Compositions with Empty Space

Tranquillity
Watercolour on Paper
40.5cm x 34cm (16" x 13.35")

The duotone study of yachts moored off St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly (see Drawing and Painting the Landscape - Duotone) inspired me to try the largest watercolour I've painted in a long time – maybe 8 years.

Since I started painting, I've admired artists who have the confidence and ability to create pictures containing empty space - particularly big empty foregrounds. Whenever I tried it, the results just looked unfinished and I've ended up cropping the blank space. What was their secret?

The answer is (of course?) their compositional skills. Exercises like Duotone and the Five-Value Monochrome Study from Tom Hoffmann's  Watercolor Painting (see Five-Value Monochrome Study) help me to better understand where details are not needed in an image.

The Principles of Composition exercises from Composition by Arthur Wesley Dow have also given me some insight into how blank space fits into a satisfying composition. I’m sure the later chapters on Line and Notan would help even more, but they are not at the top of my study list because there are lots of other resources I am keen to experiment with and learn from.

Its interesting to reflect on what I’ve learnt from where. In March, Stephanie asked

I notice that you are often working your way through an instruction book or course. Do you have any recommendations for the order someone should choose these resources? I would love to see a page where you gather links to your posts that review your thoughts on a book once you've finished with it.

I’ve realised this is going to be a time-consuming undertaking. I’ve started the first steps:

• Create a list of all the resources I've mentioned on this blog and others I’ve used but not discussed
• Make sure the blog posts that discuss each source are properly tagged
• Write two sentences for each resource to explain whether I finished the material and whether I would recommend it to someone else

I will post this information when it is ready.

St Agnes Lighthouse

St Agnes Lighthouse
Mixed Media on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7") 

The lighthouse on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly no longer contains a light, but is still the most prominent landmark on the island. St Agnes is a wonderful place to spend an evening. Elaine and I have twice celebrated my birthday in Hight Tide Seafood Restaurant. The food, wine and views are excellent, but it has to compete against the Turks Head - which is a great pub. What a choice - you just have to spend two evenings on the island.

I started the picture using oil pastel to add some colour and to resist the watercolour - as suggested by Chris Forsey in his DVDs. The scribble in the centre of the picture is a bit unnecessary, but the blue flowers in the left foreground have worked well.

The painting also makes use of a technique I am learning from regular sketching in watercolour – don’t fiddle or correct. It’s a difficult lesson to learn, but I'm finally beginning to realise that you rarely improve a watercolour painting by trying to correct things. You are best to leave your original marks because they at least look spontaneous and heartfelt.

The Atlantic Inn

The Atlantic Inn
Watercolour, wax crayon and ink
Moleskine A4 watercolour album
210mm × 297mm (8.27" × 11.69")

Elaine and I are just back from a 2 week tour of the South West. We had wonderful weather and stayed in Dartmouth (Devon), Treen (Cornwall), Hugh Town (St Mary's, Isles of Scilly) and Penzance (Cornwall).

This is the evening view from our apartment above the Kavorna bistro in Hugh Town.

New Skies

Sky Wash 11 (Late Afternoon on the Garrison, St Mary's)
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

Back in 2012, I did a number of exercises to practice painting skies. See:

• Sky Wash 1
• Sky Wash 2
• Sky Wash 3 and 4
• Sky Wash 5
• Sky Wash 6
• Sky Wash 7
• Sky Wash 8, 9 and 10

The skies on this post are a couple of recent experiments I painted as warm up exercises.

Both skies started off in the same way. I painted the main area of blue on to dry paper and then painted the rest of the sky around this with water – trying not to get the paper too wet.

As the blue pigment diffused, I dabbed the cloud shapes with paper towel. This can cause hard edged clouds, so to avoid this:

• I was gentle with the paper towel – I didn’t press too hard, 
• I always used clean paper – I didn’t dab with a piece of paper that already had paint on it
• If a hard edge started to form, I either dabbed it again or softened it with a damp brush

For the picture of Saint Martins, I added extra shadows to the clouds after the initial wash had dried.

