This painting was done during a two hour painting workshop at Macclesfield Art Group with Gerd Gerhard. 


Masking fluid is used to pick out the highlights, the shafts of light shining through the foliage is lifted out at the end

This interpretation of a scene in the  Fex Valley, Switzerland is painted in ink and watercolour on  22" x 10" Bockingford paper. The individual elements of the scene are painted individually set vertically on the paper in an oriental style. 

The writing at the top (courtesy of Google translate) reads Swiss valley. I should apologise to anyone skilled in the art of Chinese calligraphy - my characters are not really correctly drawn. To draw the characters correctly they must be drawn in the correct order using the right kind of brush stroke - here is a link to a quick introduction
http://library.thinkquest.org/3614/drawing.htm

The stamp is done using a Chinese 'Chop' - a stamp carved from soapstone. It reads Jonathan - my full first name. I bought it from a small shop in Hong Kong where the blank chops are carved with your name whilst you wait.

Winter is the time to dig out the reference photographs taken earlier in the year and transform them into paintings. Hence this one which is now completely out of season.

Here we see Catholic monks in Kerala, southern India marching to their church on Palm Sunday to commemorate Jesus' march carrying the cross.

Painted in watercolour on Fabriano hot-press paper.

Painting from a photograph taken in late afternoon looking towards Venice, St Marks on the right. 

Here's a painting done from photos taken during my recent visit to Italy.

I've added another step by step demo featuring a painting of Lake Vembanad in the backwaters of Kerala in southern India.

This painting uses just three colours and should suit beginners to watercolour.

Some sketches done sitting besides the lake.                          


Morning News

I've added some more pictures to the India gallery, here are the latest ones - visit the gallery to see them all

Here's a watercolour sketch of Oast Houses at Sissinghurst in Kent, done during a stay there last week.