Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 31, 2009 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, landscape, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 
This evening I had a quick surf at the pipe while Calvin coached at the Son Surf school. When I got out I had a short time so I grabbed my stuff and rushed down to the dune. As I got my stuff out the school came up a Calvin said he was cold and did not want to hang around. So I had about 10 minutes. The eveving was magnificent with beautiful blues in the water and golden sunshine. There was also a rain sweeping across the bay. So I stuck a sheet on and took out my squirrel hair mop and did this watercolour:
There were two people sitting looking at the sunset in front of me at the beach but I decided not to put them in the painting. They got up to leave as I was packing and I saw that it looked like a mother and daughter. And I thought they needed a reminder of the evening. So I signed the painting, wrote my blog address on the back and gave it to them.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 29, 2009 under Art, boulders beach, figure, landscape, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
When I visited Keith Hornblower’s site last night he had a posting about a watercolour he had done for a commission which was 38 x 38 inches. He spoke about how he stretched the paper and gave some useful tips. I had just bought a sheet off a role which is 38 x 42 inches and was battling to flatten it out and eventually I joined two pieces of marine ply I found in my studio and wet the sheet and stretched it. I pasted it down with brown packing tape (the water glue one) and stapled it down with a staples about an inch or two apart. It all worked OK and was ready this morning. I am going to get a big sheet of marine ply for this for the next one – the join is not a good idea. As Keith agreed, stretching paper is not for me. I find it daunting enough sitting before a new sheet of paper with a loaded brush. Putting all the stretching effort just makes it even more precious.
I drew up my design and prepared for the first wash – here is the sheet waiting with a rare peek into my studio:
I don’t like using masking fluid but masked the figure on the rock out to make the rest easier. I also set up bowls for different colours as I reckoned this would use a LOT of colour. See my squirrel hair mop lying at the ready…
Here is the first wash which I did with the mop:
Mooi ne? I always have the sense that paintings go downhill from here – but this is not necessarily true is it. I would like the sea to have been darker. But I will do the rocks and see what happens next.
Now I have to go out to do looking after stuff – my whole family is down with flu – there have been cases of swine flu in the kids’ schools so we are monitoring – I am not sure why I have been spared this but it is good.
I will put the next steps up as I do them -
Here is the next step. I have tried to do the rocks in a single wash – but I will need to do more work on them. Working this big uses a scary amount of colour – eeek. I was going to do another glaze on the sea but decided not to. I will do another one after this. I have bought a piece of external ply as well as some 22×44 mm pine strips to brace it, some posi-screws, some glue and some varnish. I will do a DIY thingy and stretch another sheet. My family love it when I DIY. They call me ‘Die Nuutsman’ after a TV show where this guy did all these jobs around the house with complete skill and all the right tools – like a dream (A ‘nuutsman’ is a handyman I think). I got the name when I was hammering concrete nails into cornicing. How do they do that? They kept breaking or shooting off to the side. I got a nail almost right and put all my force into a blow (with the necessary expletives) and the hammer carved a massive gouge in the ceiling. I was so frustrated. Then I heard laughing and saw my whole family behind me, enjoying the show. Anyway – that can be another posting.
I have post-last-wash blues and am not sure if this is going anywhere – but I will snuz now and look tomorrow.
OK here is the final bar perhaps some last touch-ups.
I have loaded a bigger format – though hopefully not full size which is 37 x 44 inches.
I have also thought of a number of changes I would like to make in the next one. I suppose this is why people do value sketches:
- I will make the sea colours more bold. The sea is OK in this one but I would like more saturated blues. The bay in the foreground works well as a flat wash. The water is very shallow which accounts for the yellow colour.
- Also the white caps give a sense of perspective. Like clouds, they are closer together nearer the horizon.
- And I want to put in the horizon. It is just above the rock in the distance, that I think is called ‘Roman Rock” though that might be the lighthouse on a rock behind the big boulder in the painting. I thought the horizon would be distracting but I think it will make more sense.
- I also want to make the distant rock bigger and bring it lower in the frame.
- The small rocks in the left foreground are too small and I want to increase their size and get them to contribute more to the composition
I am also thinking of cropping the work – what do you think of this:
or this
But before I can do the next one I need to transform my workspace from studio to carpenter shop.
I have been looking at this watercolour in my studio for a couple of days and it has been crying out for some more work. And today I had a short time to do what was needed. So this is how it looks now.
I have almost completed my new stretching board – it is lying under a pile of rocks for a final gluing. I hope to be able to give it a coat of varnish tomorrow and then I want to go through to Cathy in Observatory (where they have a roll of Arches) and get another big sheet for another shot at this. I will take some photos of my board to show on this site as, for me anyway, it is a massive achievement and a work of craft if not art.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
I have been wanting to try this for a while now, having seen the banner on Keith’s blog. Last night I went to look and found he had put the whole painting on which I found breath-taking. Sorry about the oohs and aaahs Keith but it was inspiring.
