Tag Archives: #davidbellamyart

DAVID BELLAMY: LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION

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Taking time to consider your composition before you begin painting is critical, and unless you are working from a sketch with a fairly well-planned composition it’s worth doing one or two studio sketches to plan the overall design. While we may feel that composition is solely concerned with the positioning of the various elements of a scene, we also need to think about the atmosphere and lighting conditions, and how this will affect the finished result.

In this watercolour of Ravenglass in Cumbria I have kept the horizon line below the halfway mark and the focal point – the cottages – approximately one third from the bottom and one third from the left-hand side in the classic golden rule of thirds. There are times, however when you may wish to ignore this rule, so don’t feel you are bound to it. Happily in watercolour you can always cut a bit off the side, top or bottom if you want to adjust matters! While most of the detail is around the cottages I placed a boat over on the right-hand side to balance things out: it doesn’t compete with the focal point but helps the overall design. Note that the boat is happily looking into the composition. It was in fact sulking a long way off to the right.

The streaks of water in the foreground were all over the place, so I changed them to use as a lead in to the focal point. Closer to the left-hand edge I have washed a dull shadow over the buildings, as it is best not to introduce strong detail or contrasts at the very edge. Between the posts to the right of the cottages you can see two figures, although these might well be mistaken for giant sticks of rhubarb as I haven’t given them much shape, Figures and animals of course draw the eye and it’s helpful to position them near the main detail. Finally we come to the format. I wanted to suggest a tranquil, early evening mood, so I opted for a rectangular layout emphasising the horizontals in the sea, the cloud formation and the ground detail, with the distant land lost in the haze by laying a glaze over it. It was painted on Saunders Waterford rough 140lb paper using Daniel Smith extra-fine watercolours.

Just to remind you that I shall be demonstrating how to use Daniel Smith watercolour sticks sticks at Erwood Station Gallery & Craft Centre on Friday 7th June when I will be signing copies of my new book David Bellamy’s Complete Guide to Landscapes. Action starts at 2pm and I will be there till 4pm so do come along and join in the fun. Erwood Station is a great place to hang out, enjoy a cappuccino and they have the most delicious cakes and pastries! I’ll also have framed and unframed paintings at a discount, but do come and have a look at these magical painting sticks and ask any questions. Erwood Station is about six miles south of Builth Wells, just off the A470 from where it is well signposted. Telephone 01982 560555

DAVID BELLAMY – PAINTING WITH DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOUR STICKS

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For some time now I’ve been using the watercolour sticks produced by Daniel Smith, mainly for sketching out of doors. They make a great addition to my sketching gear, and although I still love using the half-pans in the great outdoors, the sticks provide a rapid method of capturing a colour rendition of a scene. Lovely rich colour peels off the sticks effortlessly with a brush, but you can also use them directly onto the paper. As I use the robust Saunders Waterford watercolour papers they can take quite rough treatment whether you apply the sticks onto wet or dry paper.

This is a rapid sketch of the Edw Gorge done whilst standing beside the river and applying colour direct from the sticks onto Saunders Waterford rough paper, then applying water with a large Pentel Aquash brush. These brushes hold their own water, so there’s no messing about with pots. I laid French ultramarine over the background, mixing in quinacridone Sienna lower down. The foliage was painted with yellow ochre plus Bismuth Vanadate Yellow in places. I then washed over it all with the Aquash brush. While the foliage was still damp I added quinacridone Sienna dirctly with the stick. To achieve sharper and more accurate detail I then picked up colour off the sticks with the brush and painted in the rock detail and trunks and branches, using lunar black for the very dark details, including some mixed into the river with French ultramarine. It was all over in a few minutes.

I shall be demonstrating how to use these sticks at Erwood Station Gallery & Craft Centre on Friday 7th June when I will be signing copies of my new book David Bellamy’s Complete Guide to Landscapes. Action starts at 2pm and I will be there till 4pm so do come along and join in the fun. Erwood Station is a great place to hang out, enjoy a cappuccino and they have the most delicious cakes and pastries! I’ll also have framed and unframed paintings at a discount, but do come and have a look at these magical painting sticks and ask any questions. Erwood Station is about six miles south of Builth Wells, just off the A470 from where it is well signposted. Telephone 01982 560555

DAVID BELLAMY – THE JOYS OF SKETCHING

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Whether you go out sketching to find subjects to paint back home, or perhaps to record days out in a sketching journal, or simply for the joy of being out enjoying sketching, there is no doubt that the value of this activity stretches well beyond just the artistic side. For me sketching is calming, and like nature, helps to reduce the stresses of life. I often sketch just for the joy of it, without any thought of working up a painting from the experience, and find that diving into old sketchbooks brings so many happy memories flooding back.

