Snow Time

This is today's piece. There was another one completed yesterday (an A3 Portrait view from North of Brodick on the Isle of Arran in Watercolour, Watercolour Pencils and Oil Pastels). This was on top of finishing the view from Arran towards Holy Isle which was painted in landscape format.

Today's piece is on 16 x 8 inch watercolour paper and the intention is again to use oil pastels and watercolour pencils to complete the piece.  It is interesting to see the changes in style as I develop as an artist. As usual, click on the image if the formatting is cropped and it should open full size.

Roger Bennett

Watercolour and mixed media painting: Looking out from An t-Eilean Àrd

This one was painted on Daler Rowney Aquarelle 'Cold Pressed' (also known as NOT) 8 inch x 16 inch watercolour paper.  If the watercolour painting is cropped; then simply click on the image to see it full size.

It's a view from the bay at Lamlash (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Àrd) in North Ayrshire on the Isle of Arran, looking towards 'Holy Isle' on the Firth of Clyde. 

It was painted using watercolour pencils, oil pastel, and watercolours.  

This is one of a series of images that I have produced after our lovely, albeit short holiday on the Isle of Arran.  I promised my mental ill health counsellor, that I would do some watercolour painting while on the Isle and upon my return.

For the sky: Watercolour pencils were used near to the horizon and dabbed in some places higher up, then wetted. Winsor Blue Red Shade watercolour paint, my favourite 'grey' of Venetian Red and Prussian Blue in varying intensities, and a mixture of Chinese White and Yellow Ochre.  The latter being replicated in the sea along with Winsor Blue R/S.

As is usual with all of my poetry, paintings and drawings, all rights are reserved, Roger Bennett

Africa watercolour painting

. . . and here is another watercolour painting for my friends, especially those in or from Africa (Patricia, Tamara, Michael, and Jeffers AKA Jeffery).

This painting of the night sky and its mass of stars, was constructed in watercolour and pen and ink and a tiny bit of watercolour pencil on an approximately A3 sheet of Daler Rowney 'Aquafine' 'Hot Pressed' smooth watercolour paper.    The paper size is an Imperial measurement of 16 x 12 inches (which is a tad larger than A3).  

The black ink aside, there are four prominent colours in this watercolour image, all Winsor and Newton Artist Quality paints, namely: Prussian Blue, Indigo, Winsor Orange, and Rose Dore. To a significantly lesser extent, there is some Yellow Ochre. 

The pen is a Staedtler pigment liner size 0.05 which is waterproof once applied to paper.  The main art brushes used for this piece were my expensive Rowney 'Diana' series Kolinsky Sable in various sizes up to size 7 and my latest minor acquisition of a Daler Rowney 'Aquafine' Liner. The latter brush offers better control than a 'Graduate' Size 1 Rigger brush. 

As with all of my paintings, drawings, and poems: all rights are reserved, Roger Bennett

Vive la France

I have been working on this square shaped watercolour painting 'Vive la France' for several days now. It is my Liberté, égalité, fraternité image, and my small way to pay respect to those who have suffered terribly during the series of dreadful murders in Paris.  The three figures and their shadows in the foreground are painted in the blue, white and red colours of the French flag. The black car is my take on the small black car that was prominent in early news reports.  The figures in the background represent those that lost their lives during these dreadful and unnecessary atrocities.

The French scene was painted square, so that the image would easily upload as my Social Media profile picture.  The exact size was wholly dependent upon what size quality watercolour paper that I had in my stash at home. I opted for probably my best watercolour paper; namely 'The Langton Prestige' 100% Cotton. This 14 x 10 inch pad came in at £14.10 for 12 sheets quite a few years ago.  But alas this particular watercolour pad lay lingering in an art folder, simply because I neither had the skills nor the confidence to use it.  So for this painting, I removed a sheet and squared it off at 10 inches (250mm).

I used watercolour pencils to map out a similar image to one that I have painted several times before.  The bonus of using watercolour pencils is that the colours fade into the painting and the artist is not left with unsightly pencil construction marks. The planning stage meant having three prominent and distinct figures and the French flag in the foreground and the tower in looming the background.  But this is a 'wet on wet' watercolour process, so the flag, and the three prominent figures and the Eiffel  Tower were all masked off using a masking fluid pen like applicator. This would keep these areas clear of watercolour paint until the later part of the art process. 

The sky was painted first, using a combination of Winsor Newton Blue Red Shade and Winsor Lemon having first wet the paper. Greater detail was given to the car in the painting by using three different watercolour pencils, and then carefully wetting the image.  The same method was used for painting the Eiffel Tower. But of course these pencil images could not be drawn until the paper was perfectly dry.  The same applies to removing the masking fluid; if you try to remove it while the paper is damp, then there is a risk if tearing the paper or allowing paint seepage into the area that you are trying to keep clean.   Lines were constructed lightly in pencil for the Liberté, égalité, fraternité text, and the letters were then drawn using a pencil.  The pencil lines were there carefully erased, which also removes part of the shapes of some of the letters.  So a black watercolour pencil was then used to reconstruct the letters.  This was then finished by over painting with Winsor Newton Mars Black using a lining brush.  So the process took several hours a day over three days.

