Turner 'Fishermen at Sea' artwork update, and my L'Hermione painting

I've had some lovely help with my research to establish the detail in the Turner, Oil on Canvas 'Fishermen at Sea' painting.  The National Library of Wales responded by mentioning that there are reproductions of the image in some published books on Turner.  For example, the image is shown full page and in colour in 'The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner; Plates', by Martin Butlin & Evelyn Joll.  Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and The Tate Gallery by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1984.  They even included the Shelf Number.  And those who know me, will know that I hold a Readers Ticket. So, I'm popping along to look at that plate tomorrow or early next week.

Meanwhile, the equally lovely people at the Tate; also sent me a reply.  My point of contact (for which I am extremely grateful) seemed keen to assist me in viewing with greater clarity what was described as "this atmospheric night scene".  The lovely lady included for my interest, the catalogue entry for this 1796 "work which notes a contemporary account commenting that 'the figures, by not being more distinct and determined, suit the obscure perception of the objects, dimly seen through the gloom of night, partially illumined.'  This catalogue entry is from 'Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984'. . ." 

Which of course coincidentally is the same book referred to by the National Library of Wales.  And true to her word, the Tate contact promised to send me "by post a colour photocopy of the accompanying plate which does appear lighter than our online image, and you may be able to see more detail of the second boat."  That image arrived the other day.

Isn't it lovely when two National institutions simply come up trumps, when on both occasions there was no obligation to do so? I'm well chuffed, and with my "Hommage à L' Hermione" now framed and on the wall in my Man Den (see photograph below), it's now time to turn my attention back to my attempt at Turner's "Fishermen at Sea".  Although, unlike the original; mine is acrylic (Cryla, Lefranc, Winsor & Newton) on the awesome Daler Rowney A4 Acrylic Paper.

Photograph: "Hommage à L' Hermione"

Acrylic on Acrylic Paper

Rba 2016, All Rights Reserved 

I really like the catalogue entry; 'the figures, by not being more distinct and determined, suit the obscure perception of the objects, dimly seen through the gloom of night, partially illumined.' 

As the original catalogue entry fits in with comments already received about my attempt in progress.  My friend Mario, called the work 'beautiful', and when I mentioned working up more detail, he was bemused.  Mario explained that the vagueness of the figures added to the impact of the painting.  But of course vagueness of the figures must include an attempt to determine and then replicate how many there are in each boat.  Otherwise it wouldn't be a true attempt at copying (and thereby learning) from the astonishing "Fishermen at Sea" painting.  

If anything, my work to date on the Turner piece, has given me the confidence to paint in acrylic in a distinct manner that for me is not too dissimilar from watercolour, and is certainly a huge step up from my glut of acrylic paintings that have ben completed over the last few weeks.  The "Hommage à L' Hermione" piece being a prime example.

Maybe this approach is something that can be considered by those of you who are aspiring artists or new to a particular media; pick one of your favourite artists and in some way (even if only an abstract of a portion of an image) have a go at repeating the process yourself.  Yes, like me, you will probably get a lot wrong, but in doing so you will probably learn new techniques and gain in confidence.    

Hommage à L'Hermione

Well my latest acrylic painting, tItled: "Hommage à L'Hermione" is now complete.  

There is a demonstration on how to paint the sky and sea in an earlier post.  The painting has exceeded my expectations, and thankfully has met with approval from those who have seen it.  You can just make out where the ship is going to be placed on the page in my earlier post.  Having used a pencil to outline the French frigate, I put a background wash of acrylic paint across the page and then used the pencil again when the wash was dry to further define the ship.  Cryla Cadmium Yellow, Winsor & Newton Galeria Mixing White and Cryla Yellow Ochre were used for the sails, along with some Lefrance Burnt Sienna for darkening down the mixture. Lefranc Black acrylic and Cryla Titanium White were used to get the grey for the rigging.  Lefrance Deep Blue was used over Cryla Ultramarine to form the blue.  

