Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 29, 2010 under Art, en plein air, figure, landscape, painting, seascape, Strand beach, Strand Pipe beach, watercolor, watercolour | 
Ethan and I went down to the pipe this morning after church. He had a surf and I had a chance to stand in the sun and paint. There is not a breath of wind. The guys coming out of the water said the waves were fun although they were smaller than yesterday. People stopped to chat as usual. All in all a great morning.
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 28, 2010 under Art, Drawing, figure, painting, portrait, watercolor, watercolour |
OK so I have been dabbling in facebook. And if you think blogging sucks time out of your day, well, facebook is MUCH worse. much much MUCH worse. But… there is an up side. I have come across some amazing painters, some friendly people and one or two people who clearly have to get over themselves – mmm – delete friend. Anyway not to get too sidetracked…
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 22, 2010 under Art, landscape, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
Doing this in the demo yesterday made me want to do it again – so I tried again this afternoon – but I think I overworked it.
Anyway I am tired now and have a big day tomorrow.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 21, 2010 under Art, landscape, painting, seascape, Strand Pipe beach, watercolor, watercolour |
At the August monthly meeting of the Western Cape Watercolour Group I rashly offered to do a demo, if they needed someone. Cherry, our erstwhile chair, suggested this month would be good. And it was. This afternoon I rushed through the coming storm to the library hall to set up. I had prepared nothing. My idea was to encourage everyone there to go out and paint in the field. Earlier in the week I had taken some photos at the Pipe. I had got there just as the sun was going down so I actually missed the bright son on the mountains but I got enough for a demo. So I pretended we were at The Pipe and I set up my box and pretended the photo on my laptop was my ‘view’. And off we went.
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 17, 2010 under Art, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is the start of a figure in watercolour.
I am not sure when I will get a chance to work on this again – tomorrow is another big day in my other world.
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, en plein air, painting, seascape, Strand Pipe beach, watercolor, watercolour |
There were so many people walking along the beach this evening. I had gone down for a surf but when I saw how crowded the line-up was I decided I did not have the energy for the hassling that happens out there. Also I am still feeling a bit jaded so…
This painting is on a half sheet of 300gm Arches Cold Pressed (280 x 380 mm)
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
It is time to do some more figures. An artist friend of mine has graciously offered to sit for me so I wanted to do some practice before working with her.
Here is quick start from a photo I took of people sitting around after an adventure race.
I am keen to redo this.
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 13, 2010 under Art, en plein air, watercolor, watercolour |
We went through to Stellenbosch to watch a hockey-match. As we had some time I wandered into the town with my family and we had a snack and a drink at Beads which is a cool place to hang-out to watch the world passing by. From where I sat, I looked up Church Street at the old chapel. And I did this painting. This is on Arches 300g cold pressed – a 1/8 sheet (A4 size).
Ethan suggested I give it to our waiter who was a friendly sort of guy – so I did.
Those the oaks lining the road that are all diseased in the town – and waiting to be replaced by some nice indigenous trees – Cape Hollies would be very beautiful.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, en plein air, painting, seascape, Strand Pipe beach, watercolor, watercolour |
That’s Thursday. Donderdag – Thunder day. mmm… I was still not feeling so great so when I took Ethan down for his surf-school I did a painting instead of enjoying a surf. The swell was quite small anyway – though I would not have minded that. I did this on Fabriano rough. It is OK I guess but I was hoping to make more of the texture of the paper.
There were many people walking up and down the beach but I did not try to put them into the painting.
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Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 9, 2010 under Art, en plein air, landscape, painting, seascape, Strand Pipe beach, watercolor, watercolour |
Tonight was a beautiful moody rainy evening in our corner of False Bay. We had a nice strong wind last night so there was a large swell running on the high tide. Just right for a good surf. Only I have been battling with flu today and trying to finish my documentation from last week. I just wanted sea air so I took Calvin down for a surf with his bud. After he left I waited for a light rain to pass then took my stuff down the beach. The mountains changed by the minute, first dark under the clouds and then sparkling in the sunshine. It was magnificent. What a beautiful place to be. Read more of this article »
Ethan and I went down to the pipe this morning after church. He had a surf and I had a chance to stand in the sun and paint. There is not a breath of wind. The guys coming out of the water said the waves were fun although they were smaller than yesterday. People stopped to chat as usual. All in all a great morning.
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