Category Archives: painting holiday

David Bellamy – Painting in hot weather

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We’ve had intense heat here in Wales now for weeks, and the landscape is starting to resemble a desert in places. For the landscape artist it’s an interesting time, and strangely our skies have not been entirely blue and cloudless – in fact the cloudscapes have been fascinating and worth sketching in their own right. Here are a few tips for working outside on hot days:

  • Get up at 6am and be out there sketching and painting by 7am while it’s still cool;
  • Try to keep the paper out of direct sunlight as it hurts the eyes and affects tonal values;
  • Use plenty of water, both in your washes and to drink!
  • Watch that suncream as it can act as a resist to watercolours;
  • In case you don’t find any shade take along a sun-shade or umbrella;
  • Make the most of those lovely cast shadows, and they will be at their best at 7 am!
The Patchings Art festival takes place from Thursday 12th to Sunday 15th, and we will be there on the first three days. I shall be demonstrating in the St Cuthberts Mill marquee on their marvellous Saunders Waterford paper. We also have a stand in the art materials marquee, so do come along and have a chat. The festival is incredibly popular and is just about the best day out in the country for the aspiring artist.
I have just dropped a number of paintings in to the Ardent Gallery in the High Street, Brecon. If you are in the area do pop in and have a look around as they have some lovely work on display. Their telephone number is 01874 623333. The watercolour of Cottage on Mynydd Dinas (see below) is one on display.
 
The brooding sky and background moorland ridge throws the emphasis firmly onto the sunlight cottage forming the centre of interest. Note how I have slightly darkened the lower part of the cottage roof in order to make it stand out against the stark white of the front wall. Sadly, there are not many of these traditional old Pembrokeshire cottages remaining now.
We are taking a group of painters to Ronda in Spain during September, and the painting holiday booked up very quickly. Unfortunately two people have had to drop out because of illness, so if you fancy coming along you will be very welcome. Details of the painting holiday are at http://www.davidbellamy.co.uk/painting-holiday-to-andalucia-september-2018/  It is organised by West Norfolk Arts who do a really superb job of organising these holidays for us, and they appear to know every shady spot around the Mediterranean!

David Bellamy – Creating an illustrated journal

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One of my great enjoyments is keeping an illustrated journal, although because of a lack of time it tends to be rather intermittent – it’s just so stress-free to paint or sketch for yourself and add notes about your experiences, and this is especially rewarding on a holiday or journey. I am therefore pleased to announce that I have teamed up with Leisure Painter Magazine over the next six months to offer a monthly competition to encourage folk to get out and try their hand at producing a journal. Jakar International have kindly agreed to supply the monthly prizes, so do please have a look at the current (April) issue of Leisure Painter.
     The illustration shown right is taken from my sketchbook-journal done on a visit to Holland, and shows the typical notes I often add beside the picture. I don’t really class this as a sketch, as I feel it is more of a diagram drawn solely to illustrate the fascinating architectural styles in Old Amsterdam. I had no intention of creating a finished painting from this: it was done for my enjoyment, although many other sketches in the A4 book were intended as sources for future paintings. Working this way, with no pressure to produce a brilliant piece of artwork can be liberating as well as helping your work to improve.

The houses varied from colourful to a more drab colour, so it’s a good idea to pick out those colours that appeal most to you, rather than paint every house exactly as you see it before you. Note that I have run most of the house colours into one another, rather than paint each one with individual exactitude. I have left out a great many windows, but feel I should have omitted even more, or at least reduced the strength of detail is some.

I shall look forward to seeing how you all fare in these competitions, and I must point out that this is not limited to those who travel far and wide – you are very welcome to join in even if you are house-bound, and there are many ideas for you in my current article in Leisure Painter. Make sure you don’t miss out on the fun!

David Bellamy – Painting misty mountains in watercolour

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Jenny and I have just returned from Austria where we took a group to paint Alpine scenery. It was a great trip, with many memorable scenes, despite rather a lot of cloud and mist. So we had rather a lot of practice in rendering misty mountains in watercolour!

Here I’m doing a watercolour demonstration way above the clouds, with marvellous views all round as the mountains rise out of the inversion. Alas, there were even more clouds above us, so we did get a little rain near the end of the demo, but not enough to spoil things. A cappuccino and an apple-strudel quickly restored morale.

Mist on mountains can, for the artist, sometimes be both magical and a misery. I love the way it can blot out unwanted features, but as we all know, it often blots out the very features we want to see!

There are a number of ways of creating mist in watercolour. In this scene above the Inn Valley in Austria I ran colour into wet areas to create soft edges to the clouds. I had to work quickly as I was painting on a cartridge book. With such a lot of cloud edges, inevitably some dry hard-edged before they can be corrected.

This is not usually a problem as they can later be softened with a damp brush when the paper is completely dry, though the odd hard edge here and there might well enhance the clouds.

Alternatively a soft sponge is an excellent tool for softening off, but take care if you use cartridge paper as it won’t stand too much surface friction. Enjoy your clouds!

David Bellamy – Painting Alpine scenery in Switzerland

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Some of the best painting holidays where we have taken groups have been those which combine spectacular scenery with the more rustic, and this is usually very true of mountain landscapes. Next summer Jenny and I are taking a group to Zermatt in Switzerland, not just to paint mountain icons like the Matterhorn and the Obergabelhorn, but many other peaks, as well as lakes, mountain streams and the local vernacular architecture. The region is full of exciting prospects for the artist.

The watercolour shows a pair of stadel barns above Zermatt – these make excellent subjects, especially when set against a backdrop of Alpine peaks. The roofs in this instance particularly interested me with their strong textural variations and colour. It is always good to look for colour in a scene and I often exaggerate warm colours on a focal point such as this, both to reduce the amount of greenery (which can overwhelm a landscape in summer), and to draw the eye towards the centre of interest.

Note that the greens in the painting are not really intense greens – the summer grassy pasture is a light, but subdued green, while much of the conifers greenery is more a blue-grey, achieved with French Ultramarine and burnt umber. You don’t have to make the green trees in front of you green!

Our painting holiday to Zermatt is in conjunction with Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines, and is being organised by Spencer Scott Travel  Tel. 01825 714311   The holiday runs from 4th to 11th July 2015

With all that amazing Alpine scenery it’s a truly exciting prospect.

Painting holiday in Canada

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I’ve just returned from East Anglia, where I indulged in my passion for maritime scenes and collected a number of sketches of old sailing barges under way in Harwich Harbour. Despite the distractions of a giant ferry crashing into the quay and the subsequent charging around of lifeboats, harbour patrol launches, tugs and kitchen sinks, I managed to achieve some lively images which will be the subject of a future blog.

Canadian rockies

Canadian Rockies

We still have vacancies on our painting holiday to Canada on September 1st when Jenny and I take a group to the Rockies to paint some amazing scenery. I shall be demonstrating how to paint the sublime natural scenery.  It is easy to be overawed by such spectacular scenery, so I will be showing how to cope with the big landscape and produce an exciting composition, as well as many other aspects of painting, whether you like to work in watercolour, oils, pastels or whatever. There will be plenty of time to paint and sketch, and if anyone wants to do a little walking that would be great, but it is optional.

The holiday runs from 1st to 14th September, and is organised by Spencer Scott Travel in conjunction with The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines. For further information please email  info@spencerscott.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1825 714310 or check the website www.spencerscotttravel.com