Although I'm not going to show the finished piece; here is a snapshot from the painting, taken some two hours before completion.  The plan now is to frame this painting using mounting board and glass.  Only the top edge of the painting will be taped to the mounting board.  This should prevent the Daler Rowney A4 size Acrylic paper from wrinkling over time.  The idea is that the glass and the backing board will sandwich the artwork and prevent it from moving.  You don't normally glaze in front of acrylic artwork, but I'm doing it for several reasons; (1) an off the shelf frame complete with glass is cheaper than getting a bespoke frame, and (2) although the painting reminds me of the work of the 'Old Masters', it also reminds me of watercolour techniques, with its flowing movement and softness of stroke, and (3) if you don't glaze in front, then you need to [a] fix the acrylic paper to board, and [b] varnish the artwork.  To be quite honest, I don't want to do either of them, as the fixing or varnishing could ruin the artwork.

Photograph: Hommage à L' Hermione (acrylic on acrylic paper)

Rba 2016, All Rights Reserved 

Remember, whenever you frame your own artwork into a frame with glass and a backing board; you need to tape the backing board to the frame after completion.  This helps to prevent dust being forced in through the back of the frame over time.  

Gifts

So a lovely thank you to one of my daughters who bought me a gift card for 'The Pen & Paper' shop in Cardiff for Fathers Day.  I'm grateful for all of the other cards and presents I received that day as well, but it has taken until now to pop along and cash in my goody card. 

I picked up a 75ml tube of Cryla '527 Light Red Oxide' acrylic paint and a 'Jakar, folding palette' for my watercolours.  I became a watercolourist and a pastelist long before I discovered Acrylic paints and my current teach yourself course.  The intention is to mix the Light Red Oxide acrylic with Prussian Blue acrylic to create a lovely grey mixture (of varying shades) to use in future acrylic paintings.  I like Venetian Red (preferably) and Indian Red mixed with Prussian Blue, but I couldn't find any when I was looking through the display stand. Funnily enough, there's no colour chart for Cryla acrylic paint on display or available as a handout.  But hey ho, I've got my stuff, and I'm well chuffed.  Of course Daler Rowney do a Venetian Red in Cryla (product reference No.583) so that will be a future purchase.  But for now it's Light Red Oxide all the way; both as a mixture with Prussian Blue, and as a stand alone colour within my seas and skies.  So there's the update, and it's now time to finish this coffee and head back out into the street and maybe catch a film.

Stormy Sea

There's been a few days without art in my life, so it was great to get home this afternoon and take the time to tackle another A4 Acrylic image while I await some possible replies regarding the detail in the original 'Fishermen at Sea' painting that I'm working on but cannot finish due to the lack of clarity with the sourced photographs.  I've put out the feelers, maybe I will get some help, but for now it's time to move on with some more art.  For this demonstration painting, I'm using the Daler Rowney acrylic paper with its delightful weave surface that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Starting with a grid and a simple sketch of my main interest point (a sailing ship), I then roughly drew in the sea and where I wanted a lead-in line in the waves; before placing a 'Cryla' Artist quality Yellow Ochre acrylic wash across the whole page using my smaller Filbert brush. 

Over this base layer, I added Winsor & Newton 'Galeria' Student quality Titanium White with a brush and then blended the White and softened the edges of the paint using a natural sponge. As always keeping the sponge immersed in a pot of clean water when not in a use during the painting session.

Lefranc 'Louvre' Black acrylic paint (which sits somewhere between Student and Artist quality acrylic paint) was added to the image, along with 'Louvre' Burnt Sienna, and 'Cryla' Prussian Blue.  In all instances I tried to blend the colours with the natural sponge.  When I was satisfied with the effect, it was a case of using the 1" Liner brush to add more Black and Prussian Blue into the sea and then while using the same brush; overlay these two acrylic colours with Titanium white.  I flicked up some of the darker colour and then the white by dry-brushing away from the mass and up and towards the right of the page.  This was my 'Teach Yourself' attempt to create some further movement within the painting.

You should get the idea of the various stages as you check both of the photo panels that lead to the last image that shows the painting so far.  

The next stage will be to start blocking in the ship, but alas that may not be for a few days time, as my exercise regime is ever important.  With that in mind I intend to run in the Tenovus Charity 5K in Lampeter tomorrow.  I mention 'run', but in reality, it's a very so plod these days, but hey ho, at least I'm giving it a go.  Maybe, you should 'give it a go' with this acrylic painting malarky, and try to create your own seascape.  

You could produce similar in watercolour, but if you do try; then be extremely light on the pencil marks (including the grid) and rub out everything you don't want to see in the finished piece, before you start with the base wash. Careful visible pencil marks on the ship will add to the effect, but pencil grid or straight horizon marks would look dreadful.  Plus with watercolour; the paper is the White.  This means that you would sponge on the base Yellow Ochre layer and leave paper showing through, rather than brushing across the whole page.  Anyway, I hope that some of these comments are helpful; enjoy your art!

