Watercolour struggle

As much as I love painting in watercolour – that doesn’t mean it’s something that I find easy or always relaxing. Some paintings come together with an effortlessness that seems to confirm how far you’ve come in your painting. Others, however, are much more of a struggle – as if serving to remind you of how far you’ve still got to go! Read More

Happy in Hastings watercolour sketches

After spending so much time recently in the company of Ian Potts’s paintings, I was keen to break away from them even though I wasn’t feeling especially inspired to paint anything of my own! I did however recently have some beautiful weather for my bike ride to work and took off across a field to… Read More

Watercolour: ‘Marina di Pietrasanta beach’ after Ian Potts (1936-2014)

I’ve been attracted to Ian Potts’ watercolour painting of ‘Marina di Pietrasanta beach’ since the first time I laid eyes on it. It seemed then a fitting way to try to sign off on my little trilogy of painting like Potts. There are many things that I particularly like about the original painting but mainly,… Read More

‘The Road to Choupeau’ watercolour painting after Ian Potts (1936-2014)

The subject I opted for this week is based on one of a series of paintings he did entitled ‘The Road to Choupeau’. If you’d like to see the original painting however and read a little more about Ian Potts, I found some useful information on a website called VADS, which describes itself ‘The online… Read More

Back to watercolour basics…

After last week’s somewhat disappointing watercolour efforts, I was casting around in a rather directionless fashion when I came across the YouTube channel of watercolour artist Nitin Singh. I was already familiar with his work from following him on Instagram but had no idea about his many YouTube videos and tutorials. I subscribed to his… Read More

From a lightness of touch to a heaviness of hand

Riding on a bit of high after last week’s paintings, I was really excited at the prospect of seeing what might happen next. As Edward Wesson had proved the inspiration for my last painting, he seemed the fitting starting point for my next. Leafing through Barry Miles’ book, Edward Wesson (1910 – 1983) I came… Read More

A busy watercolour week!

Floodwater, Nr Guildford, after Edward Wesson, a watercolour painting by John Haywood

After last week’s painting of the view from the top of Firle Beacon, I was reminded of a painting that I’d seen looking towards Firle Beacon. This set me off in a little quest which fortunately didn’t take me too long to complete! I found in Peter Slade’s book on Edward Wesson, ‘Honesty in Art’… Read More

An even bigger big sky watercolour

First, some bad news… As was hotly predicted, if not wildly anticipated, my submission to this year’s Royal Institute of Painters in Contemporary Water Colour Exhibition 2019 was met with the judges’ disapproval: As disappointing as any rejection notification is, it also feels good to have it out of the way. It’s not that it… Read More