out. Above is the first one. A second is in progress. I included some rocks on this one and really like their warmth against the cool colours of the sea.

It may be a bit over complicated when compared to the one I sold ( and displayed in February on this blog). I certainly liked the first one’s simplicity, which is  maybe why it caught the eye of the buyer  – see below.

Other scenes of water and the sea are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

TIPPING POINT – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I was going to do this as a mixed media piece with pastels, similar to an earlier one of waves I did, but as I started painting I wondered whether it could be all done in watercolour, so this is the result. Using pastels allows a more gestural approach with the mark making which I suppose is more reflective of the restlessness of the sea, so I am wondering if this is a little static. I’ll ponder a little further.

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