More Turner

This image is another of my 'after' Turner attempts.  The photograph shows the progress after two hours.  But of course those two hours also included chatting and making a cup of coffee.  So it's early days with this painting.

Photograph: Llanstephan Castle, Acrylic on Mixed Media paper

The mixed media A4 Daler Rowney paper I'm using is heavier (at 169 lb.) than the acrylic specific paper that I'm using for the 'Fishermen at Sea' image.  The original in this exercise was painted by Turner between 1795-96 in pencil with watercolour.  It depicts Llanstephan Castle by Moonlight.  I drew out the image using a standard HB pencil, and thereafter applied layers of acrylic paint as a wash, having placed a Raw Sienna wash coat across the sheet of paper.  Across the sky; I've used Ultramarine and a Red to form the grey colour and used Ultramarine neat. In all instances using a natural sponge to lift and to spread the colour while softening the edges. There's a long way to go with this painting, but an update will probably take at least two weeks, as I don't intend working on the image again until a week next Tuesday. My emphasis at the moment is on Turner's 1796 oil on canvas image.  In particular, finding out the detail in the shadows so that I can better replicate both boats and their occupants.

Top tip: the acrylic specific lighter Daler Rowney paper is far superior to the Daler Rowney heavier Mixed Media stuff.  You would think that the heavier paper would be better, but it's not! 

Turner update

Here is today's progress on my 'after' Turner painting.  One hour this morning, some more research for an hour this afternoon, and then about another one and a half hours of painting.  I'm very pleased with the progress, albeit I had to stretch to buying some more Daler Rowney 'System 3' acrylic paint brushes as the ones that I had were simply too broad for the finer detail.  The other sticking point is simply the lack of good quality images of Turner's 'Fishermen at Sea' image online. 

Photo: An extract showing my progress so far on the main boat 

A lot of the detail is going to be a 'best guess'. Which is a pity, because once I get to see the original oil on canvas painting; I will see my errors and will have to consider repainting the whole blinking thing. So a better solution would be to source a nice crisp image showing all of the detail, now!

Especially a clear shot of the boat beyond the main one. I've trawled the Internet and checked out a few books.  Maybe I will end up in the National Library to see if they have a large print reproduction of the original inside one of their holdings.  

Another approach would be to continue as far as I can. Then stop and store the work.  Visit the Tate, do some sketching and then return to complete my inferior copy.  The main problem with that approach, is that it means longing it out.  And I don't like longing anything out, which is probably why I give oil painting a miss.

Fishermen at Sea; a further update

This is an update of my ongoing (work in progress) acrylic painting on paper that is depicting Turner's Oil on Canvas, 1796 painting, 'Fishermen at Sea'. This is somewhere around 10 or more hours in.  This evening I have added layers of Cryla Prussian Blue, Lefranc Louvre Black and a mixture of both colours.  I managed to buy the Prussian Blue (and some more acrylic paper) out of my share of a gift from our daughters yesterday.  I've written about this work on my Social Media ArtRBA page and on this Blog.  I'm really pleased with the darkening down and the real progress that I appear to have made with the image.  There's a long way to go, but it seems to be taking shape.

After; Turner, 'Fishermen at Sea'

J.M.W. Turner, 'Fishermen at Sea' 1796, Oil on Canvas

So following on from previous posts about painting with acrylic on paper and using a combination of various brushes and a natural sponge; here is today's update of my take on Turner's 'Fishermen at Sea' 1796 Oil on Canvas painting that Turner had exhibited at the Royal Academy.  I'm quite a few hours in with my attempt, there have been various layers of paint acrylic applied, and I'm a long way off the end result.  So please bare that in mind when casting a critical eye over the artwork.

There seems to be a lot of errors and misunderstanding out there regarding Turner's original painting.  Some commentators mention three boats when there are in fact only two.  Yes, the second boat beyond the crest of the main wave can be mistaken as two boats if your'e using a poor reference photograph.  But if that was the case then the mast of the closest of those 'two' boats is in the wrong place.  That's because the 'mast' is the rear part of one boat, and is a similar contraption to that shown at the rear of the main boat roughly in the lower and left third of the painting.  

