Confirmation

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10 x 14 in  -  25 x 36 cm     Watercolor     I liked this when I started but it grew less and less interesting the more I did.

I think the plan was good, to be very minimal, except I should have done less of the church in the background. It is on hot pressed paper hence the 'smooth feel'.

The ref was taken in Havana Cuba at the end of 2006.

Pallenza Refelection

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14 x 21 in  -  35 x 53 cm     Watercolor     My aim was to capture the strength, intensity and dominance of the dark reflections of the boats. To be honest I don't think I quite did this. My painting lacks the punch of the photograph.

The reference photo was taken just outside town of Pallenza on lake Maggiore, in April this year.

Morning Shadow

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10 x 14 in  -  25 x 36 cm     Watercolor     A two hour challenge to painting. I was trying to get the viewer to see the shadow of the building that is falling on the buildings that we see across the street.

You can see it in the challenge ref that I cropped to concentrate on the shadow.

As you can see I followed the reference tightly perhaps too tightly.

Dedham Hall

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14 x 19 in  -  35 x 49 cm     Watercolor     Dedham Hall is an art and painting course venue in England on the boarder of Essex and Suffolk. John Yardley runs two courses there a year.

I took this ref photo while John was painting the hall last year. The heads in the photo are looking down towards his painting. I thought it was about time I had a go at this reference.

The painting has come out just about as I planned it, which is a good thing. Now that is done I think it's clear that I should either have been lighter on the John Yardley style greens, or stronger on at least the roofs of the building.

When painting this work I was not attempting to do it in a strong John Yardley style although clearly I have been influcenced. For those who are interested here is the painting that JOhn did last year.

Central Park - Experimental

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10 x 14 in  -  25 x 36 cm     Watercolor     I have given this work the 'experimental' designation because once again I did not set out to paint the best looking picture I could from the reference. Instead I set out deliberately to make the greens of the park as extreme as they are and the buildings light and with strangely coloured washes just as they are. So to this extent I actually painted exactly what I wanted to paint.

The reference photo taken a couple of years back from the "Top of the Rock" visitors gallery.

The Breakfast Table - Experimental

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10 x 10 in  -  25 x 25 cm     Watercolor     I tried to approach this in a sort of Charles Reid style. However I had planned to keep, and did keep, more grey's that I think he would. I am sure he would use more colour and then of course would have produced a much better painting.

The ref was taken just over a year ago on the John Yardley course at Dedham Hall.

I have given the painting an "Experimental" designation because it is just that. I was not trying make the best looking painting that I could from the reference, instead I was trying to paint it a particular way in order to see how it would look at the end. So this makes it an experiment.