painting the sea later – later

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 31, 2009 under Art, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

Here is the latest. What do you think? 

Tomorrow will say.  I may leave the foreground unfinished and put some more definition in the middleground rocks.

Big day tomorrow!  Time to snuz.

Ethan and Mia

Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

I have not had a chance to complete my rocky beach scene yet, but here is a watercolour I exhibited with the Hockey painting last year.   They were about all I could produce in a hectic year (apart from an unfinished beach scene with kite surfers, which was still wet when I handed it in).  

Ethan was sick and sleeping in our bed and Mia, who is not usually allowed on the bed, was snoozing with him.

painting the sea later

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 28, 2009 under Art, landscape, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

I have started a new watercolour from the photos I took on my outing to the ocean at Koeel bay today, with Ethan, Sprocket and Mia.  I took a break during Earth Hour in which I fell asleep.  I was just going to do one wash but each time I stood up I saw the next step.  Painting in watercolours is so seductive.  And I am really enjoying listening to the music of Hotel Costes but now I can’t see properly so I MUST go snooze.  Here is the painting so far:

What made me paint this scene is that I noticed the rocks were in bands of colour.  Up the beach they are bleached white, closer to the sea they take on a green tint.  Then they turn dark read (lots of Alizarin C) and then black with white highlights for the shine where they are wet by the waves.   Well that only took me about 15 years to notice – go figure…  Anyway…

‘More is nog ‘n dag’ as they say in the local venacular – tomorrow is another day.

I was a bit dopey today – and busy with kid-stuff – but I managed to do a bit of watercolour.  Check it out:

Each of the rocks has its own character and I am keen to do each one justice without getting stuck in tentative washes and glazes – I find I work best when I am rested and rolling.  I will see if I have a chance to hang up my consulting superhero suit and become just plain swatch this week.

Painting the sea

Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, en plein air, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

I love the coaching and facilitation work I do but sometimes the sessions wring every last bit of enthusiasm from my body and soul.  Then the world takes on a bleak aspect.  This morning I went down to the coast near Koeelbaai with my son Ethan and our dogs.  When we parked we were level with the top of a dense mist and we descended into the cloud.  As we walked the surrounding mountains appeared and faded again in the mist.  I found a beautiful bay where I sat and painted this watercolour.  I was a little distracted by the company.  Ethan was painting next to me and Sprocket the dog hurt his paw.  But it was just so good to be there with them.  At the start of the picture I could see about 500 metres up the coast but the mist evapourated in the sun and by the time I was finished it was a beautiful calm sunny day.   It feels a bit like what happened in my spirit.  So here is the painting:

When we walked up to the car the Ericas in the Fynbos had a heady smell of honey.

Girl at Caves Beach

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 27, 2009 under Art, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

What a day!  What a week!!  A rest, gentle music and watercolours.

mmmm – much better!

Hockey

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 26, 2009 under Art, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour | 6 Comments to Read

Here is a painting I exhibited at our local watercolour group show last year.

I painted this from a picture in our local newspaper because, with some juggling it made a great composition.  This is crying out for an alla prima approach though.  Maybe this weekend.

and here is one more

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 21, 2009 under Art, en plein air, figure, landscape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

I had a good surf and sat and painted the Kogelberg mountains from the Pipe Beach.

A good day!

Saturday morning

Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, en plein air, figure, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

Yesterday was a rough day in my other world.  But there is nothing like a good night of rest and a quiet time on the beach to paint watercolours (even if the waves are really calling).  Here is what I have done:

This family group was standing watching the surfers and as I painted they slowly packed up and left.  

then I sat and painted this girl waiting for her friend who was surfing.   And then I did another one:

you can see how I struggled to get the posture and position of her head right.  She moved very slightly every minute or so.  When I had finished I gave her this painting. 

Then I went up to watch my son playing hockey at Hottentots Holland High School.  As I waited for his match I did this watercolour painting of the one of the spectators and the ref. The tannie was watching her daughter play, with others but she caught my eye and I just had time to capture this before she went off.  

And that is that.  I am hoping to paint later today but we shall see.

Portraits – 'en plein air' – some learnings

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 17, 2009 under Art, en plein air, figure, my work, painting, portrait, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

I woke up this morning thinking about the figures I did on Sunday.  I realised that I had not applied any of the lessons I had read over and over in Charles Reid’s watercolour books.  He offers a set of steps for painting a face and a figure.  And in the rush of it all I forgot them all.  But that is the beauty of learning and time.  For now we get to have another go at it.  And we have the capacity to reflect on the last one.  

And there is nothing like a good nights sleep for seeing the learnings.  Although I must say we have had our first rains and the Clicking Stream Frogs (Strongylopus Greyii) have gathered at our pool and are chorussing as I write.  They have such a sweet subdued clicking sound.  But last night there was a strident little fellow who kept intruding into my dreams.

But I digress…

Here is a painting I did of my daughter Sinead last year, while she was sitting doing her homework:

It is almost completely ‘alla prima’.  I was sitting across the table from her.  So how do I account for the difference between this and the pictures in my last post?  This is what I think:

• I know her well and we were both relaxed about the ‘sitting’.  On Sunday I took my stuff out and started painting so felt about uncomfortable about what the sitters might think (for the first one anyway).
• I had contracted with her to sit.  I felt relaxed about our agreement.
• She had agreed to try to sit still.  My subjects on Sunday all moved around – a lot.  Which is OK.  I want to get better at contour drawing at speed and interpretting changed positions back to what I had drawn.  Claudia the artmodel tells a story about a woman who started drawing her on a train after a long day of modelling for artists.  She graciously held her pose up to the point where she jumped off the train at her station – an interesting vignette.  But most of us move around a lot – even when we try to sit still.
• I had swotted up on the process I would use.  On Sunday I threw all of my learning out the window.  Well not all.  I tried to mix the colours on the page, following Charles Reid’s approach.  I remember my first ever teacher, Nicholas Galloway saying  ”that isn’t how I taught you to do a wash…”  And maybe that is what Charles would have said about my first two faces.  
• I was OK with failure.  I was relaxed about what I would produce.  Well, on Sunday I was too.
• I had a little more time.  Even for my last one on Sunday Neil leapt up towards the end because the sun had moved and he was getting frazzled.  

I can’t wait to have another go at this.

paintings on race day

Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 15, 2009 under Art, en plein air, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

This morning I did an adventure race with Ethan, my 11 year old son.  We were team “Made in China” which I am sure will agree is a great name for a team.  We ran 3kms  and rode 10kms on a fruit farm near Elgin.  I have not run any distance for more than 15 years so it was quite tough for me to keep up with Ethan.  But in the cycle we were more equally matched.  Each leg included a swim of sorts in one of the farm dams – which was lovely and cool and refreshing. 

At the end of the race everyone lounges around on the grass and chats while they hand out prizes to the heroes of the day.  As we sat I did what I have been wanting to do for ages.  I took out my portable set and did some watercolour paintings of the people sitting round in my group.  For the first one I was a bit nervous and did not concentrate on shapes and colours.  And, by the time I had finished the contour drawing everyone had moved.  But I ploughed on, and this is what I did:

OK – nice in places (like the curates egg).

Then I did another of Neil and Marlene who were sitting back to back.  

mmmm – OK.  Then Neil found a comfortable place to sit with his back to a tree and I settled down a little and did this:

This was a lot of fun and I crossed a barrier of sorts.