MANOR GARDENS 2 – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

This is the second painting in the Manor Garden series. Once more it is of the rose garden but looking down the terraces from the main house. The previous painting, displayed on my last blog, viewed the garden from right to left in this painting. Here, the view is more into the sun, so there are some juicy contrasts of light and shade.

The roses are a bit more florid than you might see if you visited, but they are probably in line with what the gardener was intending.

Both paintings have been dispatched, and the lady seems to be happy with the two pieces although she didnt recognise herself in the first painting. Hopefully she now has a constant reminder of a place she loves.

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

YELLOW ROSES AGAIN – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Inklings of summer are seeping over the hedge and with it, the promise of yellow roses which sit at the back of the bed close to my decking. I wanted to increase my stock of floral paintings and decided to start with the roses, which I struggled with. Not as loose as I had imagined and wanted but in the end there are some reasons to be cheerful. There may be more flowers in the coming installments.

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

ROSES IN THE LIGHT -WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

A local painting club has asked me to demonstrate a floral watercolour next week , so I just tried out this painting of roses which I did from three photos. I need to be able to do it in two hours and probably they’ll stop  for a cup of tea  in the middle so painting time might be reduced to 90 minutes. I like to try it out so I know I can do it in the time. I will use more lemon yellow next time for the flowers and rearrange the leaves a little so I get a better feeling of depth.

I was once asked to paint a landscape for a Rotary Club meeting. Near to the day of the meet the man who arranged it let slip that they gave about 20 minutes for the talk. I then pared down the  demo and on the day did the painting in 19 minutes and they seemed to like the result!

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

FLOWER SKETCHES – WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

Meagre pickings today. I had to do another watercolour flower demo and thought that some roses might be worth trying. I had seen these climbing roses in France the other week and had a notion to try them. I really wanted to get some loose forms coming down the frame ending with perhaps one which was more defined, but was aware that following the demo I will be running a workshop next week when the class have a try, so I needed to approach it more formally and methodically. Well here it is, but in doing it, I also realised that it might be too much for the less experienced – I certainly had a tussle with it.

So back to the drawing board. Instead I went for the old fallback, the hellebores. Well, in the end all I want is to build confidence in loose washes and mixing on the paper. So here was what I did this morning as the demoo piece. It will be interesting to see what the class produce next week.

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

 

 

 

MORNING ROSES – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

A third painting for the upcoming exhibition in the garden centre. I got it completed in time to take in today. The exhibition seems a bit chaotic, but it will be interesting to see how it goes. Generally first exhibitions do well as you can be tapping into a new market, but after a few repetitions those that buy have no more room in their walls.

I need to go up and see how another exhibition near Preston is going. I entered a few years ago on their inaugural event and sold a couple of paintings, but now after  at least five years, I am not holding out much hope.

The exhibitions are coming thick and fast. I also have three painting down in Liverpool, which coincides with a festival they are having. The venue is a little out of the way and the theme was the Mersey which rather restricted what I could enter. Still, I was able to dig three out the archives.

Other paintings are on my website grahammcquadefineart.com