The big French challenge

Paimpol, Brittany, France

Yes, I finished it, the biggest watercolour I've ever painted, 56x76cm or 22x30".
I'm proud that I stuck with it, I learned so much by the endless mistakes I made. As a complete painting I am not totally happy, it is stiff and the uncertainty in my strokes is clear to see. Too much white gouache for highlights almost ruining it in the end. But, I learned so much by not giving up.
Buy good watercolour paper, the one I used was very poor, not cotton, it was closer to toilet paper in quality. I ran out and bought Arches 300g because of the poor nature of the paper I used, so I learned. There was one million things I had never experienced; like how does one paint stones walls? It's really hard but it will be easier next time. Flowers, I had never painted them before either, not seriously, they were also difficult to master. Ah well, on I go to the next pigmented challenge ...

Moleskin ...

I have a watercolour Moleskin (A5) where I practice my watercolour nudes. I'm trying to do at least one a day. It helps me ignore the real task; finishing the large watercolour that is such a challenge and sits there beside me waiting ...

A5 watercolour figure painting

Taking a break ...

Currently I'm working on a large watercolour, it's a real challenge, I've never worked in so much detail before and I'm pushing my technical limits to the maximum. So, it was necessary to take a little break and paint this little watercolour nude. I like the freedom of the way the colour pigment illustrates the figure.

Nude 20130719. Moleskin, A5, watercolour notebook. 

Mucha inspired ...

I found a wonderful model - posing beautifully. I will eventually paint a full sized homage to the image at a later date. I spent today doing two sketches, one watercolour with a Mucha inspired frame and the other in pencil. Both are about A5 in size.

Watercolour

Pencil

Mega Mucha

On the third day of my visit to Prague I visited the Veletržní Palace to see the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha. Twenty massive works depicting the history of the Slavic people. 

Having a Mucha weekend

I am having an amazing weekend in Prague, so much to see, so much culture. We visited the Municipal House, which is an Art Nouveau master piece. There, they have Ivan Lendl's collection of Alfons Mucha's posters, which is the most complete collection in the world. Amazing! Don't be surprised if you start to see thick dark lines around my nudes! :)

Mucha, Prague

Today I visited the Mucha Museum in Prague. Wow, his talent is totally inspiring! 

Nude in Red Armchair

I am on holidays, which means I have the opportunity to paint at last. Time, such a hard treasure to find.

Nude In Red Armchair, 30 x 42 cm (A3), 11 3/4 x 16 1/2"

An Unfinished Painting from Brittany.

The house belongs to my mother in law, it's a very beautiful place close to Paimpol, Brittany in France. I thought I would paint it but I ran out of time, I should not have waited until the last day of my visit. I am on holidays again now so hopefully I will find time to complete the painting using photographs as reference.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing my painting set up. The image of me in the header above was taken while I was painting the house. :)

 

Lars Lerin - Kanal 12 i Varmland

Lars Lerin is probably the most interesting and talented watercolourist living in Sweden today. Here are three interviews about Lars and his work. The videos are in Swedish unfortunately. You can see his paintings here is you are not familiar with his work. He doesn't seem to have a web-gallery which is a pity. There is a documentary I would like to see called, "För dig naken", it was filmed by his niece, Sara Bross and was released in 2012.

Lars Lerin

Lars Lerin hos Malou

Three little lunch breaks.

I learn so much each time I do a watercolour. I learn, that I should not draw so many lines, that I should be patient, that I should simplify what I see, that I should be more subtle with my tones and finally, that I should be more confident with my brush strokes.

This is a portrait of Micke Nybrink, he is a Trotting media journalist here in Sweden. Last week I created a web site in which he featured and this is where the image of him inspired me to paint him. You can see the website and his photo here if you like. It took me three lunch breaks to complete the painting, almost two hours I would guess.



Micke Nybrink

Lunch Sketch

Inspired by my watercolour sketches from the weekend I did another boat sketch today during my lunch break. I found my reference image on Google, I searched using the words, 'Sailing and Archipelago'. The white foam created by the boat was achieved with office Tipp-Ex. :)




Lunch Sketch 20130702

Stockholm Sketcher

It's summer time and most people in Sweden disappear to relax and enjoy the short season of warmth. Either this or they are busy getting everything done before they take their holidays. So this month, I was the sole sketcher representing, 'The Stockholm Sketchers' group. It would have been nice with some company but I still had a lovely day.
I discovered that sketching boats isn't easy, there is so much detail; so it's a question of what one should leave out and what one should add to improve the picture. I'm happy enough with these two watercolours, sure - I made mistakes, I learned from them and I look forward to sketching boats again soon to see if I have indeed learned something.

Violette, Skeppsholm, Stockholm, 20130630

Leo, Skeppsholm, Stockholm, 20130630