We were fortunate to hit the lane just as the sun broke through the clouds casting some lovely late afternoon long shadows.

I painted this largely as a means of just trying to ‘keep my brushes moving’ as I’m struggling to dedicate as much time to my painting as I would like.

My expectations then were quite low, so I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out. It’s definitely an evocative reminder of our afternoon walk in Stanmer Park.

The post A local landscape watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I first came across Hannah’s wonderful paintings at the RI watercolour exhibition at the Mall Galleries in 2023. Since then, earlier in 2024, Hannah was quite rightly elected as a member of the RI.

What I especially admire about her work is how it so wonderfully combines abstraction and representation. Her work also has a confident looseness and directness that creates such energetic and dynamic paintings.

Hannah is currently launching a new online course:

Sketchbook Stories: Loosening up the landscape

I saw a brief video that Hannah shared to promote this new course and it fleetingly featured a coastal scene that immediately captured my attention. I took a quick screenshot of the scene and here’s my quick-ish interpretation of it:

After painting this I shared it with Hannah and sought her permission to share it – and I’m both grateful and delighted that she said ‘yes’!

Although I was pleased with how this turned out – I think the main thing it demonstrates is probably how much I more than most could benefit from this course!!

The post Cornish rocks watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

It’s hit me at a particularly bad time when I’ve got such a busy month ahead of me and so much to do – but then that’s so often the case.

What it means as I sit down to write this post however, is that it will be mercifully brief!

I thought I’d just share this painting that turned out considerably better than I’d expected.

For reasons far too dull to go into, I found myself temporarily separated from my usual collection of drawing boards.

It seemed like a good opportunity to try out something that heard about and seen others do, but hadn’t yet experimented myself.

Without my usual boards I decided to try not taping the paper down to a board, but instead, I wet the back of the paper thoroughly, applied this to a surface, in this case a big wooden bread board (sometimes needs must!) and then thoroughly wet the front of the paper.

Because the paper was equally wet on both sides, it remained totally flat, and the moisture on the back secured it to the board.

Because the paper was so wet, it allowed me to spend a lot more time working on the sky than would otherwise have been the case. It did still require a lot of concentration to manage the moisture in the paper, and the intensity of the paint (knowing that with so much moisture on the paper, it would dry a lot lighter) but it was great fun!

Once I’d done the sky, I left it all to dry out, and it still remained completely flat! With the sky done, it was just a case of working my way down the rest of the painting.

This is definitely an approach I’ll be using again, especially when there’s a need to work wet in wet for a long period of time. I’m already looking forward to experimenting with some more big sky paintings!

The post Brighton beach at sunrise appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I have had a wonderful time, though it does seem to have passed alarmingly quickly. My first post of this new year will be quite a short one for reasons that I shall endeavour to explain, whilst also craving your understanding!

At lunchtime today, as I was eating a homemade toasted sandwich on some form of seeded granary bread, I felt the unmistakable crack of a tooth splitting. I’m not talking about a little chip off a corner but splitting right down into the gum. I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to get an appointment with my dentist tomorrow when fingers crossed, I’ll be able to have it removed (I know I’m no dentist, but am 100% sure that there’s no saving it).

To compound matters, tomorrow is also my birthday! I had planned a long walk on the South Downs with the hound, to be followed by a marvellous pub lunch for one at a favourite hostelry in the countryside – all of which has now been usurped by a dental disaster! This means I’m in a much grumpier mood than I would like to be at this particular juncture, so early in the year, and so close to being yet another year older but none the wiser!

This is all such a shame, as the year had started off so well!

I had been feeling slightly frustrated over the festive season that I hadn’t managed to knuckle down to do much painting, but I had no driving motivation to do much painting either. I did, however, think about painting a lot, which I decided would have to suffice.

On New Year’s Eve, I finally decided that I couldn’t put it off any longer and started on a painting that I’d already done a preparatory study for with a set of Sakura Pigma brush pens in black, mid grey and light grey that I received for Christmas. I think these should be ideal for doing the kind of tonal studies that help to work out the composition of a painting and iron out any tricky areas before you start to put brush to paper.

Here’s my first efforts at using these new brush pens, on top of which I also used a bit of white Posca pen:

The view is of Brighton Beach at sunrise from one of my regular early morning walks with the dog. I enjoyed working with these pens, not to mention the reduced ‘pressure’ of just playing around in a little notebook. I also like to think that this study played its part in making the subsequent painting more of a success than it might otherwise have been:

Working on this also allowed me to play around with a couple more of my presents. First up was a 5ml tube of Lunar Black by Daniel Smith.