Here is my first wash:
And here is how it looks now:
This is showing promise and I may fiddle a bit more to work out how I will do the next version. I am sure I can get further with the first wash. The colours made such lekker patterns in the paper.
It is good to see it here – man this looks dramatic – though not quite what I am aiming for. The dark at the top is supposed to be a cliff face with patches of snow and there are rocks in front of the cave with a snow-bank in the foreground. There are grassy plants sticking out of the snow which I could do better. But the glow works hey? I have used a warm yellow and purple (from the other side of the colour wheel and Windsor blue with a green shade which should be opposite the warmer yellow and I added some cadmium red to the blue to create darks. I am going to read a bit more of Jeanne Dobie on darks and glow.
OK – here is how it looks now – I think this is pretty much it for this version. I have put in some hikers and more darks. I had a look at Keith’s flowers and I see he is not scared to pour on the darks.
Any input on how I could do it better would be appreciated here. The snow-slope in the foreground is irredemable I think – or at least I don’t have the energy to fiddle with it any longer – that clump of grass is rather pathetic – the rest is OK for me:L
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 27, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is the final version – I was keen to put in the texture of the foreground and link the crest of the rise to the distant moutains – anything more I fear will be fiddling.
click to see the big view – I am not sure if this is such a good idea – it may be too large for download time – please let me know. Thanks hey
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 26, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Well here we go – I think the rocky area in the middle distance reads better. This is where the plateau of the shale band falls away, down various krantzes and kloofs to the valley below. I am still not sure about the slope in the foreground – I am not keen to put a whole lot of detail in there but it needs something…
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, Devil's Peak, en plein air, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Last night I started another view up the shale band but could not finish this morning as we all went off to Cape Town to support Calvin in a hockey tournament. I had a chance to do a quick watercolour of Devils Peak from the grounds before the game started. This is another place to which I would like to return.
We had a chance to grab a bite before he had his next game at Hartleyvale, down the road. I had a chance to paint the same mountain again from a field near where he was going to play.
This peak is called ‘Devil’s Peak’ because of the mist that sometimes covers the mountain. There is a story of a Dutch fellow called Van Hunks who used to sit on the slopes and smoke a pipe. One day as he was puffing a particularly fine cloud of smoke the devil appeared and challenged him to a smoking contest. Van Hunks took up the challenge and beat the devil which is a fine achievement except for the fact that he was never seen again. The ‘ou mense’ (old people) used to say ‘it is Van Hunks again’ when the mountain was covered in cloud.
These were quite fun though my energy is still on ‘low’ for some reason.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 25, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Well here is the latest from the studio of desultory and pedestrian painting – I can see how I will work next time though:
The idea really was to collect data in the field and work up great paintings in the studio – mmmm – I will give this another go
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 20, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, Drawing, en plein air, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
It was so pleasant to sleep in the cave. During the night something shot out of the rocks into my back and off into the rocks again. A little mouse. I thought these things were supposed to hibernate or something. Later another sped around the back of the cave. I have been troubled by bushy tailed rats before, who can be really persistent in looking through packs for food. But this time I had put all of my food in a bag hanging from a flake in the roof of the cave (me 1: mice 0).
The morning broke clear, with a fresh easterly wind (which did not suggest bad weather). So I got up and painted this watercolour, a morning view of the same scene from the previous night:
mmm – OK – a useful record for a studio version maybe.
Then, just because it was so nice up there I dawdled as I drank some tea and did a watercolour of my cooker:
Then I packed up and headed out. I had a pile of pumpernickle bread that I decided not to carry down and left for the mice.
On the way down I paused on the Shale Band, when I found three oranges I had carried up and certainly did not want to carry a step further. So I sat and painted this view – similar to the one of the previous day:
And then I walked down the final ravine to the car.
There was a final river to cross and on the road up the oak trees I saw baboon prints in the sand. I had walked into a troup the previous day, on the way up but they had given way. But this I knew was NOT a good sign. And sure enough – they had been all over my car – maybe they could smell the remaining food inside – but they had broken off my radio antennae and carried it off – I could not find it anywhere.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 19, 2009 under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Tonight I took the boys down for a surf. I chose not to go in and decided to sit and paint where I sat the last time. It was a beautiful sunny still afternoon. I sketched the mountains and began to paint but soon got into trouble. The light was changing very fast so that every time I looked up there was a different picture. Then I made a mess and dumped my first attempt:
Now that I look at it I think it was going somewhere but I decided to tape a fresh page and start again.
