#423 'First Light, Langstone Harbour' 30x40cm

A wintery day, and lucky to have a break in the weather as it didn't look hopeful when I arrived - solid cloud and raining! I'm pleased I didn't drive home, waited in the car and some beautiful light and cloud formations appeared, just my sort of subject!

Decided to include the cars on Hayling Island bridge to help the composition and I used quite thin paint in place to let the linen coloured canvas show through.

#416 'Autumn on Bramshott Common' 12x12"

This scene is about a 15-20 minute walk from our house. Autumn colours really improve this subject and I couldn't wait to paint it! 
I liked the track leading in to the orangey oak tree. The sky was a bonus with fluffies. I put them in straight away as I knew it would change. By mixing a neutral colour from the 3 primaries - red yellow blue and made sure it was light enough in tone.

Quite often I will take a photo during the painting and change it into black and white on my phone to check the tonal values, make sure they read and work as a whole and compare them to the subject. 

My palette, subject & painting nearly finished

#412 'Albert Bridge, Reflections' 12x12"

I used a home made linen board....
METHOD for making one: I roughly cut out some preprimed canvas stuck it to a MDF board so it overhung on the sides. I used Neutral PH PVA glue (so it wont rot in the future.) Once dry I cut it butt up to the board with a scalpel knife = linen covered board ready to use!

And this was the first painting I tried on it. I have had this canvas for years and I'm not sure whether it's too course. The subject may have called for a finer weave but it made me apply the paint loosely yet put in details like the boat. Its always a fine balance of enough information to it being overworked.

Here are the stages of my painting

#410 'Rain Cloud, The South Downs' 9x12"

This is about a 25 minute drive form me and during the whole car journey is rained hard! I thought I'll have to sit int he car when I get there and wait.

But upon arrival this is what I saw! A huge beautiful cloud covering a lot of the view I wanted to paint. The cloud shape was quite stable and it didn't move off for at least 30 minutes so was able to study and paint it plus the rain falling in the distance.

The light on the water on the horizon line I emphasised with thicker paint and strong marks. I made sure the tonal values got stronger coming into the foreground.

#360 'Widemouth Bay' 20x50cm

The North Cornwall surf was so much fun to paint! 
Looking the other way the beach was busy with people, life guards and surfers, it looked interesting but this way attracted me more because of the colours. - Looking into the sun creates strong tonal shapes and less colour, looking away from the sun i.e the light shining directly onto the subject makes the colours strong and less about tonal values.

Although I still worked on the tones I compare what is a similar tone within the subject:
sky and the sand are similar 
The distant sea and the rocks 
Wet sand & foreground sea - squint your eyes and have a go!

The sky was changing with lots going on in it. The foreground rocks helped with composition, the tide was high so only the tops of them stuck out it was good to have the water around them - low tide it's just a mass of rocks.

Spot the ring of sandcastles, they were making them as I was painting, I decided not to include in my painting.

This is one of the those paintings that did it itself. Hardly any wiping off and quite quick to get it all in.They dont all happen like that! 

#290 Tower Bridge 10x12" & Preparing for a Days Painting

The sky was beautiful when I arrived a typical English with cloud fluffies and crisp blue behind them. I was lucky as by the time I'd painted the sky it had clouded over and it was mainly grey! So different and not as magical.

I thought it maybe helpful & or interesting to read what I do to prepare before a days painting especially in a big city....

Weather forecast Check for rain & wind. Sun & cloud was due so perfect! How windy? - Gusts up to 30mph = cold and need winter tripod & layers.

Research on google other peoples paintings of this area eg 'Tower Bridge plein air paintings'. And ask questions of myself 'what do I like, what compositions work well and formats'...

Google Maps
Drop the man onto the map to see a photo of the view and whether it makes a good painting subject, also helps to work out board size shape..

Tube station check how far it is to walk - with all the gear! (or parking if I drive.)

Suncalc app on Android phone 
Put in any position on a map like Tower Bridge and see where the sun direction will shine onto your subject at anytime of the day. Great tool for working out your painting position.

Equipment pack my bag ready with boards, loading my palette garage with paint, pochade, tripod...gather my warm clothing.

Watch You Tube of plein air painting demos of people I admire e.g. I watched Lena Rivo a Portugese artist who is amazing! I love her work and and afterwards felt inspired geed up for my day in London.
Or Watch one of my painting DVD's for example a good one pre London is Ken Howards 'Variations on a Theme' as he is painting in London and it's good!

Intention Have ideas before you set out....That day I decided that I wanted to paint Tower Bridge, a bigger size than previously and with more colour, especially in the sky.

I want to get the most out of a painting day especially when I'm making an effort with the travel and carrying kit around.
Turning up at a location can be overwhelming and you just want to paint it, but to prepare beforehand helps give direction and goals and also allows for smoother travel time and generally more prepared on all fronts!!

Before I refined it

I got the painting home and was going to post it on here and Instagram but wasn't 100% about it. I knew it needed some work but it wasn't obvious what until I started on it - 
What I did...Darkened the water in the foreground, refined the boats and buildings. Happier now!

#282 'Bosham Channel' 8x18"

A gorgeous morning ones of those days when everything works out and even the painting! 
I went with painting friend Sarah Manolescue, the sun was low and contra jour with great sparkling light on the water.
These are the first stages see pic below:

I put in the light on the water and the sky first, as they would change the quickest. 
The sun on the water was so bright I looked up to try and observe whats there and looking back at the board and my eyes were dazzled and couldn't see the board surface or palette of colours! So when the sun went in it was good to see how it was looking :-)

The distant horizon line of land I put in quickly and roughly not too much detail. Just suggesting shapes especially the witches hat of Bosham Church.
The channel marker posts I tried to do in one sweep down of the brush, no fussing!
I enjoyed the bigger board size and used bigger brushes especially on the sky. 
The board - wood block, (see pic below) is different to my usual ones and gave a nice finish - it really makes a difference what surface you paint on to the end result.

#267 'Early Morning, Emsworth Harbour' 15x40cm

Driving down to the coast it was a grey blanket of cloud so I was pleased to find this beautiful sky when I arrived and I liked the little glimpses of light on the water.

Painting a sky one of the things I think about is edges. Making some of them soft and others hard. I do this by wet into wet paint, or wiping with my hand or rag to soften an edge. The hard edges I paint and leave. Also keeping the tonal range close together and changing the colours warm to cool. The sky when its a feature like this I put in first - also it changed quickly as ever!
I had to be careful that I didn't make the boats to poppy in tone or colour as they were contra jour and not very lit. But I wanted them to have some differentiation between the mud and boats to see them!
The sky line is roughly mapped in as I didn't want to draw attention to it - its not important. The sweep around of water there is a big contrast of tones between the water and the mud so the eye is drawn to this bit which it good (& intentional!)
Here is my palette and on location pic:

#210 Sky Study, Whitstable 5x10"

This was the last painting I did on the day with the Wapping Group. I was very tired but couldn't resist the sky. It was ever changing and the light and cloud formation, yummy! 
I knew I had paint still mixed on my palette from the previous paintings so I could use the colours as a starting point for the sky.
Sansador medium helped to make the paint flow but still keeping it brushy marks, took about 20 minutes to do. It was changing second by second, everytime I looked down to mix paint and look up it was different, the clouds had moved into another formation but it was exciting to paint and I would like to do a series of cloud paintings one after the other. Great for observation and tuning your painting skills (fun too!)
Next to me doing the same thing a painting friend Neil Pitcher he was a Wapping guest too - we had a cloud paint off!