Some people have even mistaken the rocks illustrating 'the Needles' as the sails and hulls of sailing ships and truly believe that these two fishing boats were cast off from the larger ships.  Nope, these two fishing boats are just what they are, two fishing boats nestled in a sea scape.  

There is even confusion about the barrel upon which the right hand of the three sea birds rests upon.  This has been taken as an illustration of the stormy weather and the barrel has broken loose from one of the fishing boats, or has been swept along from elsewhere by the storm.  Of course the idea of a storm swept barrel is extremely unlikely.  This folks was 1796 and the scene is depicted from that time or earlier.  Modern fishermen will use plastic buoys to pinpoint pots and helps to spread nets.  It is plausible that the fishermen were using a sealed barrel as part of their process.  If you look very carefully at the main boat, the has been cast over the side.  You can see the cork floats and the shadow of the net itself.  

I have even read about the boats moving through the waves.  That is also unlikely given that the main boat has cast its anchor, or some form of dragging line.  The line is too straight and at the wrong angle to be connected to the right hand boat.  The sails are down and the fishermen are going about their business with at least one of the boats in the intended position.  There is even an idea that they are rowing.  Well, to me there's no evidence of oars.  There is at least one if not two connecting points on the main fishing boat, but there is no oar inserted.

I hope that helps to clear up some of the things that you might have read about Turner's 'Fishermen at Sea' painting.

The next stage of the painting process is to insert some of the blue's and green's of my sky into the waves, before tackling some more detail on both boats.  This of course is all in acrylic and on an A4 sheet of paper, and not oil on canvas as in the original.  But meanwhile I have to slip out and have a coffee and probably go for a run.                 

How to No.3 'Using brush and sponge with acrylic'

Today's image using acrylic on 140 lbs acrylic paper, is inspired by JMW Turner, 'Fishermen at Sea' painted in oil on canvas in 1796.  A photo reproduction of the Turner painting appears in the lovely book that I recently picked up titled 'On the Trail of Turner, in North and South Wales', CADW, 3rd Ed. 2008, 56pp.  

To begin the painting I prepped my usual 9mm border edge in order to tape the paper down.  Then moving away from the quite vibrant Raw Sienna, I used Cryla Yellow Ochre as a base acrylic wash coat.   The Yellow Ochre was deliberately layered darker in the dark areas of the sky and sea.

Cryla Titanium White was applied using a Daler Rowney 1 inch 'Script' brush, for the moon, the highlighting on clouds, and the highlight on the sea, and for the sea birds.  For the broader areas; a 1/2 inch Daler Rowney 'Graduate' Flat Wash brush was used instead of my usual (and far more expensive) 'Filbert'.  You can pay a fortune for these Graduate 'student' brushes, especially if you buy in the wrong place.  However, the Art Shop in Pier Street Aberystwyth sell all of the Graduate range irrelevant of size or shape for an astonishingly cheap £2.50 each.  Hot Tip: some of the Graduate brushes are perfect for applying make-up!  Probably only 10% of the cost of branded make-up brushes.  Once the white was dry, LeFranc Louvre Black was applied with the 'Flat Wash' and plenty of water.  I intend to use a retarding medium (once Pay-Day comes around), but for now, I'm happy to treat the acrylics a bit like watercolour.  So using a nice wet wash the black went onto the paper and a natural sponge was used to lift off the paint and to soften the edges.  Natural sponge for acrylic and watercolour is far better than a synthetic sponge.  But remember to move the sponge edges making contact with the paper, so that you don't end up with a repeat pattern.  On this 'Teach Yourself' acrylic course, I opted for a pot of water just for the sponge.  This meant that I could immerse the sponge straight after use to remove the acrylic paint.  That's another hot tip, as a natural sponge can be expensive, and you don't want to clog it up or stiffen it with acrylic paint that dries like plastic.         

Next I introduced some LeFranc Louvre Deep Blue into the right hand side of the sky.  Along with a purple mixture of the deep blue and Winsor & Newton 'Galeria' Vermillion into the darker parts of the sky.  To further deepen the sky, I added more black onto the painting.  In both cases the paint was lifted and the edges softened using the natutal sponge.