The main intention of both of these pictures was to experiment with using oil pastels to resist the watercolour. This is a technique Chris Forsey uses in his “Pushing The Boundaries Of Watercolour” and “Beyond Watercolour” DVDs.

Sky Wash 12 (St Martin's)
Watermedia and Oil Pastel on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7")

So far, the technique is not working for me. The oil pastel dissolves into the paint and makes a watery oily soup. I suspect I am applying too much pastel and not pressing heavily enough to push it into the paper.

Capturing the Atmosphere of a Misty Morning

Misty Morning - Hugh Town
(Based on a photograph by Tony Slater)
Watercolour on Paper
38cm x 28cm (15" x 11")

Yesterday was the Shelford Group of Artists’ Painting day for March. Tony Slater's theme was Capturing the Atmosphere of a Misty Morning. I didn't have a suitable reference photograph, so I borrowed one of his.

Tony’s advice was to paint the background wet-into-wet, so there are no hard edges, very little detail and the middle distance seems to appear out of the misty background. He also suggested using a limited palate, which is an excellent way to capture the muted tones of a misty day.

I had one of those days where nothing seems to go right - the remnants of a cold had mutated into an attack of clumsiness. I spent the whole day putting my fingers in wet paint and even managed to walk into Tony’s easel.

The painting was a struggle right from the start. It had a wash in the sink and nearly ended up in the bin, but Tony regularly tells people not to give up on a painting until it is finished and he is usually right.

Between Tresco and Bryher

Between Tresco and Bryher
Watercolour on Paper
28cm x 38cm (11" x 15")

It was a blustery day when Elaine and I visited Tresco. The wind shook the boat as we crossed from St Mary’s. It battered us as we walked around the island and whipped the waves on to the shore, except for the channel between Bryher and Tresco. This was serene and undisturbed. The boats in the mouth of New Grimsby Harbour rested peacefully; unaware of what was waiting for them if they left their cosy moorings.

Round Island from Tresco

We enjoyed our trip to the Isles of Scilly so much we have booked to go back next year.

Bant’s Carn

Bant’s Carn
Watercolour on Paper
34cm x 24cm (13.5" x 9.5")

Bant’s Carn is a Bronze Age burial chamber on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. It sits on the crest of Halangy Down and on the slope towards the sea lie the remains of an Iron Age village.

The weather wasn’t quite as bad as the picture suggests, but Elaine and I considered sheltering in the tomb for a few minutes while the rain was particularly heavy. The conditions gradually improved and we enjoyed our walk around the island which packs a lot of variety into a relatively short circuit: ancient sites, wonderful coast scenery, an out of the way and unexpectedly good cake stop, the only traffic lights I’ve ever seen on a coastal footpath, a pub with a beer festival and Harold Wilson’s grave.

Coastal Path Traffic Lights 

We would have enjoyed the walk with the sun and blue skies we had on other days (see Garrison Bell), but ancient sites are sometimes best appreciated in the rain.

Garrison Bell

Garrison Bell
Watercolour on Paper
22cm x 29.5cm (8.5" x 11.5")

Earlier in the year, Elaine and I had a wonderful holiday on the Isles of Scilly. We stayed in Hugh Town – the largest town on St Mary’s (the largest island). The islands are unique. They remind me of small tropical islands with beautiful scenery and fantastic beaches, but this is juxtaposed with old English villages and a mixture of Mediterranean weather and Atlantic storms. They seem very relaxed because there are virtually no cars and the only way for visitors to get around is by foot and by boat.

This is the bell on top of the Garrison Gate in Hugh Town. We walked around the garrison walls on our first day. This was one of our Mediterranean weather days. We walked around the rest of the island in our waterproofs on one of the more typical British weather days.