Another calming painting – well that’s the intention. I did this quickly just to see how it would work out. It comes from a couple of photos taken on an earlier outing when I did some watercolour paintings on a quiet summer’s morning. Hopefully there will be a few more to come, but not this week if the forecast is to be believed.
Other landscapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
Another one from the Cotswolds. I liked the sculptured, majestic quality of the Yarrow growing tall between the dewy pathways and the tumbling walls. It seemed nature was reclaiming what it had lost.
Other landscapes and floral paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
Some say green is a soothing colour and, like everything in art, others differ. Well this view had a calming effect on me – though, perhaps it was the subject not the hue. I originally did this in watercolour, sitting on a wall in the Cotswolds early one morning and posted it in Two More From the Cotswolds a few weeks ago. This time I wanted to focus on the tracks made by the tractor which I omitted originally.
Time to go for a lie down…
Other landscapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
My last post was a pastel and after I completed it I started developing an abstract with them as I find pastel quick to get ideas down with. The abstract wasnt going too well, so I so, with the pastels, I started to play around with a study of some horses I saw on a walk in the Cotswolds we had last week. I liked the way they stood back to back allowing views from two different angles. The richness of the pastel really brought out the lustre of their coats.
Other animal paintings are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
I mentioned a visit to Wells in my last blog and I was well impressed with the town. I also loved these two, sitting outside a cafe in the town centre like a pair of bookends, each watching the world go by.
I decided to tackle the scene in pastel. However, the amount of detail I included reduced the opportunities to dwell on facial expressions and despite opting for a tight colour range now feel I may have been a victim of it. I find small details with pastel quite tricky – but then, that’s the point, I suppose – the challenge.
Other figurative work is available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
I initially had a notion of this painting from a side view incorporating the steam from the soup against a dark background. Looking for suitable images to use I came across one of my dad, but a frontal view. Unfortunately he was wearing a hat and had no shirt which was a step too far for me, so I changed that, and added a book.
The real problem came in filling the 50x65cm sheet. I rescoped the head a couple of times, to try to ensure that sheet was filled, but despite all this I only managed 2/3 of the paper and with all the chopping and changing I lost the likeness – well, it’s a bit like him, but I’ve done better – perhaps a candidate for another attempt.
Compared to that the reworking of the Cambodian woman (an image I posted a couple of weeks ago as a smaller sketch) came out so much easier on this larger format – perhaps there was more to squeeze in so I was struggling to include rather than fill it out.
I might do a bit of tweaking to this yet, but in the main I am happy with it. Perhaps this larger format allows more detail and nuance giving it, for me, more authority.
Other figurative work is available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
Being a bit tied up with family issues I just had time to sketch out this portrait of a Cambodian Lady I spotted when I paused on a cycle ride by a river near Battambang – the second city of Cambodia. The light on her face accentuated her features as she squatted by some sugar cane that she had collected. I have a few pictures of different people of southeast Asia I took on my recent travels and was considering creating a small collection.
Other figurative work is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