This pencil sketch was done on a December day on Dartmoor, a place I have always loved. I’ve only made on colour note, and that’s about the chimney pots being black, a rather unusual colour. In the centre of the buildings is a rather confused area, the sort of things we often find when we want to do a painting of the scene back home. It can be very annoying when you have a stunning subject to paint and there’s an annoying omission, and especially when it’s bang in the centre of the composition.

Here the problem is fairly easy to overcome: I could simply lose the apparent gap and join the buildings together, or hide it behind a bush, a figure, or another feature. However, one remedy I regularly use is to introduce a little bit of artistic obfuscation, which has the advantage of simplifying matters. I swipe across a wash of colour without attempting to add in any detail whatsoever. I also use the technique to substitute an ungly feature with the wash, sometimes dropping in a second colour for variety.

Erwood Station Gallery & Craft Centre near Builth Wells is now open after a short break, and they are organising an Amateur Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 competition over the summer months, to promote the arts, give amateur artists an opportunity to be seen and showcase how the arts can help people in their mental health. The first round takes place on Saturday April 6th. If you don’t feel up to participating just come along and watch, and maybe pick up a few tips. You can obtain information from Stacey on 01982 560555 or email her at erwoodstation@hotmail.com

David Bellamy – Looking into Fierce Light

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Strong evening or early morning light, when it is low on the horizon, can produce some powerful atmospheric effects, such as losing detail, creating a dynamic sense of drama and changing the actual colours of various features. However, it’s not always easy to look into fierce sunlight and observe the scene for any length of time, even with sunglasses. Taking a series of photos, each with a different aperture setting can reap rewards, but if you are able to quickly capture the essential elements of the scene with a colour medium, so much the better. Watercolour pencils can be very effective for this, as watercolour paints can be quite a challenge in such fastly-changing effects.

Evening light, Llangwm

In this painting carried out on Waterford 300lb NOT paper I created the light area in the sky with Naples yellow around a white spot and then introduced quinacridone gold and permanent alizaring crimson. Working quickly I brought in washes of weak French ultramarine, in places mixed with cadmium red for the stronger wisps of cloud. These wisps were applied with a large swordliner brush. After allowing the paper to dry I painted in detail of trees and buildings with mixtures or French ultramarine and cadmium red in various strengths, sometimes with hardly any ultramarine. Aussie red gold also enlivened things up in places, particularly the right-hand bush.

By leaving out certain details like one end of a building on the sunlit side, the sense of mood is increased, with the colours becoming cooler the further away they are from the centre of the light. You may well have existing photos that can be used to create a work of this nature, but do take care when looking into fierce sunlight and wear dark sunglasses to protect your eyes. Avoid staring directly into the sun.

Well, Christmas is upon us once more, and hopefully you will find some artistic present in your stocking! Have a great Christmas and I wish you every success with your paintings in 2024, and good health.

David Bellamy – Lighting effects in Landscape Painting

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My exhibition at Erwood Station was a great success with sales, interest and raising money for the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales,although the initial part proved a little difficult as I was under the weather for a while. It’s great to have exhibitions in the major galleries, but this time I was really happy to do something locally.


Erwood Station will continue displaying some of my work, and it’s a lovely place to visit.The scene I am showing today is a watercolour of the Brecon Beacons where I have used lighting effects to create interest. Before carrying out a painting it really helps if you consider your ligting arrangement beforehand. This particular composition shows quite complicated lighting areas, and for this I did a preliminary studio sketch with emphasis on the tonal values of the various passages. Normally I prefer to let the main light flood over the focal point – in this case the farmhouse and outbuildings, but I strayed from the norm here by keeping an area of light in the middle distance, beyond the farm, with the farm itself not especially well-lit. Trying new variations from your usual approach can be exciting and lead to interesting effects. The light on the background peaks provides variation, though I did not want this to compete too strongly with the focal point. I love interesting skies and sometimes indulge in cloud-watching for some time, and although this composition could well have been served effectively with a simple sky, I often can’t resist working up a cloud mass that contains a striking patch of light as in this case. Do take time to consider your lighting treatment in your painting as it can make a terrific difference to a work.