Stephen J Quirke watercolour blog and online gallery
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 19, 2010 under Art, Family, Strand Pipe beach, figure, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 
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I took a couple of photos of the old-folks with the family at The Pipe and created this watercolour on Saturday. As you can see Ma is carrying the little guys wet clothes as well as everyone else’s shoes. I love this. Isn’t this just what mothers do?
This painting is on a quarter sheet of Arches 300gm Cold Pressed (380 x 280 mm)
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 15, 2010 under Art, Family, Strand Pipe beach, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 7 Comments to Read
Last night I started another Beach Family watercolour. I am off now to do some work in my other life and hope to be able to do the next part of this painting tonight. We have real winter weather now with cold rain and, I am certain, snow on the mountains. My studio is icy. But I wrap up and this is such a fun project.
So… A presto
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 14, 2010 under Art, Family, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, watercolor, watercolour | 2 Comments to Read
Last week I had a great surf with my boys and stole a few minutes after we had packed up to take some photos of the closing day. There was a family playing on the beach and I took some shots to paint in the studio. Here is the first watercolour:
This is painted on a quarter sheet of Arches 300gm cold pressed (280 x 380mm).
Posted by Stephen on July 2, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 3 Comments to Read
heh heh – well I hoped that it would have made something more pronounceable. But it was really was just another evening at The Pipe (Friday). Well no – I had two magnificent waves. Wunderbar actually. When this happens I get just an inkling of why people kick their day jobs to surf. Man!
Anyway…
Posted by Stephen on June 25, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 10 Comments to Read
This is more or less what I want to do – from a photo.
Posted by Stephen on under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 2 Comments to Read
It has been a very strange day in the Cape Flats. It was bright and sunny at dawn but low cloud moved in and hung around all day. I had a meeting in Cape Town and had time for a 20 minute surf at the Pipe which was brilliant. The waves had this beautiful shape and the sea was glassy. And in the thick mist I could not see the shore at all. A bit disorientating really. All too soon I had to rush up the beach wash my hair in the cold shower (I usually rinse off with my wetsuit ON in winter) and roar off through the traffic completing my dressing process.
Posted by Stephen on June 4, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, figure, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 8 Comments to Read
Here is a watercolour I did from the painting I did on the beach and from memory – kind of the way it should be hey?
Still not what I wanted but – another step in the journey…
phew – long day – time to kip
Posted by Stephen on under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 2 Comments to Read
This is Wayne. I went down to the sea today to paint the waves, following a suggestion by K. There are no poles to create an interesting foreground – BUT – there was someone fishing from the shore which I thought would be a worthy change. As I set up my stand he noticed me and turned to watch. When he saw I was sketching he stood still with a smile on his face and his rod in the crook of his arm. What an excellent model. I motioned with a thumbs-up and he nodded.
I completed the main part of the painting and he came up to chat with me and his mates, who had watched the watercolour start. He told me he fishes at The Pipe in the North-West wind though he had not caught anything that day. He said he catches kabeljou and steenbras (both of which are lekker to eat) amongst others. I offered him the painting but had to bring it home to photograph it to post here – so we arranged that I would leave it at the Orange Cafe over the road to Duckies.
And here is the painting:
it is painted on Arches cold pressed – 28x38mm
Posted by Stephen on March 5, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment
This was fun. Someone has taken away another one of the poles at the entrance to the Pipe Beach so I didn’t feel like painting the usual scene. Also I had some reading to do so I decided to paint some of the people.
This mother was waiting with her daughter for her son who was also in the surf school:
This chap was standing with a towel round his waist, chatting with friends:
And these kids were playing in the sand:
while their mother checked her cellphone messages:
I am getting going on the research project I have to do for my studies and had brought some reading. I packed my stuff away and took out some reading. Then this old couple came striding past, further away down the beach and I could not resist trying to capture them too:
And that was that.
I am going to have to plough much of my time into my studies for the next while but want to get in some painting, for balance (or at least the illusion of a balance).
Posted by Stephen on February 20, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment
There was not a breath of wind this morning at the pipe. The sea was almost glassy and there were some good sets coming in earlier. After a while all the waves seemed to disappear so I came out and did this painting:
By the time I had finished there were many people lying on the beach, closer to the sea so I went down and did these two watercolours.
Why don’t they sit still? By the time this was done everyone was out of the painting!
This woman was chatting with a friend standing next to her which would have made a great composition but then her friend wandered off to the water. And I ran out of time to finish all of their stuff lying around.