How to No.2 'Using acrylic on paper'

We tend to think of using acrylic on wood, canvas and canvas board.  However there are papers on the market for mixed media work and specifically for acrylic paints.  The one that I am using today was a gift from the lovely people in the Art Shop on Pier Street Aberystwyth.  It was being thrown out as damaged stock after being on display in the window, whereupon there was a water leak.  Those who know me, know that after my make everything last childhood; I hate waste.  Those of you who have seen some of my previous artwork on Social Media and or my Blog; may recall a 'Reindeer snow scene' mixed media painting.  That piece was accomplished on a large sheet of paper that others had amongst other things managed to coffee stain and scribble on.  There was no way that I would let that particular sheet be thrown out.  It was just a case of having an idea for artwork using some of the shapes and shades that appeared amongst the mess.  

So here we are with an A4 pad of Daler Rowney 'System 3' acrylic paper weighing in at 140 lbs as my support for todays painting.  There are other papers on the market and indeed Daler Rowney do another pad that is somehow 25% cheaper, and around 33% heavier.  So I shall have to pop into the Art Shop on Pay Day and snaffle up one of those pads as well.  

I marked out a 9mm pencil boarder and then applied cheap masking tape to hold the paper down while wet.  I prefer to use 'Artstat' by 'Creative House' Gumstrip sealing tape (circa £4.50 per roll to hold down my watercolour paper, but opted for masking tape for two reasons; (i) I'm trying to show you how to quickly paint an effective image with acrylics and using masking tape is far quicker than gumstrip, and (ii) it's acrylic and not watercolour.  So even when applying the first coat of Winsor & Newton 'Galeria' Raw Sienna as a wash, the paper shouldn't bubble up as much as with a watercolour wash.  I'm also relying on the fact that in my 'teach yourself' acrylic painting course; the base wash-coat will seal the paper and future wet or wet-on-wet layers won't seep through and further distort the support.       

Using the important 'Rule of Thirds', I have placed my horizon line in pencil some 6cm up from the base of the painting area.  Applying the base wash-coat in one go using a Daler Rowney 'System 3' No.12 Filbert brush, I have deliberately intensified the colour below the horizon line.  All of that was allowed to dry while I typed up these notes so far.  It is at this point that I add 'Prussian Blue' acrylic paint to my Pay-Day shopping list, as unfortunately today I only have Daler Rowney Ultramarine, Lefranc Louvre Deep Blue and a smidging of Boldmere Cerulean Blue to work with.  So here goes:

With the base wash coat dry, I've mixed up Lefranc Louvre 'Deep Blue' with Lefranc Louvre 'Black'.  Leaving some of both the black and the Deep Blue untouched on the palette.  Some of this 'blue-black' mixture has been applied to the paper above the horizon line.  A clean wet brush was used to apply water across the paper and later on to lift off some of the blue-black where I want the light to appear.  It's not watercolur and it's all 'teach yourself', so for the next stage, I added some black onto the paper in the key darkening areas.  Left alone with the black block, the sky just wouldn't look right, so still using the Filbert brush, I blended the colours with brush strokes and stippling.  

The left handside of the painting has distinct brush movement marks to contrast with the right handside.  Some interest needed to be introduced into the sky, as this is going to be quite a simple painting.  Remember, the essence of the image is quick and effective.  If you look carefully I have also introduced some downward strokes of black on the left of the sky close to the horizon.  This will be the rain storm over part of the city.  Now it's time to change the murky water, clean the brush yet again, and then start to work on the sea.

My intention now is to limit the palette to the three chosen colours; 'Galeria' Raw Sienna, and Louvre 'Deep Blue' and 'Black'.

With everything dry, and clean water in the pot, I ran a broad stroke of water just overlapping the horizon line using my Filbert brush.  In fact I ran a second stroke across the first to ensure that the overlap was wet.  Still using the 'Filbert' and my blue-black mixture; I introduced shapes along the horizon line to represent Venice in the distance.  By wetting the surface first and overlapping the horizon line, these shapes merge into the sea and become hazy reflections.  While the paint was wet, I used the cleaned brush to brush out both the left and right handside of the cityscape, in order to get those colours (and therefore the defined shapes) to fade away.  To provide some further definition black paint was brushed into parts of the central area.

The sea was constructed by using the 'Filbert' and our blue-black mixture and then black to darken down some broad areas to the left and right of the image and to further darken towards the front.  It was then time to change from the Filbert brush to a Daler Rowney 'System 3' 1 inch 'Script' brush in order to introduce some detail into the sea.  We are looking to apply smaller strokes to the background and larger strokes to the foreground.  All I'm using is the blue-black mixture, water, and occasionally some of the Raw Sienna.  I'm just forming lines across the page using varying intensities if the paint mixtures.  These strokes form the sea over the original Raw Sienna 'wash coat' that was applied to the paper at the beginning of this short demonstration.   

