Malta and the Sky Landscape Artist of the Year 2016

Well not being part of this years; "Sky Landscape Artist of the Year" (2016) Competition, doesn't stop me whittling up my interpretation of a Maltese landscape.

ArtRba Photograph: Malta, Acrylic on plywood.

(Click on the image if needed to open it up full size)

Whilst this one was finished earlier today and ready to be gifted to a friend; I have several other pieces of art currently on the go. Well, I sort of write 'several', almost tongue in cheek.

There's an A4 ish sized watercolour of Venice, in which I am about 3.5 hours in, when I just had to set it aside and wait until I'm back in that zone.  There's the construction lines for something around A3 size, depicting the Old College and Sky from a close and low viewpoint.  This one will be drawn and painted using Inktense Pencils.  There's another Inktense and Watercolor Image of an African elephant on 14 x 10 paper, but alas like the others this is also unfinished.  There's something around 10 x 8 in watercolour of the Thames and one or two bridges.  Setting this one aside created a problem, as the dried masking fluid tore the expensive paper and damaged the surface.  In the soft pastel range; I have a portrait (yes unfinished) and a landscape which I set aside half way through.  There's also a repaired huge canvas that nothing has been done on, and there's the detailed 'Grand Canal' scene in Inktense that turned from being a 'labour of love' into just labour.  

So 'pushing on' with the Malta image over the last few days has been a rewarding experience.  Using a palette knife can be so liberating.  Better still; the image fits in with some mark making stuff that I've been doing.

More inktense

"Come in number AB 104, your time is up."

Well I don't know who owns 'AB 104' but that was enjoyable three hours working the Inktense Pencils outdoors down near the Marina in Aberystwyth and then finishing off with water and a brush inside one of my favourite coffee shops.  This particular piece of art is approximately 7 x 5 inches on 'Hot' Langford watercolour paper. 

It was also the first time that I tried out my big floppy hat bought for me by one of my daughters to keep the sun off me when out and about painting or drawing.  The hat was a success too, so all in all, it's been a great day!

Memories

. . . and today's art memory is of Venice.  It is an image of the Basicica di Santa Maria della Salute shown from the main arterial waterway (not the Grand Canal) to the South of the Church.  

I created the image using Inktense pencils on circa A5 size watercolour paper over two enjoyable sessions in Caffé Néro in Aberystwyth after returning from our summer holiday in the Meditaerean. I used a reference photograph that I took while we were being ferried by water taxi to and from the cruise ship into the city.  Some of my Venetian images were created in situ (one of a church while relaxing under the shade of a tree), but the majority of them will come from reference photos that were taken while we were visiting Venice.  These photographs were taken for the purpose of creating the art rather than as holiday 'snaps'.  The down side being the restriction of carrying the lightweight 40mm 'pancake' lens with its limited fixed focal length rather than the heavier by more adaptable 24-105 lens.  But everything in life is a trade off, and during a hot day in Venice, you carry what you can manage.  

This is probably why I am moving towards Inktense Pencils being my holiday art media of choice. It's a clean product that can provide pleasing and sometimes stunning results.  You don't need to carry water or a water container; as you can choose to wash in the image when you get back to your hotel or cruise ship. The tin is large enough to take postcard size watercolour paper held on the outside without bending.  So if you stitch a piece of elastic to secure the tin, then that paper size can be slipped between the elastic and the tin and thereby supported when it's all carried in your bag.  If you want more detail in your images, then you can work on the smoother 'Hot' watercolour paper, rather than using 'Cold' or 'Rough' paper, or you could combine 'pigment liner' pens, or 'Graphite Pencils' with Inktense pencils.