LORD STREET EVENING – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another view of winter sunset on our main street. I’ve not had much time for my normal painting as it’s been a busy week including setting up another pop-up exhibition in town. This was one of the paintings I hung there the day before yesterday – a view I saw around Christmas when I came out our last exhibition we held there. A similar view is hanging in the main art gallery, over the road opposite, in another exhibition, and yesterday I was told it had sold – so maybe there’s hope for this.

Today I’m manning the pop-up show which now, because of absences, seems to be our opening day. Anyway, Friday is my elected day for gallery duty.

Last night I was in Blackpool doing a watercolour demonstration of roses for a painting club there and on Tuesday I did a speed awareness course, having been caught in a speed trap earlier in the year ( which, according to my wife, was long overdue)

The perils of life in the fast lane…

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

THE BUS ARRIVES ON LORD STREET – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another in a long series of paintings of my town’s main street. There are a couple of exhibitions coming up that are held on this street, so it is useful to have something of local interest to display. Add that to the fact that I am a sucker for the winter sunsets here – a painting is inevitable. There may be another to come.

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

EVENING SHOPPERS ON LORD STREET

I have painted and posted a version of this scene before, in 2019. It is of our main street in town on a winter’s evening, just as the sun is going down. I was never completely happy with it and it never sold – always a sign -yet I did like the basic concept. Now there is less detail in the upper buildings, lights in the shops under the arcade and a whole new crew of pedestrians. I also tried to do it in single washes, mixing paint on the paper to prevent muddiness.

So even though there still are some minor issues – but what painting doesnt have them – I am much happier with the outcome and we will see if this version sails off to someone else’s wall.

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

OTTER AND OTTER – WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

Our pop-up exhibition in the Wayfarer’s Arcade in Southport has started and I have manned it on two occasions. Visitor numbers on Sunday were lowish though we managed to sell four paintings, but on Friday we only had 4 visitors all day – the worst I have ever known in the eleven years we’ve been doing this – happily, we did manage to sell one painting.

So you have a lot of time to kill waiting for the crowds. I did the painting above on Friday. A rather flippant comment on climate change, though perhaps apt to feature an animal that is listed as vulnerable.

I did the second one, above, on Sunday – a view of our local pier at Southport at sunset. A view I’ve done before, but this time from a slightly different angle in order to flatten out the subject to be able to present in a squarer format.

There are planty of paintings awaiting a new home on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EVENING ON BIRKDALE DUNES – PASTEL PAINTING

You may recall in the post before last the gloomy vista of rain clouds about to come over Birkdale beach – and I said it was part of a series, so here is the next one, a contrasting evening on the beach, with the sun hanging low and the light shimmering off the wet sands in the distance. I did this type of evening view in watercolour and it sold a year or two back, so I thought that I would try a version in pastels, placing tonal washes down in gouache first and then working over them in pastel as I had in my earlier pastel.

Mystery encroaches at this hour. The low light casts shadows and darkens ravines between marram covered dunes. Tracks of past beachgoers get highlighted by a glow on the raised edges that is then underscored by the shadow of the depression. Wisps of grass, catch the low sun and seem to glow against shadowed inclines. Soon the mystery will be complete.

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

SUNSET ON LORD STREET – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

A view I’ve done before, but this time I thought I would make more of the sunset and it’s effects. I’ve used the woman crossing the road with her shopping bags in another painting, but she fits in well here.

I think I’ve mentioned before, in earlier blogs, how the sunset in winter months is quite spectacular on Lord Street, the main street in Southport, where I live. I also spotted the light reflecting off the surface of a puddle in the gutter and, if nothing else, that was reason enough for me to do a painting.

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

LORD STREET VIEW – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another in the mad scramble to get some paintings ready for a local show. This one is of the main street in Southport where I live. I think I have mentioned this before, that the low winter evening sun ( on the rare occasions when we see it) casts a golden glow over the shopfronts and lends a dreamlike feel to the street. I think I have captured that feel down the end of the street. I also liked the long shadows cast by the pedestrian and cars. In the past I have perhaps got a little dark with the buildings but hopefully, this time, have dodged that particular pitfall.

Yesterday I put this in our pop-up gallery off this very street, but I will probably move it to my solo exhibition at my framers, if and when he lets me start. I want a body of paintings of local scenes and this really fits the bill. Normally I would have high hopes for it, but slow sales at our pop-up gallery have dented my confidence of late.

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

DAY’S END AT THE END OF THE PIER – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

This was the subject of my second ever post. It is a view of part of our pier at Southport. As the beach faces in a westerly direction you can get some great sunsets like this one.

With our pop up gallery suddenly and unexpectedly being given a months extension and a planned solo show looming at my framers I am in need of more paintings of local interest. This view is an image I have had for a while and I thought that it might make a popular subject. I love mixing the colours on the paper for the reflections and then tempering them with dry-brush darks. The only issue I had were the supports under the pier which always seem to look awkward.

The painting above followed my image, but I wondered whether I could display the painting at both venues and so set about doing a second version.

This time I thought that I would introduce the sun as it dipped towards the horizon and introduced the resulting reflections off the wet sand.

You can but try – they made for some satisfying painting, without too much detail -I’m just hoping that I have enough frames left for both exhibitions.

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