Stephen J Quirke watercolour blog and online gallery
Posted by Stephen Quirke on May 5, 2013 under Art, Demonstration, Kogelbaai, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 
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Here is my latest version of the demo I am trying to get right – maybe I will achieve this before I die.
This is on Arches Hot Pressed (love that hot pressed surface) 300gm and is 760 x 560 mm – a full sheet.
I was listening to the most beautiful arias as I painted – Carmen Habanera by Bizet is playing right now.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on May 1, 2013 under Kogelbaai, landscape, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 2 Comments to Read
I am so keen to get this right – making each stroke count so as to keep the colours fresh.
Arches 300gm cold pressed 760 x 560 ( a full sheet) this is not finished but should almost be.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on April 28, 2013 under Art, Demonstration, Kogelbaai, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 4 Comments to Read
It has been a while since I have done my “your life in light and colour” talk and I have been keen to get it sorted out again. I have updated my talk, reducing it to 7 points and an introduction and conclusion. And today I gave it a go, producing this painting:
This is on Canson paper which is about 185gm I suppose. It is the first time I have used it and I am not sure if it is even meant for watercolour. The painting is 760x560mm.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on December 23, 2012 under Art, en plein air, figure, Kogelbaai, watercolor, watercolour | 3 Comments to Read
It is Summer solstice and we are cooking down here in the Cape. Last night to celebrate we went with friends to spend a night at Kogelbaai beach. It was all a bit of rush and we were a bit disorganised but it was a beautiful evening. I managed to do a little painting before it got dark and another early this morning before we got going.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 10, 2012 under Art, en plein air, Kogelbaai, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 2 Comments to Read
Yesterday I went out to the rocks I have been painting so often, set up and did a painting on site. It was such a beautiful day. Here is what I painted:
This is on 300gm Arches Cold Pressed – and is 560x380mm.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on April 17, 2012 under Art, Demonstration, Kogelbaai, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment
This morning I did my ‘Light and Colour’ presentation for the Helderberg Sunrise Rotary club. And it really was ‘Sunrise’. The venue was at the clubhouse of the Erinvale golf estate right under the Helderberg mountain. When I arrived the mountain was just starting to get light. What a stunningly beautiful venue. And what a friendly group of people. A great session. A guy called Jim told the group he had a donation of 10 000 shoes from TOMS who donate a pair of shoes for every pair they sell. Jim explained that he had discovered that wearing shoes is not about keeping feet warm as much as it is about being elevated from the dreadful sense that “I will never amount to anything – I can’t even have a pair of shoes” that pervades the poorer communities in the Helderberg Basin.
Anyway I was given 20 minutes to talk and do my painting so I had to motor. I think I went a little over time but they were gracious and allowed me to make my final point. Here is the painting I created this morning:
Taking my presentation from 50 minutes to 20 was a significant shift, and a good one. I refined my delivery. After my first try out I realised I only had time for the bare-essentials. Which is a good feeling. I spent the day yesterday practicing how it would fit together. Here are my versions, from last to first.
All of these are watercolour on Arches 300gm Cold Pressed and are 280×380 mm – except for the first which is 400x380mm.
I was keen to paint more sky. The idea being to show that in Watercolour you get the conditions right and then put the colour on and let it do its own thing, without fiddling. This I sought to compare with teams, where you need to put in place five conditions and then stand back and allow the teams to work out their own way within the framework these five conditions create. However the ‘portrait’ format did not fit the video screen well so I reduced the sky. Mmmm – gotto think of a better solution.
In any case I plan to finish some of these a little more and repost them.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on March 10, 2012 under Demonstration, Kogelbaai, video, watercolour | 5 Comments to Read
Last week Carol sent me an e-mail in which she made it quite clear that no painting since 01 January was just not good enough!!! She completed the note by saying “Don’t make me come over there!” Now just to understand, it would be wonderful to show her and her husband around this side. But I could tell this was a more serious business. heh heh (o:
Well that got me going.
At the same time I decided it was time to market my “life in light and colour” presentation. So I designed a short YouTube video to talk about what I was trying to achieve with the presentation. While I was working I lost my camera in an absent-minded moment. So I had to make a plan. This is the rig I created. I was going to use bubble-gum to complete the jury-rigness but that could have been messy for my android:
Here is the video I created – eventually:
And here are the paintings. Each of these had to fit into a 10 minute video so they were done fast.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on December 12, 2011 under Art, en plein air, Kogelbaai, watercolor, watercolour | Read the First Comment
Posted on 27 November 2010 – I have re-posted this because for some reason I could not open the post.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on August 18, 2011 under Art, Demonstration, Kogelbaai, painting, watercolor, watercolour | 13 Comments to Read
Last night I did another “Team in Light and Colour” watercolour/business demo with the Cape Town SPIN. During the demo I painted this view of Kogelbaai from the rocks on Arches 300gm Rough – 380x560mm.
I am pleased with the way the final version turned out.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on May 22, 2011 under Art, Demonstration, Kogelbaai, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour | 8 Comments to Read
Here is the painting – yep the same scene – I did for the Western Cape Watercolour Group yesterday.
It is on 300g Arches and is 380 x 560 mm (half sheet).
Doing the demo was such fun – what a nice group of people. Thanks to all of the organisers.
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