Well chuffed

I'm well chuffed with this watercolour depicting the road into our village.  It was completed today, and I hope that the recipient is just as chuffed when the gift is opened on Christmas Day.

The painting is approximately 9 in by 6 in (including the 8mm White border where the masking tape is positioned). It's been painted on Cotman 'Cold Pressed' Gummed watercolour paper (a 9 x 12 sheet cut in half). I predominantly used Artists quality watercolour paints (Winsor & Newton) plus a smidging of two pigments from my Daler Rowney Artists Oil Pastels. I put on my fluorescent jacket earlier in the day and popped out if the village to take some photographs to help the composition.  The sky idea came from a photograph taken by a friend of mine. 

I'm really pleased with this one, as it's a huge step in the right direction on my artistic journey. 

Waste

Well those who know me, know that I hate waste. This is a piece of watercolour paper that someone had stuck down to a drawing board at MIND, but left alone for many many months (maybe longer) unused.  This waste had been bothering me for sometime. It is quite a large piece of paper at approximately 20 x 15 inches. Lots of paint and crayon had been spilt onto it, and where other boards were taken out or put back in place, the board edges had indented the paper.

So this week at MIND Aberystwyth, I decided to do something about it. Most people would have thrown the paper away, but for me it became my art project of the session. The final image was created using soft pastels, watercolour pencils and watercolours:

MIND Aberystwyth

I've been to Art at 'MIND Aberystwyth' today (I tend to think of the weekly meeting as a lifeline and become quite anxious if the arrangements change), and to Circuit Training this evening.  Not that I'm doing very well with the Circuits, it's sort of walk when everyone else runs, and modifying many of the exercise stations, to suit where I actually am in the lack of fitness game.  But at least I'm there, and that's the important thing.

I managed to complete a simple beach scene watercolour at MIND and then made a few art acquisitions ready for the next series of paintings: (1) the new ARCHES watercolour paper is as good as it gets, and I've been waiting to take delivery of this beauty for a while, (2) the art easel was dug out of a storage box and cleaned up (the easel belonged to my father who passed away 30+ years ago), and finally the china and loggoed up Winsor Newton brush pot, which was a delightful gift that I received from the lovely people at the Art Shop in Pier Street, Aberystwyth.

Yes the ARCHES watercolour paper is expensive, and yes, I had to raid the piggy bank, but I simply had to have a go. Not that it's opened yet, knowing me it will be put to one side for a while and then after procastination on my part, it will at some point be opened and used.  Whereas I suspect that the cleaned up pot will be holding a brush or two by midday tomorrow. Don't even ask about the easel, as that's now an ornament in the corner of my den.