Watercolour Painting of Henrietta Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Well, here I am again, after a long absence, determined to stick some sort of a blog on my blog...

I've just started on a piece - here's the source photo I'm using. I took the photo myself, last October - a figure or two in the image would have been handy for me to use later as a guide, in case I decide to place some figures of my own in the piece - dropping believable figures into a piece like this, with it's somewhat complex perspective may not be easy, particularly if they are partially beyond the 'horizon' created by the road in the foreground...
But it was fairly early when I snapped this shot, and there weren't many people about, and anyway, some people really don't take kindly to seeing someone standing around with a camera apparently waiting for them to step into view before pressing the shutter... 

              

And here's the drawing, a small piece, about 7" x 10", on Saunders Waterford Paper, 300 gsm CP.  It's nothing too elaborate - I just like to get things generally sorted so that I can see if I like how it's looking. If a fairly accurate drawing of an actual scene isn't working out compositionally, then I have two choices - I can take issue with myself for wasting time already spent on the venture, and tear it up.... or.... I can change elements within the piece so that it does present what I feel to be a pleasing composition. We have to be ruthless in this. For myself, I have no concern about changing whatever it needs - adding, deleting, moving whatever, without conscience - I am trying to produce a painting, not a catalogue of 'stuff', for that there's cameras. If need be go ahead and move, add, or delete mountains, or the sun, houses, chimneys, camels, trees, windows, grandma, flowers, etc., Just don't try to change the way light works..... 

Anyway, I must press on.... this drawing is, I feel, okay....ish. It's generally believable, I still have the option to change some elements during it's execution, if needed...

My next big move is to decide whether, or not, to use pen and ink in this piece. To that end, I shall make a cuppa.....

I shall be back... presently...



                          

New Painting, of Westgate in Wakefield... and Tempus edam rerun... and all that... 

Been a bit tardy updating my websites, never enough time, is there? Little inconsiderate of me, particularly when I see that people keep dropping in.....

I'm coming to the end of my season down at Art in the Park here in Stratford, was an enjoyable time, mostly ... and I did pretty well on sales.... met a lotta very nice people from all over the planet, had some great chats...

Unfortunately I've not had much time to paint this summer, been tied up with the Park which involves framing and re-framing pieces, printing cards, getting up at 3 am. to go down to the Park to mark my spot for the coming day, then riding back home on my bike (Dolores) in the dark... I've no lights on Dolores, we don't go for all that bling, and the local constabulary don't seem too concerned...

Gotta dash, off to Kitchener for some art supplies - I've started giving the odd painting lesson, and am considering upping the number of students ( not sure about that term, students, makes me feel a mite pretentious, which we all know I'm not, on account of my humility...)

This piece came out of a session last week, it was a demonstration which I did quickly.... 

and I shall have to come back to tell you more... I really hafta dash...

Hill, Staithes, North Yorkshire 021814

Watercolour, 4.5" x 8" on Arches 300 gsm HP paper.

Not the first time I've painted this view...

Not too much fine detail this time ... just going for the larger areas' shapes, tonal values and colours... so don't you be going and blowing it up too large, now...

Somewhere in Yorkshire, where the mole-catcher had passed by... Watercolour 020714

Somewhere in Yorkshire, where the mole-catcher had passed by... Watercolour 020714, a photo by Vyvyan Green on Flickr.

Watercolour, 5" x 8" on Arches 300gsm hot-pressed.

This from a photo I took 'somewhere' in 2009 - when I first posted this piece I couldn't recall the exact location, hence the vague title... since then, with the aid of my sisters Penny and Jennifer, and of Roy and of Mr Google (Ernest would've been in there too, but he was napping), I have learned that it's about a mile, as the proverbial crow flies, from Semer Water in the Yorkshire Dales.

Just a small piece, with a couple of flicks of gouache, and with a touch of pen and ink for the finer detailing... done quickly, sketch-style...

The mole-catcher connection? On my left as I took this photo is a barbed-wire fence from which dangled a typical row of dead moles, - left there by the mole-catcher to tell any passers-by that he has been busily and effectively plying his trade nearby...