One of my mental ill health issues that interfere with my art; is the hang ups I have been getting about signing my name.  The small 'Bennett' has become 'Rba' with the date, and now somehow over the last two pieces it has become a broad and confident 'Bennett'.  Not that this confidence is mirrored in life.  Especially after the minor assault the other day, and the phone call I received from victim support yesterday.  But that's another story, to hold back for another day.  Today is a day of rememberance and sympathy, and a desire that all of those who were involved in any way, even a minor way, are caught and punished.

I'm pleased with the result, as it's satisfying to make a statement of solidarity.

As usual with all of my paintings, drawings and poetry; all rights are reserved 

Imitated Elliott Style Art but in Watercolour

This scene of a harbour on the east coast of the Isle of Arran was painted on request of a friend of mine called Nia, who had a particular artist and style in mind when I offered her a painting.  The artist whose style that I have tried to imitate, appears to work in acrylics.  Not that I am certain, because I have never scene one the original pieces.  Whereas this scene has been painted in watercolours.  I simply used two pieces of art as a reference point for the style, and then set about choosing a scene that I wished to depict in watercolour for Nia.

Having just returned from a short holiday on the Isle of Arran, this seemed to be an ideal setting for the artwork.

This square shaped watercolour painting took me exactly six hours to complete.  How do I know that?  Well simply because I attend two hour painting sessions each week at MIND Aberystwyth, and I decided to make this my 'Tuesday Monkey' for three of those sessions.  I finished the piece today, but alas I have left it at MIND because the rain is tamping down and I got sodden on the short walk to the nearby Coffee Shop.  So Nia will have to wait for a week or two (weather depending) before she can snaffle up the watercolour, and hopefully go on to hang it on her wall.

As my 'art' has developed over the last few months, I have experienced great difficulty signing my paintings.  I didn't want my name interfering with the image or taking up too much space, or an error occurring as I signed a piece, and that error going on to spoil the artwork.  Indeed, I moved from previously using 'R. Bennett' to only writing 'Rba' on my more recent watercolour paintings.  With this mental issue in mind, it is pleasing to note that not only did I boldly sign the finished piece (imitating how the original artist signs her name [her name is different than my surname Bennett, so there's no fraud or misrepresentation involved; as my piece is mine and signed as such].  As well as using my name, the scene is also original to me.  It is my interpretation of a small harbour just north of Brodick on the Isle of Arran.  The only similarities; is that I have sort of tried to adopt the other artists style, albeit in watercolour and not acrylic, in order to quench Nia's thirst for her work.      

(Click on the image to open the watercolour full size if it appears cropped)    

As with all of my artwork and poetry, all rights are reserved.  

Poppy Fields

If I had to define myself these days, it would be as a poet and an artist. Not that I have sold or published any of my poetry for financial gain.  Indeed, I have three volumes of unpublished poetry and now close on 50 finished paintings in watercolour or soft pastels.  One of the paintings even has 3D raised edges as I develop into using other mediums.  The poetry and art goes a long way to offsetting my mental health problems, and I am indebted to MIND Aberystwyth for providing the weekly art class.

This is a monkey (tasks that are there but sought of never get done or take a long time to do) (they sit on your shoulders, often as a burden) that has sat there (in my head) waiting to be completed for about 3 or 4 years. I wrote the poem, and individually developed each of the military figures, including cutting them out and moving them around to get the composition.  The idea is that there is a poem and a linking image.  The left hand soldier is from the Boer War or early and that part of the scene is Africa. The middle soldier is a World War I stretcher bearer and us wearing the corresponding 'SB' armband.  The middle scene being the muddy battlefields of France.  They are clearly identified as British.  Whereas the clarity between nations for a modern soldier is harder to define, so the right hand figure wears a Union Jack on the left arm.  This soldier is saying thank you, to those that care for others.  That could be someone who donates during the annual Poppy Appeal.  The modern soldier scene is set in the Middle East, but the kit is deliberately greener than desert fatigues because our soldiers are trained and called to respond anywhere in the World.  

The theme was there, but I knew that the execution wouldn't be.  Especially seeing how poor an artist I was back in 2011.  Thankfully I had some marvellous watercolour painting lessons, including on how to paint poppies while on holiday on the P&O Ventura cruise ship this year.  The original draft drawing was too crammed.  I had used smaller sized paper and had written the poem too large and too close to the left hand figure.  

A few months ago (before the summer holiday); I redrew the poem (Poppy Fields) and the military figures onto a bigger sheet of better quality watercolour paper.  But alas I still set it aside as a future task given that my art was still developing.  So with the 2015 remembrance week looming, and poppies being a major theme, I decided to crack on with the painting a few weeks back and managed to finish it today. 

The final Stanza of the poem refers to the fact that members of our military still die, and that each death is a return of the 'Poppy Fields'.

(Click on the image to open it full size in order to see all of the scene).

All rights reserved (poem and artwork)

Roger Bennett

2015