ON THE SLEEPY EDGE

Sleepy Edge

Urban Landscapes are still intriguing me. This is a half sheet, worked over with gesso, charcoal and pastel pencil. I cant seem to get away from this tube of Liquitex Medium Magenta acrylic. It’s creeping into everything I paint lately!

It’s such a weird color, but does something to your brain, particularly on these industrial sort of subjects. Perhaps because it’s so out of character with the subject. Evening at the edge of a city, painted like a bunch of flowers.

Liquitex Medium Magenta acrylic – scary, addictive stuff!

The great thing about it is the fact that it is listed as having Excellent light fastness. Most watercolor pigments this color are fugitive.

URBAN WATERCOLORS



It seems strange I guess, five months traveling through the bush, and I’m back in the studio absorbed in Urban landscapes. Maybe I miss all  that noise traffic and chaos.

This painting was built up in layers of watercolor and gouache then worked over with thin glazes of gesso. Lots of calligraphic charcoal and pastel pencil marks were then threaded across the surface similar to graffiti on a wall.

Transparent washes of Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Gold contrast with the Phthalo Blue foreground glazes and Phthalo tinted White Gouache sky. The brick shaped fine detail was applied with Burnt Sienna tinted White Gouache

A compressed industrial grey color scheme and formal, geometric marks suggest the urban subject rather than accurately describing it in these two paintings.

I find that reducing a painting to the simplest elements and barely suggesting the subject can have a lot more impact. The viewer is engaged on a far deeper level and in a more subliminal way than when details are clearly presented.

INDUSTRIAL STUFF

If you’re into over the top industrial hardware, then Western Australia sure is the state to visit.

These giant pieces of apparatus look almost organic. It’s hard to imagine someone sitting at a drawing board, under a cold fluorescent light, creating this sort of stuff. It looks so random and chaotic.

I hope you enjoy the photographs. It’s a dangerous business, standing on the roof of a landcruiser pointing a long lens over five strands of barbed wire. I’m sure I was viewed with much suspicion and, in a different country, would have probably been shot on site.

The sketches are done with a 0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip, a White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor and a tea bag

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sketch1
0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip, White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor and a tea bag
sketch2-1
0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip,  White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor, Tissue paper and a glue stick

LEICHHARDT LAGOON

LEICHHARDT LAGOON
Leichhardt Lagoon is a series of waterholes on the Leichhardt river near Normanton. There were plenty of crocodiles in the nearby Leichhardt River, great sunsets and lots of interesting birdlife so we stayed for three days. Did some painting, lots of walking and cycled along some rough old sandy tracks spotting crocs.
Great camp site, right beside the water.
The sunsets across the wetlands were mighty.
Stilts fed in the shallows around our camp
These two cool looking ducks waddled past us one morning
Young Stilt trying to figure out how all these legs work?
Large Egret showing off elaborate plumage.
Attractive looking Egret making herself more attractive.
Important looking Egret walking importantly
Pied Heron circling.
Pied Heron – cruising.
Pair of Curlews – the way they behave is as weird as their mournful cry. They stand dead still and stare at you, then walk a short distance, freeze, and stare again – very strange!
Mobile studio – right on the edge of Leichhardt lagoon.
Cobalt Blue and Permanent Rose are normally used as soft, transparent washes. In this painting, as well as using the colours as transparent washes, I mixed them with white gouache to make the random opaque purple shapes that interrupt the detail.
Surprisingly few insects at night meant we could cook and eat outside and enjoy the view across the wetland.
By now you might be thinking this place is pretty close to perfect, and it was except for this guy…
He owns the station the wetlands are situated on, and thought it a good idea to blast away with a shotgun every once in a while to frighten off all the birds?

Leichhardt Lagoon is a series of waterholes on the Leichhardt river near Normanton. There were plenty of crocodiles in the nearby Leichhardt River, great sunsets and lots of interesting birdlife so we stayed for three days. Did some painting, lots of walking and cycled along some rough old sandy tracks spotting crocs.

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Great camp site, right beside the water.

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The sunsets across the wetlands were mighty.

