"Flaming June" watercolour painting in Devon

After a glorious end to May, June has started off with the thermostat turned down a little. That doesn't affect the stunning sunsets though.

"Flaming June" watercolour framed 7x 5 inches £35 Sold.

"Winter Jewels" - Woolacombe beach watercolour.

I don't know about you, but this current run of wet and extremely windy weather , has had me yearning for some sunny, dry days. This is a scene that warms me inside , a gentle surf rolling in and a glowing sunset, yes, it's February, they can happen, honest!

"Winter Jewels" watercolour 12 x 9 inches framed.

"Lundy Lovers" back to the easel.

After a month of design work sat at the computer, it was a joy to be back at the easel today, painting this wedding day commission . 24 x 10 inches oil on canvas.

 

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"Honeymoon" oil painting step by step with Steve PP.

Had a busy week breaking out the oil paints again after a spell of design work on the computer over the last month.
This was a commission from a new collector. So, I thought that I would share a few stages of it's process with you. First was a call to the friendly team over at Fine Art Canvases, based here in North Devon, they make the most beautiful, high quality custom canvases. I'm not kidding when I say that these are the best that I have ever painted on. The build quality is superb, with solid timber frames connected with an adjustable allen key system, just brilliant!
First came a primer undercoat of a pale crimson was laid on to lift the warmth of the finished light effect, a request from the collector to give an overall feel of pinks and purples.

Next came the light sky colours, ultramarine blue, titanium white, alizarin crimson and a tiny amount of phthalocyanine green.

After the sky, I concentrated on the greys and dominant colours in the sea, agin, a combination of ultramarine blue, a.crimson and t.white, mixing in small amounts of the sky mixes to keep a harmony throughout.

Adding more pinks to the grey mixed from a.crimson, cad red light, t.white and cad yellow pale, gave a glow to the reflected light on the sea, not forgetting to add some to the sky.

A good juicy dark mix of u.blue , a.crimson and p.green was added to give weight and definition to the waves and then reflected light was added onto that from all corners of the palette to finish off the highlights.

By now , you can work out that I have a pretty limited palette, really just those five or six colours can give you a wealth of mixes. A couple of blues , a couple of reds a yellow and white will serve you well.

I use Sansodor low odour solvent to clean up with and Liquin to thin the oil down and speed up the drying time of the thin layers. W&N Griffin Alkyd Quick Drying Oils are also a bonus as they let you work on thin dry layers a day later. I was pleased with the finished painting and happily so were the new collectors. The cost of this painting was spread out over a few months to help with the purchase, so if you were thinking of purchasing a painting or commissioning one, I am always happy to spread payments out to make this possible and affordable! just get in touch and we can have a chat about it. You can see more  of my work and all of my available and latest paintings on my Fine Art website here.

Well, it was great to get messy with the oils again, but the stink from them is hard to live with now that the Winter is setting in and opening the studio windows and doors is not always possible, so I think it will be back to the watercolours for a while.

Have a great day!

Steve PP.

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"Jelly Arms" watercolour . Win a framed print of this painting!

After two days of beautiful surf and gorgeous hot and sunny weather, I now have the surf malady known as "Jelly Arms" yay!
Watercolour framed 13 x 9 inches £65.

Sold.

Subscribe to my blog , by entering your email on the right, then clicking on the verify email that gets sent to you and get a chance to win a one off framed print of this painting! The winner will be drawn on Friday 27th Sep.
Last week's winner is; Carando Wendy, congratulations! Your framed print of "Mid afternoon dip" is on it's way to you!
Thank you!

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"Summer Sunset" mini watercolours on Saunders Waterford paper from St.Cuthberts Mill.

"Summer Sunset" - Woolacombe Beach , Devon. 7 x 5 inches framed £35 Sold.

Thanks to the kind people at St.Cuthberts Mill, I received some watercolour samples to try. This is the first one that I painted on Saunders Waterford 300gsm Rough, and very nice it was too, a good paper that held the pigment well yet was still smooth enough to allow detail work. I will definitely be using this paper again!

Give it a try!

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Liquid Gold

15 x 5 inches Oil on board £60 Sold.



Despite the grey and gloomy weather visiting our shores at the moment, I still managed to catch a few glorious sunsets last month, this was one such. I primed the board with a greyed up purple and pre-mixed a batch of colour at speed from sight. The application went on super fast, as anyone know who has tried to paint a sunset live, it sinks into the sea at warp speed. Very challenging, extremely intense, fast painting, great fun!

Sun & Moon

Boy!, they just keep getting better and better! I was on the phone to a client in South Devon, who said "stick your head out of the window", as I looked out there were a few hints of pink in the otherwise grey sky, then fifteen minutes later....Boom! Nature's firework display in full tilt!