meldrum art
I just got back from trekking in Padjelanta National Park in the north of Sweden. Snow on the ground, a zillion mosquitoes in the air and many kilometers over rough terrain. Perfect, one of my most enjoyable holidays.
I hope to write and post more watercolours soon.
Saunders Waterford 300g 19×28 cm fine grain
Click image below for full size watercolour.
A watercolour sketch I painted in my Moleskin journal 29 x 21 cm. I really want to do a sketch a day, but it is so hard when work and life get in the way. I had a tooth removed yesterday, a good example of life’s little distractions that slow my progress in becoming a master of watercolour!
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This is not true of course, I will be painting many watercolours of Paimpol and Brittany in the Future. It saddens me that it will be a while before I return. I have taken lots of photographs so I will be painting the town and it’s surrounding area during the winter months.
It took me a while to learn that artists mostly sketch and take photos during the summer months, then they work on their studio pieces during the dark winter months.
Painted in my Saunders Waterford fine grain 300g 18 x 29 cm watercolour sketchbook.
Click image below to view full size.
I left France ten days ago, I miss Brittany, it’s such a beautiful place and I get to paint every day! This watercolour is from my 18 x 29 Saunders Waterford sketchbook. I completed it yesterday, I added the high contrasts and the detailing, it brought me right back to Paimpol, the restaurants, the cafés and the harbour area.
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I painted this boat last year and now again in 2017, it’s form is cute. Not sure if it has been discarded as it lies next to the graveyard of old wooden boats just outside the harbour. I have been coming to Paimpol every year for ten years and I paint the boats that are no longer loved, they are returning slowly to the sea.
Saunders Waterford fine grain watercolour sketchbook 300g 19 x 28 cm.
Click on the image below for full sized picture
Have you ever been to Ploumanach? Giant pink granite boulders by the sea that make people look very small. Nature is king indeed.
Saunders Waterford fine grain sketchbook 300g 19 x 28 cm.
Click on the image below for full sized picture
Last week, my wife and two artist friends Lars and Inger travelled to Paimpol in Brittany. It was a long trip, 11 hours in total. To pass the time I painted a watercolour looking out of the train window between Paris and Rennes. The wheat fields outside Paris remind me of the Stockholm archipelago – there are islands of trees as far as the eye can see, there is no water but a sea of wheat.
Saunders Waterford fine grain sketchbook 300g 19 x 28 cm.
Click image below for full-size image.
I’ve been busy doing other things than art recently like watching my son graduate and helping him move back to Stockholm after 3 years in Karlskrona. I’m working this week but yesterday was Sweden’s national day so I had the day off which meant I could watercolour! 🙂
I hadn’t painted for a week so in order to get going I painted this sketch of Stockholm’s town hall called “Stadshuset” in Swedish. I think it’s a very beautiful building so I have sketched many times and I probably will continue to do so in the future.
While I was painting yesterday, I filmed it using a GoPro camera. I bought one secondhand last year and have found it hard to start filming with it. I think it is like everything that requires some learning, the first step is the hardest. But now I have taken that first important step and I have ambitions to publish short films of myself while I paint watercolours. I am currently studying how to edit using Premiere Pro, so much to learn; one step at a time David, one step at a time.
The sketch was painted in a Moleskin watercolour journal. The paper quality sucks but if forces me to adapt which isn’t a bad thing.
Click on the thumbnail below to view larger image.
I don’t always achieve it but I do try to do a watercolour sketch everyday. This was painted late one night last week in my Moleskin watercolour journal. The paper is inferior compared to Arches but it forces me to experiment which I like. The great thing about sketches is that you can be free to play around, no pressure compared to an exhibition piece.
Click the image below for a larger image.
