Monday, March 17, 2008

Galloping off

Some watercolour doodles* just to say... we're off again in a couple of days (still blinking from our lightning trip to Aus) to our regular holiday haven, Arniston, for the Easter weekend. I am taking my sketching things, and hope to be able to jot down some sights and impressions, but don't hold your breath, as it is an invitation to a roofwetting, and a wedding anniversary and I think there will be much socialising and little time to slink off on my own to paint. The weather looks as if it may misbehave, too, as it is here - making a good impression of a London winter, in Johannesburg at the moment.
*I love making these calligraphic marks with very wet watercolour and my cheap, but faithful Chinese goat-hair mop brush. Somehow when I'm trying to paint a 'proper' watercolour, I lose the free loose quality of the brush strokes - I suppose going for accuracy, which is obviously not a priority in these rather strangely-proportioned horses!

7 comments:

Gillian said...

What a great exercise to loosen one up for W/C painting. I'm painting a W/C of our back garden right now - as the pale pink azaleas are out and looking stunning. But I'm so frustrated with the tightness - trying to find the balance between an easy relaxed use of my brush and also capturing the real shapes of certain trees and plants. I have some paper for Chinese calligraphy AND I have the brush I bought at your encouragement!! So now I know what to do with them! Having gone to the Rodeo lately - bucking horses and bulls are great subject matter for this exercise! Thanks!

Cathy Gatland said...

Oh good - enjoy your buckin' broncos..! I'm a bit embarrassed now because we may be postponing this trip to Arniston - it's too long a drive (no flights available) for too short a time, and the weather is probably going to be horrible. So I'll have to compose a sheepish entry in the next day or two. I'm a bit relieved ;-o

Cathy Gatland said...

Hey, didn't I give you that brush..? in France..?

Gillian said...

Oops - YES - you did give me one - and I bought some too. Is the Van Gogh 130 #4 by Royal Talens the one you gave me? Sorry I forgot :( And I'm embarrassed to say - none of them have been used yet. Sorry to hear that Arniston was postponed.
I just had a thought - the mocking birds here would be a fun exercise for this brush and paper too. Their colours are dark grey, pale grey and white. Hmmmm - I'm inspired...

Making A Mark said...

What wonderful paintings!

Sorry to hear your trip is off - but there's nothing worse than holiday traffic.

Anonymous said...

I hope your weekend was fun and the weather held up..! Love what you did here with your brush!
ronell

Cathy Gatland said...

Thanks Katherine and Ronell - yes, the weekend is over already and I'm relieved not to be sitting on a highway in a long string of cars... will get to the sea another - quieter - time.