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Stilts fed in the shallows around our camp

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These two cool looking ducks waddled past us one morning

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Young Stilt trying to figure out how all these legs work?

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Large Egret showing off elaborate plumage.

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Attractive looking Egret making herself more attractive.

egret

Important looking Egret walking importantly

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Pied Heron circling.

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Pied Heron – cruising.

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Pair of Curlews – the way they behave is as weird as their mournful cry. They stand dead still and stare at you, then walk a short distance, freeze, and stare again – very strange!

painting at leichhardt lagoon

Mobile studio – right on the edge of Leichhardt lagoon.

wetland painting

Cobalt Blue and Permanent Rose are normally used as soft, transparent washes. In this painting, as well as using the colours as transparent washes, I mixed them with white gouache to make the random opaque purple shapes that interrupt the detail.

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Surprisingly few insects at night meant we could cook and eat outside and enjoy the view across the wetland.

By now you might be thinking this place is pretty close to perfect, and it was except for this guy…

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He owns the station the wetlands are situated on, and thought it a good idea to blast away with a shotgun every once in a while to frighten off all the birds?

PAINTING MATERIAL

Five months traveling and three workshops, without the opportunity to restock, means a fair amount of paint, brushes and paper must be carried. I like to get as much done as possible in the workshops, so we usually complete 2-3 small paintings each day. At that pace the workshops alone will use up around 40 quarter sheets. Fortunately I only use a few colors (Indian Yellow/ Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine Blue and Phthalo Blue) Half a dozen tubes of each of these plus a handful of other less used colors, Ink, Gesso, Gouache, a pile of brushes and pencils and things soon start to look like a mobile art supply store.

painting materials

Watercolors, Gouache, Acrylics, Gesso, Ink, Lightweight Easel, Folding Palette, Pastel Pencils, Black and White Charcoal Pencils, Derwent Inktense Pencils, One stroke Brushes, Liner Brushes, Hake Brushes, Old Bristle Brushes, Water Container and Towel

arches paper

Fifty sheets of Arches 300gsm cold pressed paper – cut, soaked, flattened and drying on the studio floor.

Paper stored for traveling

Transporting watercolor paper over corrugated dirt roads can have disastrous results. Constant vibrations wear through the top surface of the sheets making them useless. Clamping the paper between two sheets of core board stops them moving against one another.

Finished paintings are clamped in the same way to keep them from damage.

WORKSHOP MATERIALS LIST

For people attending workshops, here is a list of materials I use most of the time and the brands I prefer.

PAINT

  • *Ultramarine Blue (Art Spectrum )
  • *Phthalo Blue ( Art Spectrum )
  • *Alizarin Crimson (W & N or Rowney)
  • Burnt Sienna (Rowney or Art Spectrum )
  • *Indian Yellow ( Rowney is the only real transparent one capable of mixing rich darks)       or
  • *Quinacridone Gold (Windsor & Newton) This is more permanent than Indian Yellow but a little less intense
  • *White Gouache
  • Small container of Gesso

Used less frequently : Cobalt Blue, Indigo, Rose Madder

*These are the most important colours.

INK

  • Burnt Siena pigmant ink (Art Spectrum)
  • Plain dip in pen and nib

BRUSHES

  • 1 inch flat Taklon (One Stroke)
  • 1/4 inch flat Taklon (One Stroke)
  • #2 Taklon liner

Neef are a good brand of taklon brush

  • An old 1/2” bristle house painting brush is also a handy thing to have.
  • 2” or 3” Hake brush or wide soft goat hair brush

OLD TOWEL

Handy for adjusting the amount of water in your brush.

PALETTE

The best palette is one with a fair amount of room for mixing and a slopingside on the paint wells. This allows dirty paint to run to the bottom of thewell keeping the fresh paint reasonably clean. For traveling, a small folding palette is best

PASTELS

A mixture of hard and soft pastels, Schwan Stabillo, or conte, pastel pencils and charcoal pencils.

WATER SPRAY BOTTLE

PAPER

I prefer Arches paper, but also like Saunders rough and Cottman (a cheap, heavily sized paper) for quick water colour sketches and demos