Cherries on String II

mixed media 24x26cms

I decided to have another go at my 'cherry necklace'.  This is in watercolour and coloured pencil, the first one I did was in watercolour only and was painted from life.

I used my original painting and a photograph I took of my set up at the time.  So which do you like best?  You can see the original here

Terracotta pots in the Sun

Mixed media 16x18cms

I started off doing a larger painting complete with flowers but halfway through I realised that it was the plant pots that really interested me and the way the terracotta glowed in the sun.  

I bought some lovely Canson watercolour paper from the local art shop and it seems to take the coloured pencil well too, which is good as I have been looking for something that could take a really wet watercolour or acrylic wash but was smooth enough for pencil. So this is amixture of watercolour and coloured pencil. 

Made of Stone

Mixed media 24x16cms

 

Walking up the long driveway of a 17th century villa is a little niche in the wall. In the niche is a life size statue of a young boy.  Some of what I think is the pearly blue colour remains, but this could be the effect of time on what originally covered the wall behind and the statue.

I can't find any information on who the boy was but he does look as if he carried something more on his shoulder. 

I used watercolour, coloured pencil and gouache to capture the effect of time on the stone, statues are good to paint of draw...they don't move!

Garden Sketching

Once a week I meet up with some friends to paint together.  In the summer we paint outside in my friend's lovely garden.  It's not a posh garden, it's the sort with plant pots piled up in the corner and herbs growing in a variety of containers.  Often it's a source of inspiration for sketches and paintings and on this occasion a row of cactus in matching pots the sun lighting them up from behind that caught my eye.  This sketch is unfinished so I cropped it down for now but I think it would make a good painting one day?

These two cats were waiting expectantly under a window for a little something to be thrown their way.
Sketched quickly in the station carpark  and colour put on at home.

Lost

I meant to just try out my coloured pencils over an acrylic underpainting but got lost in the moment and did a whole saucer of cherries.  It's a little unfinished and I'm not too happy with some of the hard edge created by the acrylic but I had great fun using all my favourite colours.
Needless to say when I get 'lost' in my work I forget to feed my family, it's a good job nobody seems to mind!

Sketches from Sicily

After a little blogging break here's a couple of sketches from my sketchbook.

The first is a young fisherman preparing his nets, a typical scene in a local village and one of my favourite subjects. 

This is part of a church on the island of Lipari, sketched from  my photos.
Time to get back and focus on some painting now I think!