Watercolour
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Hagia Sophia
This is a remarkable building. It is almost 1500 years old, which is not bad for a building sited in the middle of an earthquake zone! It was for a long time the world’s largest interior space, and the design of this building, in particular its large central dome, effectively became the archetype for the…
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Pergamon
This is a view from the Asclepion of Pergamon towards the Acropolis, which true to its name is on the top of the hill in the background. We visited Pergamon as one of the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation to St John, found at the end of the bible. However, to me one of…
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Primroses
The plants which grow best in my garden are those that are often labelled as weeds! I’m not sure whether primroses are normally classified by others in this way, but given how vigorously they self-seed and then grow in my lawn they seem to fit the bill. However, they have the advantage of being colourful…
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Chion-in (知恩院)
I find it rather odd that the less paint I put on the paper the more effort it takes me to do so. I have long admired those who can seemingly capture the essence of a scene with just a few broad and (apparently) lazy brush strokes, rather than getting caught up as I often…
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Limes
I have become quite partial to limes of late, so a lime being cut open on a chopping board is quite a common sight in our kitchen these days. I was quite keen to paint a lime that looked as if it had the taste I crave from the fruit. In all honesty I think…
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An Audience
As I spend more time wrestling with my watercolour paints, I have realised that as well as applying ever more colour to the paper it is also possible to remove paint from the surface to lighten an area. This scene was created to experiment with ways of removing paint from certain places to create the…
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Tropical Beach
Loosely based on a photo taken on Mirissa Beach in Sri Lanka, here is another experiment using watercolours and quite a lot of water. Once again my first attempt was too wet, meaning that the background trees grew enormous as they spread over most of the sky! This second version was closer to damp rather…
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Wet Flowers
Having been advised to try watercolour paints on posh proper cotton watercolour paper, I decided to have another go at the “wet on wet” approach, where the paper is dampened before the paint is applied. It turns out that the amount of water is quite critical! My first go at what I thought would be…
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Two Doors
These doors don’t really exist. This image popped into my head whilst I was making a rather obvious choice between two alternatives. Now I suppose that contrasting a welcoming light beyond an open door with a locked door guarding an apparently dark room is a rather hackneyed image, but it summed up my thoughts at…
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Sunset at Galle
Sooner or later I am sure that my watercolour paints will do exactly what I want them to do, but in the meanwhile I have to be content if a watercolour painting bears even a passing resemblance to the image that I have in my head! This sunset is no exception – I was quite…
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Trichromatic Safari
Two things surprised me on a short safari that I took in Sri Lanks to see their native elephants* in the wild: I decided to try a multi-monochrome technique with this picture – “multi” becoming “three” in this case as I perceived three components to the image – the elephant, the onlookers and the forest/grassland…
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Tuk-tuk
The roads in Sri Lanka (as in many other countries) seem to be full of these three-wheelers. If you are looking for a lift they are very useful – otherwise they are something to beware of, both for pedestrians and for larger vehicle drivers. The tuk-tuk in the foreground of this painting is driving along…
Doodling ... 