Lamppost and cottages beside Staithes Beck: 110713

King Street, Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire, 110313 .

Watercolour and pen and ink, 7" x 10" on Bockingford 425gsm paper.

South Lane, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire: 102713

Watercolour 6" x 8" on Arches Hot Press, 300gsm..

I was first introduced to this fantastic view of South Lane whilst trolling through Flicker some 3 or 4 years ago - I came across some really good photos at that time, and learned that the shot was actually taken from Victoria Park, quite some ways away...
My next trip to the UK found me in the said Park armed with my camera, and ready to get some good images for my source library.
Alas, not being too familiar with Holmfirth, other than the main drags (and various drinking establishments thereabouts), I found myself surprisingly far from my intended subject and lacking both a tripod (again) and a telephoto lens of sufficient magnification to get myself a really good shot...
Anyway, I did my best - that was on April 7th of last year... and here's the first painting...

Staithes Beck 102213

Staithes Beck 102213, a photo by Vyvyan Green on Flickr.


Watercolour 7" x 10" on Arches hot press 300gsm...

I think this needs... something... perhaps people, perhaps boats, perhaps cropping on the left to present a square format..... 

The light in my apartment is abysmal, from a painting point of view... I'm not making excuses for my work, - I just like to complain about something every now and then...

Watercolour 4" x 6" on Arches Hot press paper 300gsm.

4" x 6"... a rather small piece which I did one evening last week. I was half way through doing the drawing before I realised how small the image was... so I thought upon starting again, and decided I simply couldn't be bothered, and so I plodded on. 

I can be disgustingly lazy at times...

West Burton, North Yorkshire - 151013

Watercolour 7" x 10", on Bockingford paper, 425gsm.

Summer's almost done - I had an enjoyable time at Art in the Park here in Stratford, and that's done too, at least until next year... 

So it's time to get back into some painting again, not had much time in the last few months ....

This is today's piece... a view I've painted before ...I had intended to use pen and ink on this one, but decided against it once I saw how it was developing, ...  I will do that painting another time..

And... I might stick a figure or two in there somewhere when I eventually come to tweak it... not too easy to decide where to put them without them becoming the centre of attention... I shall ponder on it, but not today...

Townscape 011513

Townscape 011513, a photo by Vyvyan Green on Flickr.

Townscape 011513

Not what I set off to do ... I switched horses several times along the way... and I thoroughly enjoyed it - changing stuff, banging some colour on, pushing it around - when it comes to painting I try to remember it's sometimes about the journey, not arriving...

Watercolour with pen and ink and gouache glazing and highlights - 5" x 7" on Bockingford 425gsm paper

Trees in Coxley Woods, Horbury, West Yorkshire. Watercolour:

Beside the seaside.

Well, I guess that's it....

I had considered putting in a figure or two on the hill, I decided against it, they may have become the focus of the piece, not what I wanted...

Beside the seaside, watercolour in progress....

I'm still not too sure where I'm going with this one, changed horses in mid-stream, which is okay,..... and I should sign off at that before I start sliding into a whole raft of metaphores......... as I did there..

I'll be back on this one

Watercolour 7 x 5, with pen and ink on gesso-primed 200lb Bockingford paper

Beside Inglis Falls, Owen Sound, Ontario.

Here's number two that I foretold yesterday ...

As always, I was on it too long...

Wish I'd done it bigger.....

Watercolour 7" x 5" on gesso-primed Bockingford 200lb paper

Inglis Falls, Owen Sound, Ontario. #1

Ingliss Falls, Owen Sound, Ontario. #1, a photo by Vyvyan Green on Flickr.

Inglis Falls, Owen Sound, Ontario. #1

I started this small study last night, it's the first in a series I intend to do of this place, a series of..... well, two at least - I'm always full of good intentions....

