Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 25, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
Helllllooooooo everyone – well – I am back online – its been a week – phew!!
Here is the painting I did at the pipe on Friday evening. I spent too long chatting with Andy at Son Surf area so this was also a bit of a rush again – but it was fun. There was a chilly south-easter blowing – the first of the season I think. But it was still beautiful as ever down there.
I have run out of Arches Cold Pressed and this was done on something else – it could be Bockingford or Saunders – I need to get to my friends at Art Source.
It is a half sheet – 560 x 380 mm
No people this time – but the beach was quite deserted.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 23, 2010 under Art, Family, Strand Pipe beach, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
This is the final painting in the project on the family at the beach. I am thinking of doing another version of this. But this is how it looks now. There was so much colour in the water.
This was done on a quarter sheet of Arches 300gm Cold Pressed (380 x 280 mm)
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, Strand Pipe beach, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is the painting I did from my memory of what I saw a while back at The Pipe – when I looked the other side. I am keen to try this again. There was such a glow.
This is on a half sheet of Arches 300gm Cold Pressed (560 x 380 mm)
Posted by Stephen Quirke on July 19, 2010 under Art, en plein air, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
I love big match Saturdays. The sea is usually deserted. However our Springbok Rugby team played the All Blacks and their ref in the morning (my big match rant – (o: ) . So the sea was packed. But it was a beautiful evening and I had a couple of good waves and chatted with my friend Chris. Then I shot out and got my stuff just in time to do a quick, one-wash painting of the mountains. I caught the last light. The evening was chilly and the paint did not dry at all so I could not put any further glazing. But there it is.
On the sea I had been squinting into the setting sun so did not look in the that direction. But when I packed up my kit I looked around in the direction of table mountain and the golden sky just took my breath away. There was no time to paint it so I remembered the colours and want to paint what I saw.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, Family, Strand Pipe beach, figure, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
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 |
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
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Posted by Stephen on July 2, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
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…
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Posted by Stephen on June 25, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, figure, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
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 |
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.
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Posted by Stephen on June 19, 2010 under Art, Strand Pipe beach, en plein air, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |

The Pipe was flat as a pancake this afternoon – well there were some tiny waves. I took my watercolour stuff down to the beach as two guys went down with surfboards. I asked them if they knew something I didn’t. Well
they said they were really desperate – and I can understand that. As it happened they seemed to have a lot of fun as I heard them whooping and cheering as I got down to much more serious business. ahem!!!
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