I was keen to try this paint out for its granulation qualities. Although it’s a black pigment, it’s transparent, and I think it will mix well with other pigments and, with its granulation, will add texture to washes where appropriate.

Finally comes a ‘super absorbent sponge’ from the Italian manufacturer Borciani and Bonazzi.

I’d seen these recommended by a number of artists that I follow and was keen to try them out. Sadly I couldn’t find anywhere that supplied these in the UK, so I ended up ordering them direct from Italy. I think they cost about 5 euros each (for two sponges in each pack). I’m a little embarrassed to say, that because the shipping costs were about four times the cost, I decided that the only way I could make it worthwhile was to buy 4 packs of them, plus some other bits and bobs which I’ll be opening for my birthday tomorrow! (Sorry if this takes away the magic but I’m sure I’m not alone in buying myself the very specific type of present that no one else would know to buy for me!

I never thought you could get so geekily enthusiastic about a sponge but I have to say, after using it on this painting I’m hugely impressed! Managing the amount of water in a brush can often be a challenge, especially when you’re constantly washing your brushes out to change colours etc. I’ve normally just used bits of old kitchen sponge and, more recently, some form of bamboo sponge that I picked up from somewhere but this really does the job brilliantly (which is just as well as I now have so many of them!)

I had hoped that this painting might be some kind of sign that 2024 is going to be a great year – but today’s tooth-cracking episode has rather changed my outlook!

I hope that everyone else is enjoying a much smoother, less painful and more enjoyable start to the year. I’ll hopefully be back next week with a more positive outlook, and maybe even some ‘resolutions’ for the year ahead!

The post Well hello 2024! appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

As I’m sure many followers of my painting progress will know, I’m especially attracted to shadows and contrasts. I’d go as far as to say that without a bright source of light and strongly cast shadows, I struggle to get excited about a subject, and this isn’t a great position in which to find myself!

I think that’s why this week’s subject caught my interest. It’s an image that a friend shared a while ago. What I liked about it was that although the light was flat, it still had a sense of drama and, while there wasn’t a strong source of sunlight, there were some great contrasts between the lights of the wet road, and the darks of the hedgerows.

I’m not sure that I managed to do the image justice but, even though I struggled with this much more that I’d like to admit, I was pleased to see it through.

I’m delighted to report that my daughter’s birthday party and sleepover was a great success (especially if you judge success by the amount of clearing up that needs to be done!) and that with anti-inflammatories and stretches, my back is recovering day by day.

Hopefully I’ll be able to return to a more dedicated painting routine soon.

The post No shadows watercolour painting! appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep the mind and hand engaged with some sketching. Here’s the latest three woodland sketches that I’ve done. The first two are views from my local park, while the third is one from one of my recent camping trips when we stayed in a forest.

These are painted in my A4 sketchbook and I’ve masked each one off to about A5 in size. I’ll probably share them again once the tapes been removed and a mount placed over them but that’ll have to wait for another day!

If you’re wondering whether there’s a reason behind my forestry madness, perhaps I might offer a brief explanation!

At the beginning of the year, I was invited to participate in a group exhibition that would have a loose theme of ‘trees’. Ever since accepting the kind invitation to participate, I’ve had at the back of my mind that at some point later in the year, I need to be able to pull together a collection of paintings that feature trees!

The exhibition isn’t until September, so I do still have some time, but the way things are going, I’m still going to need to pull my finger out! I’ll reveal more about the exhibition in the near future (and hopefully when I’m feeling a little more confident with what I have to offer!)

I do like working on these smaller studies though and, quite often they come out surprisingly well. I’d still like to be working on some larger paintings, but until time allows, these smaller studies will have to suffice.

The post More woodland watercolours! appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

Here’s a painting based on one of the reference photos I took during our recent camping trip. The view looks across some fields from Mill Road in Arundel that runs along the perimeter of Arundel Castle.

I wasn’t sure about this at first, but as I’ve sat with it for a day or two whilst it’s still taped to a board, I’ve increasingly grown to like it!

Latest entries and submissions

Amongst many of the pillars and posts I’ve been pulled between this past week are a few that are directly related to my painting!

