My thoughts today are very much with friends and the people
of the country that I love so much.
Italy on my mind
landscape painting
journey’s end
landscape from the immagination 31.7.16
So here we are at the end of July, the last day of World Watercolor Month, and the end of my journey through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination. As a finale I thought I would revisit one of the images you may remember from my post, “encapsulating the essence,” a drawing of the Sino Himalayan Garden at VanDusen Botanical Gardens here in Vancouver.
I made a monochrome print on Arches watercolor paper (11″ x 15″); took this to the studio;
mixed my bowls of color and let the washes do their work.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 31
I wonder what August will bring…
a mini retrospective
“A studio is not only a place, it’s a state of mind” Tony Smibert
On July 1st I set out to work my way through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, and as those of you who followed my progress know, yesterday I completed the project that I had set myself. July was also World Watercolor Month thanks to Charlie O’Shields, so this was the perfect fit.
It’s always fun to look back sometimes so I thought today I would give myself a little
mini retrospective for the month of July.
My thanks to Charlie and to all of you who joined me on the journey, and of course a big shout out and thank you to the great Australian artist Tony Smibert whose books are a source of such great inspiration to so many.
Tony dedicated his book to his two children, so I would like to dedicate my “retrospective” to my beautiful granddaughter who is really the greatest inspiration of all.
“become an original”
landscape from the imagination 29.7.17
Having worked my way through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination throughout this past month here is the final paragraph of the book, which will explain the origin of today’s painting, my “original” variation on the book’s last exercise.
“I hope this book has encouraged you. There’s room in the watercolour world for you to take any technical and aesthetic direction you choose. So become an original! Work with the medium in your own way. Adapt, absorb, modify and utilize my suggestions or anyone else’s in any way that works for you!Great final words in an inspiring book from which I have learnt so much.
Thank you Tony.
simple is best 2
Evening Light II 28.7.16
Back to the drawing board today with a second visit to the third and final exercise
in Tony Smibert’s book Painting Landscapes from your Imagination.
simple is best
Evening Light 27.7.16
“Here’s an opportunity to apply some of the most traditional watercolour techniques
to painting a valley landscape suffused with warm evening light.”
This is Tony Smibert’s introduction to the third and final Project of Part IV in his
Painting Landscapes from your Imagination.
I decided to stop at this point even though the exercise had a number of further components to it. I liked the lightness of the painting, which reminds me of the wonderful vistas we experienced a couple of years ago in the Land of Enchantment that is New Mexico. I also was thinking of Tony’s words later on in his introduction:
“I think I could (maybe should) have stopped a number of times when the painting was working well…
because I do believe that simple is best.”
Stay tuned as I’ll finish Tony’s exercise, and his book, with another painting tomorrow and keep this one as it is, i.e. sometimes the best advice is to quit while you’re ahead.
prepare six dishes
Rising Mist 23.07.16 In Progress
The last section, Part IV, of Tony Smibert’s book Painting Landscapes from you Imagination, which I began working through at the beginning of the month, is titled: The Projects, of which there are three, and today I began the first – Rising Mist.
“The palette. You’ll need to have all your colors ready to go,” writes Tony.
Prepare six dishes of the following colors: Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Hooker’s Green, Lamp Black. The last dish will contain your gray made from Phthalo Blue and Light Red.”
“The color notes are a way of planning before you begin”
to be continued…
Although I was working in my studio in Vancouver my thoughts were many thousands of miles away with the people of Kabul where so many lost their lives or were injured in yet another terrorist crime against humanity today. I may be painting and trying to bring color and joy into the world but I want you to know that my heart breaks with each and every one of these terrible events that our world is experiencing with a too unbearable regularity.
a sky with a message
I painted this last July though never posted it. Realizing that the colors of the German flag are very much in evidence in the dramatic sky, this watercolor is one way for me to express to those in Germany that my thoughts are very much with them today.
voyage of discovery
“Watercolor is a voyage of discovery and, as corny as it may sound, the most satisfactory results are often achieved by taking what comes – not only in terms of painting technique,
but also in terms of your individual creative energy”
Tony Smibert from Chapter 11: Idea Starters, in Painting Landscapes from your Imagination.
Back in the studio after a wonderful weekend with our beautiful granddaughter, Tony Smibert’s exercise today was all about creating an original landscape from random blots. The blots were first created using crumpled plastic wrap painted with a wash of paynes gray and indigo pressed gently onto the paper.
Land forms magically appeared from the blots which were further developed with different coloured transparent washes. Finally, “dry-brush” work created the effect of rapids flowing through the imagined valley and the rock faces darkened to provide distance and depth.
Welcome to my Monday “voyage of discovery”
Worldwatercolormonth Day 18
the right road
This week’s Discover Challenge from WordPress “brings out the positive: tell us about a piece of advice you’ve received — and would like to share with others.”
Tony suggests making small loose drawings and washes as notes, and not to worry about the consequences. Some are very abstract but some became quite specific and more detailed as they developed, as you can see. Each was intended to convey the sense of a fork in the road with a choice of direction between the light and the dark.
The Right Road 14.7.16
When I was a young boy my beloved grandfather said to me:
” In life Andrew there are always two roads, the right road and the wrong road.
Make sure you always choose the right one.”
His advice has stayed with me all of my life and echoed in my mind over the years whenever an important decision has needed to be made or a life-changing direction to be followed. It has been the best advice a young boy could have ever have hoped.
To complement this week’s Discover Challenge, and particularly as this month I am working through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, and also painting as part of Worldwatercolormonth, I thought I would continue the exercises of Chapter 8 in the book with imagined images that reflect the spirit of my grandfather’s advice to me.
Tony suggests making small loose drawings and washes as notes, and not to worry about the consequences. Some are very abstract but some became quite specific and more detailed as they developed, as you can see. Each was intended to convey the sense of a fork in the road with a choice of direction between the light and the dark.
This last image is perhaps the darkest of all and reflects what might have been.
Dedicated to the memory of my wonderful grandpa from his grandson,
now a besotted grandpa himself.
thechangingpalette 