Occasional thoughts and comments on watercolour painting and sketching. You can sign in to this page so your comments will have a username, or just comment as 'Guest'. Names do  help discussions though... :o)

If only I'd brought my sketchbook.... You’re waiting at a bus stop. You’ve no paper or paint or even a sketchbook. Or you come across a scene that would make a good painting and you’ve no materials with you. It happens. Painting develops the ability to look at a subject in a way that we seldom would otherwise. When else have you happily stood and looked steadily at anything that isn’t moving, often for an hour or more? Painters often say they started to see things differently

This would be my personal answer, but from conversations I suspect it’s a question that quickly goes away once you’ve taken the plunge and started painting or sketching regularly. 'Inspiration' is an odd concept and possibly even a myth when it comes to painting. You can just go ahead and paint and the more you do it the better you get at it. I'm most often inspired simply by the look of the watercolours in my palette. The corner of our garden where the compost bins live. 16

...or it suddenly feels like it. "aka the redeeming power of bold shadows and darks 😆" Sometimes a painting just looks like it's not...

"sketch, paint or draw a hundred people in a week". Just do it 😄

Skies are such a big part of landscapes and obviously turn up in most plein air paintings. This post records the result of an afternoon just painting skies for the fun of it. They're all 16x12" on Bockingford 140lb paper and mostly using just two colours - French Ultramarine Blue and a touch of Light Red to produce the greys. With two of paintings I added a bit of a foreground just to see what impact it had on how the sky looked, these appear immediately after the bare sky v

Painting demonstrations sometimes need different tactics so people can see -which brings some interesting puzzles!

I'm often asked how to paint more loosely - this is what I usually say .

While there's no shortage of subjects to paint, painting the same thing a few times can be fascinating.

Fill a sketchbook and discover your surroundings.

Painting a sailing Clipper from imagination on a Full Imperial sheet.

Stonehaven Art Club invited me to give a talk and demo on plein air watercolour and the puzzle was always going to be how to illustrate...

Plein air painting might be an acquired taste, but then it becomes an addiction.

Sometimes a plein air painting isn't quite what I wanted when I finish on site and I've no qualms about trying to improve it later. My...

Spent a chilly hour at Balnagask, Aberdeen sketching from the Car Park... Looking over Balnagask Golf Course to the 200m tall legs of the...

I painted this plein air in a stiff Southerly breeze. Donmouth is where the River Don meets the sea (you'd never have guessed?) on the...

I painted a view of Fittie, Aberdeen yesterday (half imperial, 22x15") and felt it needed something, so once I finished I thought I'd...

The Skandi Kvitsøy entering Aberdeen. I find Imperial sized watercolour challenging and revisit it now and again to remind myself why I...

...Rotor Wash. Idyllic afternoon, 5 miles from home, 2 miles from the road, at a footbridge crossing the slowest flowing river in...

or "The distractions of plein air painting". I was planning to paint a quiet picture of the old Capstan at Skate's Nose jetty on the...