I’ve submitted works to both the Atelier Open 2023 and the International Watercolour Masters 2024 competition.

I have submitted to both of these in the past. In 2022 I received a Top 200 merit award from the International Watercolour Masters for my ‘pursuit of excellence’…

…and last year, I had two paintings selected for the Atelier Open exhibition, which is local to me on Brighton seafront. Here are the two half-sheet paintings that were selected in situ:

It’s been nice this year to submit the maximum number possible of paintings to both of these opportunities and, even more so, to compare the paintings that I’ve submitted this year compared to previous submissions. I know I’m often my own harshest critic, but I think there’s been a discernable improvement!

I should hear about the Atelier Open exhibition in the next few weeks, and the exhibition will take place during the summer.

I won’t hear anything about the International Watercolour Masters exhibition until September, which feels like a very long time to keep my fingers crossed!

The post Latest campsite watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I was quite pleased with this painting, but still felt a little disappointed with a few aspects of it. I did have it mind, and still do, to try this view again.

Instead, I found another view taken on the same walk, about half a mile further long the road:

I was particularly pleased with the tree covered hillside in the distance, and I think that the variation of light and colour across the tarmac of the road is effective.

As much as I liked the first painting, I think that this one is more successful overall, but would be interested to hear what others think.

The post Country Lane Watercolour Painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

First up is a scene that I captured following our recent camping trip over Easter. We’d had some pretty heavy rain overnight and during much of the morning but, later in the afternoon, the skies cleared and the sun came out.

I’d taken my camera for a walk as the sun was going down, and this view really caught my eyes… and my ears! It was totally silent, and still – and I this is what I was trying to capture in this scene:

As well as the ‘sound of silence’ I was also taken by the challenge of trying to capture that ‘after the rain’ feel of puddles in the tractor ruts in the field and of the damp reflective earth in the foreground.

I’m happy to admit that I was really pleased with how this one turned out. It’s not exactly the prettiest of scenes, but I really like what it evokes in terms of feeling and mood.

Next up is something even wetter! I’d seen a photograph of a river scene that a friend had posted and I’d saved it because it was very much ‘my type of scene’ – with the exception of a vast expanse of water.

While water has featured in a lot of my paintings, it’s rarely been the most dominant element so I’d sat on this view for a long time.

Suddenly, the time felt right to give it a go. This is a half sheet painting, so quite large, and I was mindful that I wanted to try to paint this in a loose and bold manner (ie not get too caught up in all of the details!).

I don’t mind confessing that I gave myself a headache trying to paint this! The many subtle changes of colour and light in the water pretty much drove me to distraction.

What I was pleased about is that most of the whites that you can see are from the paper. Only at the very end did I feel the need to apply a few dabs and splashes of pretty much neat titanium white to help make it read a little better.

Even when I’d finished this, I was still uncertain about whether I’d captured ‘water’ or a complex series of shadows across a road or lane!

Fortunately, others that have seen this have recognised it’s watery qualities straight away, which is both a huge relief and tremendously gratifying too!

It’s really nice to be able to post two paintings that, in their own distinctly different but similarly watery ways, I’m really pleased with!

The post Some distinctly watery watercolour paintings! appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

Cutting straight to the watercolour chase then, here’s a painting that I’ve done based on a reference photo that I took during our recent camping trip. The view is along Streat Lane, in East Sussex that leads to the campsite that we stayed at.

I was pretty pleased with how this turned out, though also slightly frustrated as it was very nearly a lot better too!

There was a delightful lattice work of shadows across this lane from the light piercing the hedge on the right hand side. Sadly, I lost all of this detail when trying to rescue the shadow wash that I’d applied, which was far too dark. In an effort to lighten it, I sprayed with water, but this then diffused the wash across my filigree shadow work!

There was no need to tell you this, as I doubt you’d be any the wiser, but as I consider this blog to be a safe space (relatively speaking) where I can be honest about my ups and downs!

Foreground shadows aside, I was pleased with much of this. For the telegraph pole on the left, which was one of the final additions, I used masking tape to mask off either side of the telegraph pole. I felt it was important to keep the edges of this crisp and straight and not to try to rely on doing this entirely freehand, particularly as I wanted to to have it lighter on one side than the other.

I’d not done this before but was pleased with how it turned out. I might revisit this view again, but next time try to retain the filigree foreground shadow which I think would really help to lift this.

The post Camping inspired watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.