Watercolour
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Dunster – Entrance
A stone archway can often be relied upon to make a good frame for a picture, as long as there is something interesting visible through the arch. In the case of the entrance into Dunster Castle (or more precisely the exit as this is the vista as one leaves the castle!) the view through the…
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Girona – at High Speed
Girona is a beautiful old city. It is a place apparently well known as the backdrop to a series of “Game of Thrones” – a popular drama series that I have never seen, but which apparently many others have enthusiastically watched. Girona is also on a high speed train line from Barcelona, with an ultramodern…
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Stained Glass – Sagrada Familia
I can’t quite decide whether this painting is okay or not! On the one hand it definitely doesn’t capture the vibrant colours in the glass that my eyes saw at the time and that my camera captured for posterity. On the other hand, it is quite a pleasant picture to look at, and it does…
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Sundial
Sundials work better on some days than others. This one in the gardens at Polesden Lacey was working on the day that we saw it, for the simple reason that the sun was shining. Curiously however it was not quite showing the correct time – even after making allowance for the fact that our watches…
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Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Around about a decade ago, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was attracting more publicity than the bank probably wanted, mainly due to problems they were having at the time with bad loans and losses. This general view of the bank’s historic headquarters accompanied many of the press articles at the time, but in the…
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Murano – Canale San Donato
Venice is lovely, but quite intense. The nearby islands of Murano and Burano offer a respite of calm – both the building and the tourist density on these islands is noticeably lower than the slightly misnamed “Serenissima”. This painting is fairly faithful to the photo that I took during our visit to Murano, in that…
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Fünf Höfe, Munich
I was rather taken with the greenery hanging from the ceiling, and indeed with the view and colours of the whole space. I suspect that I was supposed instead to have been taken by the range of shops, but getting me interested in shopping is not easy, as my wife will readily attest! I think…
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Post Pruning
On one level, this is simply a painting of the consequences of a common horticultural procedure – a fresh bud squeezing out from a severely trimmed stump. At a more metaphorical level however, this image seems a bit too personal to spell out in more detail … As regards the artwork – the pen did…
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Stupas at Wat Xieng Thong
Stupas are to be found in most countries in South East Asia. Many of these structures, like those in this painting, are near to Buddhist temples. I have heard varying explanations as to what these stupas are for, ranging from their being repositories for sacred relics through to just being simple memorial stones. In truth…
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Chair, Pouffe and Plant
Many of my recent watercolour paintings have actually been a combination of watercolour and pen. So I decided to try a simple watercolour-only painting, and these three objects were right in front of me at the time! As you will be able to see, some aspects of this painting worked out well, others less so.…
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Roadside Banana
I have had a banana plant growing indoors in a pot for well over twenty years. Although it has continued to produce new leaves, in all that time it has only managed to grow to about half a metre in height! By contrast, throughout South-East Asia we saw these plants grown to many metres in…
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Robinia Tree
This tree sits in front of our house, and whilst I often notice and appreciate its bright green / yellow foliage it doesn’t normally stand out from the surroundings. However, the other day when I saw it standing nonchalantly in front of some rather dark and angry storm clouds, I was rather taken by the…
Doodling ... 