I haven't been here for about ten years and more, when a friend and I dropped in on the drive up to Tobermory. I recall the salmon were running that week, they were everywhere we went, or so it seemed, laying around in great lumps, resting between waterfalls.....
I took lots of photos that week ....... and can't find one of them anywhere right now. This I painted from a photo taken more recently by my friend Eric Norcross, - thank you, Eric.

Watercolour 7" x 5" on Gesso-primed Bockingford 200lb paper

Friday's piece.... finished at last....

I started this one on friday, it's a small practice piece, that I decided to do on gessoed paper which, amongst other things, allows for easy lifting of colour, a technique which I love, and use an awful lot..... some of my artist friends, watercolourists, often 'loosen up' by doing small pieces on various supports (canvas, paper, masonite) that have been gessoed prior to starting on a bigger piece on paper. The gessoed surface allows for a level of manipulation, experimentation and reworking that cannot be achieved so easily on paper, and some fantastic results can be achieved - and if it doesn't work out, stick it under the tap, rinse away the paint, dry it, and off you go again... Often, in my mind, the practice pieces are better than the main work...
The building shown at centre is sort of ...well, it's stolen from Robin Hood's Bay and hacked about a bit, everything else I made up as I went along, and is pure Vyv Green....

It's likely I shall be doing some more of these over the next few days - seeing that I have a full sheet of paper gessoed up and cut up and sitting there...... perhaps then, if the muse appears, I might consider doing a bigger piece.... long overdue....

Watercolour, pen and ink with gouache hi-lights on gessoed 200lb Bockingford paper... 5" x 7"

Staithes Beck by night:

Staithes Beck by night:, a photo by Vyvyan Green on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
There's much wrong with this piece, it's overworked and too much played-about with........ I've taken the paper as far as it'll go, working it any more would really not be a good Idea.....
Yet I'm loathe to dump it, as I feel it has one or two redeeming qualities...

Watercolour 5" x 9" on Bockingford 200lb paper

Catching up....

I've been neglecting this site.......sorry,  been busy with 'stuff' for...... Oops! almost a year, it appears... my apologies, I will get on it...

Now that winter is coming, I'll  have lotsa time... for catching up on ... more stuff...

Weatherman starting to drop the 'snow' word of late, ...... stores full of christmas stuff..... van needs a brake job.....

Actually the van really needs setting fire to.....

Finished......Trees beside the Ure, Aysgarth, Yorkshire Dales.

Something of a change, eh?

I have a bad habit when I have 'completed' a painting, of looking and seeing another 'better' piece within it, or deciding that there are more things I might add to it..... so enthusiastically I go ahead and change it, totally, and generally destroy what had likely been a good piece. Those of you out there familiar with the practicalities of working in watercolour are well aware that even the best of papers will take only a certain amount of abuse before giving up. So I often end up with no painting to show for my efforts, and the despair of having ruined a good piece.
This is a ludicrous thing to do and this man is an utter fool you are no doubt thinking.
But I don't paint with the intent of producing a vast inventory of pieces to stick on a wall, I paint with the intent of becoming a better painter.
More on this topic later...

Trees beside the Ure, Aysgarth, Yorkshire Dales.  2010
Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 20"

Painting in progress... Trees beside the Ure, Aysgarth, Yorkshire Dales.

Bad photo,........ taken in artificial light..... acrylic on canvas
I'm fairly happy with the composition, but.... but... a little washed out, needs separation, or unifying....needs some, some - umph!
Back to it...

For those who would like some exciting news....

well, sorry, but as I've been so busy of late, I don't really have any.
But I guess I should put something in my blog, now that I've installed it, and I'm itching to try uploading an image...
Whilst not exactly earth-shattering or even up to date - here's me last year at Aysgarth Falls in the Yorkshire Dales.........

To begin at the beginning... Sept: 08:2010

Well, I've finally finished working on the new website  at <vyvyangreenwatercolours.ca> , it has been an Herculean task coming thus far.
I thought it best to get it posted up, before I went totally balmy from the effort, and before I took an axe to my computer - I am not, despite my totally fantastic coolness, what the 'now' people refer to as a.... 'techie'.