Substituting detail in a landscape painting

    I've been cramming quite a number of adventures in lately (most of them involving a thorough wetting!), leaving me precious little time to blog, and there's so many more lined up it's going to be difficult keeping up any narrative. A couple of weeks ago I kayaked down the Wye with my daughter Catherine and her partner Nicko, and  she took this shot of me sketching in calm water. The scowl, if you can see it, is obligatory when sketching if you need clear concentration - lose your paddle and all you have to operate the craft with is a number ten round sable....... It was a marvellous day out, in glorious sunshine.

    One of the problems we have as artists painting in the landscape, is the need sometimes to fill a gap - perhaps to replace a rather boring or unpleasant object. In this painting of a scene in the Brecon Beacons I have added in a clothes- line on the left of the building to replace some unremarkable bushes. This is an excellent way of adding interest and colour to a farm or cottage. The horse was actually there and didn't need any changing at all.

    The actual painting is in the Ardent Gallery in the centre of Brecon, together with several other of my watercolours - telephone 01874 610710

Demonstrating watercolours at Patchings Art Festival

    June wouldn't be quite the same without the Patchings Art Festival, which seems to get better every year thanks to the amazing Chas and Liz who are the brains behind it all. This year was no exception and we had great enthusiastic crowds. It's also a marvellous occasion to meet so many other artists, most of whom we only see once a year, as well as the manufacturers who produce all these mouth-watering artistic products.

    It's always a great pleasure to work with St Cuthberts Mill who make the outstanding Waterford and Bockingford papers, and demonstrate for them in the huge marquee. This year the demonstrations were limited to one hour, so there was no hanging around waiting for washes to dry! One of my demos was the scene on the left, not quite finished, but enough to give a flavour of what the completed work would be like. I have used Daniel Smith watercolours, and when used in combination with Saunders Waterford High White paper the whole thing tends to give an extra WOW!! factor.

    This is a composition based on an illustration in my Winter Landscapes book, and I shall complete it in the studio before long. This leads me to the point of this post: I have scanned the painting as it stands, and will do so again once it is complete. You might like to do this yourself, photographing your painting at a stage where you are nearly at the end, but maybe a little unsure how much more detail to include. After photographing it on completion you will then be able to compare the two different stages. This will help you to judge if you are overworking your paintings during the final stages. It will not help your current painting if you have indeed over-cooked it, but gradually you will have a better idea when to put your brushes down.

    Maybe I'll see you next June at Patchings?