I got this far:
Then a friend of mine came up to chat. And she told me an interesting story. She had been on the farm Driehoek (Drie is three and hoek is a corner = triangle) which is just down the valley from where I had spent my first night in the Cedarberg. And she told me that Cape Nature Conservation had caught a leopard that had caught some turkeys and a goat, and had released it in the Welbedacht ravine on the afternoon before I arrived. Interesting how the connections happen hey? Anyway – as a result I did not finish the second painting although it was just getting interesting.
Tonight I took the boys down for a surf. I chose not to go in and decided to sit and paint where I sat the last time. It was a beautiful sunny still afternoon. I sketched the mountains and began to paint but soon got into trouble. The light was changing very fast so that every time I looked up there was a different picture. Then I made a mess and dumped my first attempt:
Now that I look at it I think it was going somewhere but I decided to tape a fresh page and start again. The splatters are from the second effort – this was lying next to me on the beach.
I got this far:
Then a friend of mine came up to chat. And she told me an interesting story. She had been on the farm Driehoek (Drie is three and hoek is a corner = triangle) which is just down the valley from where I had spent my first night in the Cedarberg. And she told me that Cape Nature Conservation had caught a leopard that had caught some turkeys and a goat, and had released it in the Welbedacht ravine on the afternoon before I arrived. Interesting how the connections happen hey? Anyway – as a result I did not finish the second painting although it was just getting interesting.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, Cedarberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is a watercolour of the view from the parking place in Welbedacht, that I did in my studio. I am not sure about this and will look at it as I work this week. I think the mountains could have been darker and perhaps the foreground. It shows the big Oak trees that grow there, all standing without leaves:
This was done on a half sheet of Arches (22 x 15). I think it needs some darks in the foreground.
On the way in, the bridge over the Olifants River was under water and I had to detour through Clanwilliam. So I arrived in the dark. I stopped under the Oaks and got a stove going with some bolognaise sauce and rice while I put up a tent. Except – no pegs and no poles. OK organisation is not my strongest suite. So I laid out the tent with a gaper (closed cell foam) pad and threw the fly sheet over my sleeping bag and lay looking at the stars through the branches. The place is far from any lights so the stars were stunning. I dozed off and woke later feeling cold so I zipped up carefully and pulled the hood over my head. But I could feel it was chilly. At about 03:00 I heard a leopard in the valley. They make a kind of sawing sound. It grumbled once more then was silent. Hey this is a free country, even though I was probably in his territory. At about 04:00 the moon rose over the mountains. I lay awake and saw some shooting stars. Just before dawn Orion’s belt rose. I woke at about six to find the higher peaks around me covered in snow. There was a thin sheet of ice on my fly sheet and the grass was white with frost.
After painting the watercolour in the previous post I packed my sack and walked up the Welbedacht ravine. There is a fair cave near the top of the ravine which I had thought of walking up to in the dark but I was glad I had not.
The top of the ravine emerges on the Shale Band that runs through the mountains here. This band has created a wide grassy band through which the locals have put a jeep track which makes great hiking territory. I sat at the top of the gorge and painted a watercolour of the view down the shale band. I was preoccupied with time a little and whether I should continue up to the cave at the Spout of return to the car. But here it is:
There were two more climbs to the cave and I finished at about half past one and reached the next plateau by about two. I sat looking up at the Tafelberg and the Spout and did the following watercolour.
Cedarberg mountains are fold mountains composed of quartzites (of the Table Mountain Group I think) the rocks are blocky and I need to develop a technique to capture them in watercolour. There are beautiful facets on the spout some of which caught the sun – definitely food for some practice. Also, the slopes were covered with snow which I tried to show with dry-brush – must think about this too. I met a party of three guys who had tried to climb to the top of Tafelberg (Tafel is a table and berg is a mountain) but they said the rocks were covered with frozen melt water so they were on their way down.
I then made my way up to the cave.
The cave is deep and climbers and hikers have built walls inside to section it off and provide shelter. But the day was calm and the afternoon sun poured into the cave. Lovely and warm. I melted a pot of snow with my stove and made a lekker cup of rooibos tea with soya milk and honey – mmmm! Then I sat on the ledge and painted this watercolour of the valley to the West.
OK not the best ever but there was a lot of detail in all the mountains and I was getting pretty cold sitting out there. I retreated to the cave and sat in the last sun making some rice and sauce. I set up my sleeping site at the back of the cave. One of the things I love about outings like this is I get to climb into bed at sunset. I lay reading by the light of a gas lamp and listening to the wind picking up outside and the icicles breaking off the cliffs outside and crashing into the rocks. It was warm and calm inside and I dropped off for a good snuz.
I will put the rest of the paintings in another posting. I am keen to paint the shale band from the sketches and photos I took.
