Category Archives: aerial recession in landscape paintings

David Bellamy – Highlighting a landscape feature with a glaze

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Some of you asked if I would show the full image of the promontory watercolour published on the post on 5th May, so here it is – the scene is in the central Highlands of Scotland, easily seen from the roadside as you approach Rannoch Moor to the north.

As you can see, I’ve positioned the lightest part of the composition behind the row of Caledonian pines on the further promontory, to give them more emphasis. The more shadowy parts of the background mountains were achieved by washing a mixture of French ultramarine and cadmium red over those parts which had already been painted. This was done with a large wash brush and quite a weak mixture, creating a thin transparent glaze across those areas I wanted to subdue, and thus emphasising the light section.

The painting is part of the exhibition at the John Muir Trust centre in Pitlochry (Tel.01796 470080) which I should point out ends on the 11th June, not 18th as previously announced. This is due to a mix-up, and I hope no-one will be inconvenienced.

Next week Jenny and I will be at the annual Patchings Art Festival in Calverton, just north of Nottingham, where I’ll be demonstrating for St Cuthberts Mill on the mornings of Thursday 5th and Friday 6th June. St Cuthberts Mill make the marvellous Saunders Waterford and Bockingford papers that are such favourites with amateur and professional painters alike. Do come along and say hello.

On the 20th and 21st June Jenny and I will be demonstrating at the Sandpiper Studio on the Wirral in Cheshire. Jenny will be demonstrating pastel painting on the afternoon of Friday 20th and I shall be demonstrating in watercolour on the Saturday morning and giving an illustrated talk on how to rescue watercolours that have gone astray, after lunch. You can find out more about these events from Julie McLean on 07788 412480 or email her at:  info@thesandpiperstudio.co.uk

David Bellamy – Adding a little mystery to your Watercolours

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I’m only just dragging myself out of that Christmas sloth, not encouraged by day after day of pouring rain. Where is all that lovely snow? Anyway, thanks to all of you who send us Christmas greetings. It was much appreciated by Jenny and myself.

My art year has started with an article in Leisure Painter Magazine and 2014 rings up another milestone: I’ve been writing articles for Leisure Painter for the last 30 years, and it has been a marvellous relationship with some great folk. So the painting I am featuring here is part of that article, although I shall now be discussing a different aspect.

The picture shows a small corner of a watercolour of Tenby Harbour at dusk. This is a magical time to capture images, as the atmosphere tends to be more accentuated, and you are less likely to overdo the detail as so much of it is lost in the atmosphere! Although in this instance I could actually see  more detail in the buildings, I deliberately avoided putting in too much, and in fact simply laid a weak wash over the lower parts so that the suggestions of masts and boats would stand out more. At such times shapes run into each other, often creating a sense of mystery, so going out in search of subjects when you can hardly see them might at first sound rather perverse, but it does teach you a very powerful lesson in creating mystery and atmosphere.

So I shall end by wishing you all many magical and mysterious moments of happy painting in 2014

David Bellamy – Painting woodland scenes in watercolour

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My last blog featured autumn trees, and as it’s such a good time to be working on trees I’ll follow it up with summer trees which can be adapted for autumn trees if necessary. Woodlands are great places at this time of year when the autumn mists create fascinating, soft backgrounds. Even in sharp visibility I tend to make woodland backgrounds less harsh as it adds a sense of mystery and simplifies the composition.

Woodland trees

This is part of a painting of a beechwood and you will see that I’ve given a different treatment to each of the three main tree-trunks. The right-hand tree was painted in while the background was still damp, and this included the foliage as well as the trunk. The soft, cool colour suggests distance. When the paper was dry I painted in the middle tree-trunk onto dry paper. The sharper edges tend to bring it closer, yet there is still no detail on the trunk. Finally the closest tree has been made larger and with strong detail and dark tones, thus really bringing it forward. I’ve also made use of the dead leaves of the previous winter lying on the ground, to enhance the warm foreground and hence push the rest of the scene into the distance.

The complete painting can be seen at Erwood Station Craft Centre, with several others. I shall be demonstrating there on Saturday 23rd November from 2pm to 4pm, on how to rescue watercolours that have not quite worked, and how to improve parts of a painting with which you may not be happy with. The cost of the demo is £7 which will be donated to the Welsh Air Ambulance. Erwood Station lies beside the beautiful River Wye, about 8 miles south of Builth Wells, and is a lovely place to explore, stop for tea and refreshments and walk some of the footpaths. At the moment Erwood bridge is closed, so you either need to approach the centre from the north via the B4567, or if coming from the south cross the Wye at Boughrood bridge and drive northwards with the Wye on your left. Ring 01982 560674 for information.

Stage 4 of my competition entry

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I have made further progress on my painting for the Cox & Kings Morocco competition: The middle distance in a landscape painting is often a tricky area to tackle. It’s important to keep in mind the relative size of features compared to the foreground such as trees and bushes;   the colour temperature must be carefully controlled;  and we must resist the temptation to render too much detail to features that are distant.

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Stage 4 – middle distance

In the photograph there were very strong, sharply defined cloud shadows on the hills on the right and initially I painted these in as they were in the photograph but I quickly realised that they were drawing the eye too much and would compete with my focal point so I softened them considerably. The hills on the left were lighter in tone with less tonal contrast so there was no need to soften them too much.

The next stage will be the focal point, the building, and the foreground. See you in a few days.

 

Stage 2 & 3 of my competition entry

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Yesterday I made more progress on my painting for the Cox & Kings Morocco competition: Stage 2 – Sky: When painting landscapes, I generally work from the top of a painting downwards. This serves two purposes. Firstly it helps prevent the heel of your hand smudging the work where it rests on the support and secondly it helps create a sense of recession. If you think of the landscape in terms of distance, the objects farthest away are usually lighter in tone, cooler in colour and less distinct. Translating this into the painting process means that you use paler, cooler colours in the distance and less detail. By working down the support you can remember that meme in your choice of colour and tone.

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Stage 2 – Sky

Stage 3 – The mountains: The sky was painted down over the drawn lines that defined the mountain tops. This is to ensure that there are no gaps between the sky and mountains and also to give the impression that the sky is, in effect, behind the mountains. Sticking to cooler colours and pale tones, the mountains are painted with sharp edges in places and softer edges in others so that there is not a hard line all the way across the painting. Soft edged cloud shadows helps define the ridges.

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Stage 3 – the mountains

The next step will be coming soon.