meldrum art
All I want to do right now, is paint and improve.
Earlier in the week, I painted this watercolour. It’s an exercise more than a finished piece of art. I just wanted to practice my clouds. The sea, I wanted to practice that too, the sea is so hard to master.
I need to improve my compositional skills as well. Placing an island dead centre is not a good idea. So when I’ve mastered the clouds and the sea, I’ll start trying to improve my compositions. That will keep me busy for a while.
This is one of my first studio paintings since 2019. Kinda had to believe, but it’s true. My seasonal depression has prevented me until now. I painted last week and I added a few more islands to it yesterday. I’m happy with it. So nice to be painting during the winter months again. 🙂
I visited Utö during the month of September to spend two days camping and painting. The island was so quiet, the evenings can be cool but if you are lucky you can still get a beautiful warm day.
This video has no dialog, instead I thought I’d let the sound of the lapping water and the beautiful view speak for themselves. The film is short, 7 minutes long.
I have included a description of the gear I used in the film down below. I hope you enjoy it, please do send me comments and let me know what you think – be it good or bad. You can support the making of these videos, visit my crowdfunding page, there you can follow my weekly vlogs, see bonus material, and even receive original watercolours as thanks. https://www.patreon.com/meldrumart
Here is a list of my most important watercolours that I use while sketching outdoors. In this watercolour I mostly used – Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Verditer Blue, Jaune Brilliant No1, Yellow Ochre and Vandyke Brown. My easel is no longer for sale on Amazon unfortunately. My camping chair is a Swedish brand called Walkstool Comfort 45cm/18in. (www.walkstool.com). The hammock tent is by Hennessy 4 Season Expedition Zip. (https://eu.hennessyhammock.com/products/4season-expedition-zip)
While sketching I use a Winsor & Newton Field palette My watercolours (tube) :
– Holbein Titanium White
– Winsor & Newton Cadmium Yellow Pale
– Holbein Jaune Brilliant No1 .
-Winsor & Newton Naples Yellow
– Winsor & Newton Yellow Ochre
– Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna
– Winsor & Newton Cadmium Orange
– Winsor & Newton Cadmium Red
– Daniel Smith Alizarin Crimson
– Winsor & Newton UltraMarine Violet
– Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue
– Winsor & Newton French Ultra Marine
– Holbein Verditer Blue
– Winsor & Newton Cobalt Turquoise Light
– Holbien Vandyke Brown
– Winsor & Newton Neutral Tint.
I became very ill with depression last October and it’s only now that I am starting to feel good again. The summer repairs but in recent years the seasonal window has been getting smaller. I’m seeking treatment and in the worse case I’ll probably need to move south for the winter, let’s see what happens.
So while I’m all depressed my website crashed in November 2021, and I wasn’t able to fix it due to a scrambled brain – trashed by antidepressants. I’ve ditched the medication, it was impossible for me to be creative. It may work for others but it’s not the solution for me.
So, this is my first post for a while. I haven’t been so productive so nothing missed really. I am so happy that I’ve started painting again. I began in May, I visited Ireland, stayed with friends and sketched for a week. It was so beautiful, the weather was just wonderful. Recently, I was on my annual sailing adventure with my wife. I painted a lot of watercolours of the Stockholm archipelago.
These featured watercolours were painted one after the other on the 7th of July in a natural-harbour called Norra Gränholmsviken, Gällnö. 18 x 13 cm in size, it’s a quarter of a quarter sheet for those of you who paint watercolour. It’s really interesting to paint the same scene several times. I discovered new patterns, new shapes and new compositions each time. A really good exercise when trying to improve.
Nice to be back. See you again soon. 🙂
My first day at Björnö was an amazing experience but I wasn’t happy with the watercolours I created. Rather than get all depressed about it I decided to just return to Björnö and try again. The important factor being that I was alone and so I could relax and really think about what I wanted to achieve. Basically, I wanted to paint better. Some important things I learned from the day before was to take my time, be precise and paint in the shade.
I had a wonderful day, it was colder but the sky was a summer blue. ( As I write this it is snowing outside my window, April weather in Sweden is pretty damn extreme. ) By the end of the day I had three nice little paintings and I went home with a smile on my face. It’s a nice sensation to feel one is progressing.
I have been visiting Björnö here in the Stockholm archipelago for many weeks now. It gets a little warmer each time I sketch there. Yesterday, I decided to do a studio painting based on my sketches and photographs. I am trying to catch the Scandinavian melancholy I feel when I visit the archipelago during the winter months. I’m happy with the result.
Click the thumbnail below for a full-sized image.
A view from Kvarnholmen. A small sketch, a giant leap …I’ve haven’t been painting so much recently so this little watercolour, painted the other day was important; a small step.
Just playing around with salt crystals scattered on my wet watercolour. It’s fun to experiment every now and then. 🙂
The featured chapel is on an island which lies south of Stockholm called Landsort. We explored the island during our sailing trip last year. A nice memory, I look forward to the summer with impatience.
Landsorts Chapel / Kapell
https://goo.gl/maps/cdBAo1Kv31DbTsZw7
If you would like to see the full-sized image, click the thumbnail below
We sailed for the whole month of July this year. It was windy almost everyday and it was important to find some good protection for the evening. Ironically the winds usually died down but it was not guaranteed. This watercolour is the view from Sadelöga, NE of Utö in the Stockholm Archipelago.
I originally painted a small sketch of this scene from the cockpit of the boat, now that it is the season to paint in the studio I decided to have a go at a large version. It’s 70 x 50 cm in format, I haven’t painted this big for a year at least. I really enjoyed the challenge and I am happy enough with the result.
I have a few tubes of paint that I basically don’t really like and have been trying to use up for years. Antwerp Blue, for example. I took the opportunity to use it for the sea and I used Neutral Tint over it to try and calm it down. Like I said before, I am satisfied with the final result but I will be happy to see the end of that tube of 37ml Antwerp Blue.
