Sunday, 29 April 2012

Sketching & photographs

I went on a trip up to Collieston this afternoon; it's on the coast about 4 miles north of Newburgh, which is itself about 12 miles or so north of Aberdeen. It's a wee fishing village, complete with harbour, cottages and a bit of sandy beach.

The sun had finally come out, so it was a good chance to get some photographs of somewhere scenic, and different to where I usually go. I can't remember the last time I was there. It's well looked-after. There are public toilets down at the front. There's parking to the north of the village, with a footpath that takes you round to the harbour (or you can park there, I found out afterwards). I sat on a bench on the approach to the pier and sketched for quite a while. I tend to be a bit too ambitious when sketching; should try and concentrate on one small area in future. I end up having to draw about twenty houses, where a couple might be better. I took some photos too. It was lovely and sunny, but pretty chilly in the wind.

Two sketches later, I walked round to the south side of the bay, along the front of the village, complete with upturned rowing boats, creels, little sheds and bright pink and orange buoys dotted about the place. I meandered down to the shore, peered into some rockpools and took some more photos, this time of the rockpools, a series of waves coming into a sluice in the rocks, and the clouds scudding past the top of the cliffs overhead. Among other things. One more sketch from the south side of the bay, then homewards, as it was really chilly again, the sun having gone in. The cliff face by the car park caught my eye; lovely colours and textures - warm red sandstone with what I believed to be some fool's gold in it.










Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Street

I was about to take a photo of some buildings, when this pattern on the street caught my eye...

Monday, 23 April 2012

Puddle

It seems that there are pictures everywhere - you just have to look for them.

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Walls

I like the patterns found in dry stone walls. Here's a photo to show what I mean.

Thursday, 12 April 2012

Wednesday, 7 March 2012

photobox gallery

I am currently considering the best way forward for selling stuff.  I need to concentrate quite hard and think it through carefully, but am finding that quite difficult.  The trouble is, I have various things going on, on the web, and I really need to rationalise it all.  So, should I bring everything into one place, i.e. set up my own website?  Maybe it would help if I made a list:

Currently, I use/have a presence on :

Facebook (but a personal site, not a business one)
Twitter : @jenniferjwatson
Flickr (photos of paintings)
Tumblr (just a tryout, really, as above)
Photobox Gallery (photos, available as prints of various sizes) : www.photoboxgallery.com/pebblesonthebeach
Blogspot (here!)
Creative Cultures Scotland
North East Open Studios
Scottish Craft website (just joined, will see how it goes) : www.scottishcraft.com


Looks like it's time to go for it...  will let you know what happens!

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

recent work

I have been experimenting with gouache recently.  It comes in little tubes (well, my tubes are little, anyway) and is more opaque than watercolour.  Or it can be.  Watercolour can also be used fom tubes, but I have always the used the blocks, the kind that are kept in a tin that folds up.  Forgive me if I am rambling a bit, I have had the flu for what feels like forever, but is probably only about three days.  So, with gouache, you can get more intense colour, and can put light colours on top of dark ones (which is not possible with pure watercolours).  But what does the viewer of a painting care about all that?  They just want to see what the end result looks like - so here you go - a brightly coloured macaw, who I quite like the look of, and a dilapidated window.