Mountain cottage.
October 2006
Watercolour 13"x13"
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Model aircraft and a passionate involvement with art cost me "O" level results of which the least talked about the better. However, Keith Duchars, my then art master, had sufficient belief in me to organise the chance for me to do A-level Art even though, strictly speaking, I was not sixth form material. This passion for art, paricularly ceramics and painting, has never left me and I still spend a significant amount of time either drawing or painting.
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Watchet harbour II.
May 2006
Watercolour 13"x13"
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A great love of walking the Dorset coast turned me on to several possibilities regarding how to get across these feelings with painting; particularly the feeling of looming cliffs and the steep shingle beaches dropping away to the sea; even a feeling of the sea itself dropping away as if the whole of Dorset was a huge wave.
During the 1990s, therefore, I worked on a series of Dorset coast-scapes - all oil on canvas and usually on a fairly large scale. This approach was particularly helped by attending once-monthly Saturday workshops at John Skinner's studio and Gallery. I am a great admirer of John's work and value the freedom of expression he has helped bring into my own.
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Gathering storm
October 2006
Watercolour 13"x13"
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At the end of the decade I was fortunate enough to attend a couple
of painting weeks with the late John Blockley, RI, in North Wales
and, through his encouragement, moved the technical emphasis to
concentrating on watercolour over rich textures. This led to
exhibitions at Makers, Taunton, and the Steam Gallery, Beer.
These works were all landscapes with bold contrasts in the land
and skies, something I find particularly appealing.
The annual painting trips continue thanks to Moira Huntley, somewhere
different each time, exciting and challenging.
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Autumn Fields
October 2006
Watercolour 13"x13"
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Technical Information
SURFACES
Daler-Rowney Saunders Waterford board, NOT and Rough
PIGMENTS
Schminke professional
Golden
Windsor & Newton Artists
Chroma
Liquitex Professional
TEXTURE UNDERLAY
Windsor & Newton Acrylic Gesso
FRAMES
Moulding - usually obeche painted and tinted per picture
Glass - 2mm float
Mount - Crescent 1.5mm Lilywhite whitecore
Backplane - 2.5mm and 3mm MDF
All frames double taped to prevent ingress of microscopic bugs.
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