You are either going to like or dislike the final image, but I hope that there is something in this explanation that will help you with your own artistic journey.  Meanwhile I have to clean up these brushes and my makeshift palette as dinner is almost ready. Oh happy days. 

Acrylic; Palette knife on plywood

Yesterday I mentioned the recently found and renovated Palette Knife. So today I thought that I would upload a copy of the painting that I mentioned in the post.  It was painted with Cryla, Galeria, and Lefranc acrylic paints.  The block white is titanium, and the yellow is Cadmium yellow and Lemon yellow (both of which are Cryla).  The rigging was brushed in using Lemon yellow, mixing white, and yellow ochre.  But of course the artist can use the edge of a palette knife for rigging on any ships and for the safety rails on yachts; if trying to avoid using a brush anywhere on the artwork.  Although I've completed 160+ images, I'm loath to upload many of them as it's so easy for someone to make a digital copy.  So that suggests that not all of my best artwork gets showcased, and sometimes only an abstract of a painting or drawing gets uploaded.  I even choose to upload work in progress onto this Blog and to Social Media. As that give the viewer a feel of what is going on, without exposing the final image to copyright infringement.  So in many ways, uploading this particular image is a rare treat.

It's not one of my best, but it was enjoyable messing with the acrylic paints, and seeing the original image starting to take shape before making a distinct turn into something else.

New palette knife

So I'm the proud owner of a new palette knife. Well, not new exactly, as it was my fathers.  So that makes it at least 32 years old.  You can tell that it was well used, and the well used bit probably puts at the very least, another 10 to 20 years onto that.  So as far as I'm concerned, it's a 50 year old palette knife, and those that know me, know that I like old stuff.  I know that it was well used, because when I found it the other day the handle was covered with lots of oil and acrylic paint.  Along with plenty of rust on the blade and leading towards the handle.  It took a while to sand down, and then three coats of varnish were applied over the next few days.  It's slightly smaller than the palette knife one of my daughters bought me, and it's quite a lot more flexible.  I don't know if the added flexibility is due to thinning of the metal through long term use and then the oxidisation and my sanding, or if it is a design thing.  Anyway, the nice touch is that Dad scratched his initials SAB into the handle, and fortunately my sanding didn't obliterate the initials. I had no idea that they were there due to the dried out paint, so that was a nice find when I applied the first coat of varnish! 

Palette knife

The P&O 'Azura' acrylic painting (mentioned in an earlier post) is finished, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. It has quite a dramatic feel to it. I've now got a spare 22 x 18 inch canvas board and a 40 x 30 inch canvas; to decide on which one I paint the P&O 'Aurora' thereby leaving the other support available for an image of the Celebrity 'Eclipse' cruise ship.

We are fortunate enough to have enjoyed a few cruise holidays on the Eclipse. Indeed it was on our second holiday on the Celebrity Eclipse that I started to try to paint. Eileen Brautman (the artist) was on board, and I fumbled along in watercolour. The next cruise holiday painting experience was on the P&O Aurora last year when it sailed around the Meditaerean with a sister duo taking art classes. 

I seem to understand watercolours, pastels, and various types of pencils. But I have never (that is until now) grasped acrylics.  Here is my current Palette Knife selection.  Which is a bit bonkers as the palette knife that I have used was bought for me by one of our daughters just for applying Acrylic Gesso to wood to create structure (waves, rocks etc.,) for overpainting in watercolour when dry.  Now that I've begun my self taught 'acrylic journey'; it seemed natural to progress from the eight brushed images into using a palette knife.  This particular one is a 'Daler Rowney' 2020. My first attempt with the palette knife was the Venice image shown on the left.  This was followed by an image of Gibraltar.  The third palette knife image, is of Malta, and is work in progress.  They are all roughly 22 x 15cm on plywood.

The images are representative of places that we have been or intend to visit. 

Wales, Wales, Wales, Wales

If they were English then they would all be invited to the Palace to be given an MBE, but because they're Welsh, they'll just have to do with a beer down the local.

Wales, European Championships, Semi-Finalists, 2016