Wednesday 1 September 2010

A Painting Day


John and spent the Saturday & Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend decorating (yawn), so on Monday we took the day off. John went for a long walk, but since my feet are still a bit iffy (yes, still!) I treated myself to a day of painting in Whirlow Park.


I packed a sandwich and a flask and was there by 9.30am, when nobody else was about yet. I took a range of materials, so I could experiment and see what took my fancy.


Above was my first - watercolour with a black conte line on top. Below is the corner of Whirlow Hall - a 3B pencil drawing, with watercolour on top:


This is just watercolour. I feel I am beginning to get the feel for them at last and am less frightened by the finality of the marks:



After a while, people started to arrive and I could see them watching me from a distance. A few bolder ones came up and chatted to me, including a very elderly couple, who paint in aid of St Lukes, selling digital prints of their work. They reckon they have collected around £100,000 over 20 years. Impressive.

This one is the corner of the duck pond - watercolour with 3B pencil on top:


To stop myself being impatient and ruining things while waiting for the watercolour to dry, I did a second drawing in another sketchbook, this time in coloured conte sticks. I've had them for ages, but never really used them. They are the consistency of coloured pencil, but thicker, for more dynamic marks:


John picked me up on the way home from the hills and I still got a couple of hours decorating in before the end of the day. What a hero!

3 comments:

Caroline said...

I'm amazed again by just how much you get done in such a short time - you must stay very focused! Beautiful - each has its own charm!

Ira R said...

beautiful beautiful beautifl!

Vivien said...

Lovely pictures - redolent of late summer.