Tag Archives: Watercolor

TASMANIA

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What a lot of fun, six weeks of workshops and travel in Tasmania. We had two workshops in Hobart and one traveling from Launceston to Smithton then on to Strahan and finally back to Hobart. We were spoilt with fabulous food, great accommodation, wonderful company and a coach to take us to the numerous painting locations.

We had some great painting locations and also did a lot of sketches.

While in Hobart we traveled down to the village of Franklin – Famous for it’s wooden boats

Beautifully built from Huon Pine

Life on the river

Late afternoon light was amazing.

The old boathouse where wooden boats are built and repaired.

Parked carefully in a shed, this old Suzuki still has a lot of life in it yet.

I cant resist photographing houses painted this crazy green

Strahan Evening

Strahan early in the morning

Hells Gate lighthouse

There are some fantastic old wooden boat sheds, apple sheds and huts south of Hobart – some in better condition than others.

After the workshop Dianne and I drove down to Cockle Creek, the southern tip of Tasmania. Great camping spots, beautiful beaches and inlets.

We were lucky to see this Spotted Quoll out foraging

Great birdlife too.

Tasmania is a great place to travel. It is small and easy to get around, it has a huge variety of attractions. We travelled from the cold dramatic Western Tiers and Highland Lakes down to the sunny comfort of the coast in a couple of hours. The forests of the extreme south are unspoilt and beautiful. Tasmania’s history is dramatic and well preserved, and the state has some of the best food, wine and beer in Australia.

Well worth a visit.

WEST TO WINTON

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A workshop in Blackall and another spread between Longreach and Winton saw us load up the truck and head off to central Queensland for six weeks. The country was incredibly green after all the rain and flooding. Many roads were still closed and venturing off the bitumen was a slippery, muddy exercise.

© John Lovett

Silos on the road to Roma

© John Lovett

This old pub at Wallumbilla looks less than inviting soaked in rain and surrounded by mud, but the local graziers couldn’t be happier.

© John Lovett

Retirement green confusion – Morvan.

© John Lovett

Early morning – Morven waterhole

© John Lovett

Disused railway crane – Morven

© John Lovett

Camping out of Tambo was a little tricky – where there wasn’t grass there was thick, sticky mud.

© John Lovett

Sunrise through a layer of fog, Tambo

© John Lovett

Union Hotel Blackall – still sells cold beer, but not much else

© John Lovett

The weekly cattle sale in Blackall saw some fat’ healthy cattle, happy sellers and not so happy re-stockers.

© John Lovett

Lisa and Bruce, from one of the big sheep stations out of Blackall, invited us out to see the end of the shearing.

© John Lovett

These guys work flat out, fired up by loud, fast music, high demand and and a competitive attitude.

© John Lovett

Shearing their way through several thousand sheep is hard, back breaking work.

© John Lovett

Ancient Technology from the Isisford Picture Theatre.

Drowned caravans camped in the Barcoo River, Isisford. Ignore the locals at your peril.

© John Lovett
© John Lovett

An empty paddock next to the old Langenbaker House in Ilfracombe made a great place to paint

© John Lovett
© John Lovett

DC3 at the Qantas Museum Longreach

© John Lovett

Retired Catalina at the Qantas Museum

© John Lovett

Before the workshop in Winton, Dianne and I went out to the clay pans at Bladensburg to find a painting location

© John Lovett

Willy Mar’s old market garden store, Winton

©John Lovett

We painted Willy Mar’s old truck (now up on blocks next to his old market garden and store.

We spent a morning in the old Bladensburg woolshed painting the ancient wool press.

This was the demonstration painting I did. (Couldn’t help using Phthalo Green!)

©John Lovett

Looking west towards Winton – an unusual sea of lush, green grass

At the Winton Dinosaur Centre, volunteers work tirelessly separating rock from fossil to reconstruct the skeletons of dinosaurs.

©John Lovett

After the Winton workshop Dianne and I headed back out to Bladensburg to camp and watch the sun go down.

©John Lovett

Heading east, we found this lake with amazing sunsets and fantastic birdlife.

©John Lovett

Our camp, just visible from the top of a nearby hill

©John Lovett

Sunset one side, full moon the other.

©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett
©John Lovett

DOWN THE COAST

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With the school holidays over and the weather starting to cool down, it seemed like a good idea to take a couple of weeks exploring all the little beaches and coastal villages to the south of us.

We left home with clear skies and blazing sun, but my wish was for threatening clouds and dramatic light along the beaches – I guess you can’t have everything.

diggers

Perfect camping spot on a sunny headland with kangaroos and sea eagles at Diggers Camp.

redcliff

Sunrise on Redcliff Beach

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DSC01611

Cool, clear mornings and deserted beaches

sea

After a few days zigzagging in and out of all the southern beaches, rainclouds started moving up the coast and the swell picked up.

solisland

Looking towards Solitary Island under threatening skies. Great for photographs – not so good for painting watercolor.

diggersbeach

Painted in haste with a cup of sea water between showers as the tide came in.

tidal shelf

Back home in the studio, shuffling around ideas for a large wet and rainy painting.

WATERCOLOR HAMMERS

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Over the past couple of weeks it has been pouring rain here, so I’ve been having a great time shut away in the studio painting hammers. It all started with the claw hammer and grew from there. Following through on an idea is a great way to build up a series of paintings. It gives you the chance to experiment with techniques, play around with the subject and not be too worried about the outcome. These were all done on paper with various combinations of Charcoal, Gesso, watercolor, gouache, ink and ocher powder.

THIS LITTLE PIG

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Down the road from Chateau de la Fleunie, where we spent the last week of our workshop in France, were two pigs penned up and being fattened by the local farmer. They were like a pair of friendly dogs – running around and getting into as much trouble as possible in their small wire enclosure.

I’ve been looking forward to painting them since we arrived home. They look so pink and meaty – just like bacon running around. They have no idea of hygiene, make amazing grunting sounds and seem really happy locked up in a tiny wire pen. I’m sure they’d make better pets than breakfast.

Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose, Quinacridone Gold, Ultramarine Blue and, in the background, Phthalo Blue. Opaque washes of tinted White Gouache were used to loose the back end and some scratchy white charcoal pencil marks break up the surface.

PAINTING NEW YORK

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The last couple of weeks I’ve been locked in the studio finishing work on a book to be released early next year.

I got started on a couple of urban landscapes based on parts of New York. Early one morning I walked down under Brooklyn bridge. There was a lot of road work going on and huge trailers were lined up along a side street. They appeared to be accommodation for road workers – like a gypsy camp under the bridge. Big sections of road were fenced off and there seemed to be uncoordinated  people and machinery everywhere. So much activity in a city that doesn’t seem to stop, and I’m just rubbing the sleep out of my eyes – that’s where this first painting comes from.

This painting is based on the chaotic textures, bars, buildings and patriotism of East Village. Both paintings are a mix of watercolor, collage, Gouache, Gesso, ink and charcoal, built up in layers like the graffiti that lines many of the city’s walls.