I started to have my sketchbooks available for people to browse through when I exhibited back in May during the Artists Open Houses exhibition. They proved really popular and a great discussion starter.

As many of you will already know, I quite often take my most successful sketchbook studies and have them mounted or framed. I had considering doing this with this painting but after a brief discussion with my partner, confidante and closest advisor, I decided against it, despite liking it very much!

I was particularly thrilled then when a visitor to the exhibition expressed an interest in this sketch and enquired whether it was available to buy!

I was more than happy to confirm that it was indeed available to purchase, and that I could supply it mounted and framed.

The potential buyer then asked if it would be ok to take a photo of the sketch as this would need to be a joint decision with someone that wasn’t able to make the exhibition. Again, I was more than happy to oblige, but didn’t really expect anything to come of it.

I was quite naturally thrilled when, after the exhibition had finished, I received a message via my website to say that they both liked my work and would very much like to purchase this mounted and framed.

The icing on the cake was when I delivered the painting and discovered that the buyer was a doctor! There was something about a doctor buying a painting of a baker that I found especially pleasing – perhaps because without either of them, my life would certainly be much poorer in so many ways!

The post The baker – sold appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

We first came across this bar when exploring Barcelona around Easter time in 2017. My affection for this bar is largely based on memories and associations. I remember that we stopped for a cheeky late morning beer. The place was pretty empty at the time and the music was great, and while I can’t remember specifics, I do remember thinking that this was brilliant! The light was streaming in and I managed to get quite a few pictures. This is the first painting I did of this view, though I didn’t paint this until 2020, three years after our visit:

Not that long after painting this effort, I did another one from the same set of reference photos. I remember that I wanted to capture something altogether warmer. My first effort was very blue and far too cool in temperature.

This one was much warmer and, I think more successful as a result.

At this point, I still had no idea what this bar was called, or indeed where it was in Barcelona!

When we returned to Barcelona in 2022, we retraced out steps to find this very spot, in Plaza del Sol. Not only did we find the bar, but we also got to meet the owner, and Mattias, the barman that features in these paintings!

Needless to say we enjoyed some more drinks here, though the photos I got on this occasion weren’t anywhere near as good as on our 2017 trip!

Maybe it’s because I have such fond memories of this bar (and Barcelona) that I feel affectionate about each of these paintings, but I think each one offers something slightly different.

I think they also chart my progression as a painter. I do like the ‘warmer’ painting I did in 2021, but I think this most recent effort slightly edges it, but I’d love to hear what others think – which if any do you prefer?

The post Sol de Nit, Barcelona, watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I procrastinated for quite a while before I did anything else with this. This was mainly because I wasn’t sure how best to tackle the rest of it!

The general rule is to work from light to dark, but I could quite see the easy way of doing this with this particular subject. After much pondering, I decided to start with the figures, and work out from there.

My thinking was that if I totally messed these up, then there’d be no point spending too much more time on the rest of it.

Here’s how it turned out after I’d spent some more time with it!

I’d fully intended to take a series of progress shots as this developed, but I’m afraid I got carried away with the process.

As I wrestled with this – wondering at times why I was finding it so challenging – I realised that this subject represents quite a rarity for me.

Whilst I’ve painted lots of interiors before, the lighting of them has usually been from daylight streaming through a window somewhere.

I think that this is the first painting that I can recall that is entirely lit by artificial light sources. I don’t think this is the only reason that I found it challenging – I’m also feeling quite ‘rusty’ – but I think it was a contributing factor.

I’m pleased that I persevered with it though. I like the atmosphere that this evokes. I also found myself romanticising much of my misspent youth (and well beyond!) during which I enjoyed far too many an hour with dear friends in various hostelries putting the world to right.

I hope that this painting captures some of the fondness that I have of those memories.

The post Barflies watercolour painting appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I don’t really want to get into portraiture style likenesses, but I do want to be represent figures that are convincing.

I set myself a challenge to try to paint something where figures where the dominant focal point. I wasn’t seeking photographic likenesses, but I was trying to challenge myself to try to capture a little more than a silhouette.

Here’s how I got on with my challenge:

I quite enjoyed painting parts of this. In fact I enjoyed painting most of it with the exception of the faces! Despite my best intentions to try to painting everything as directly and ‘in one go’ as possible… these faces were painted, over painted, scrubbed out, painted again, then scrubbed out, then painted again… and this went on until I finally just gave up on it.

Even the parts that I’d enjoyed painting had a feel of being overworked.

As I still liked the subject, and felt that I could do a better job of this, I decided that it was worth another attempt.

I think that a certain familiarity with the view, and with having the previous effort so fresh in my mind meant that I was able to approach this with far greater freedom.

As with the previous attempt, the faces of the two figures were the last areas that I worked on. By the time I got to those areas, I was already much more pleased with this painting.

I felt there was so much more light and colour throughout the painting. Most of the bottom two thirds of the painting were painted in one go and not touched again afterwards.

Even mistakes, like on the male baristas left wrist, where the wash from the apron ‘ran through’ the wrist was left without any attempt to rectify or remedy it.

When it came to the faces I did somewhat inevitably tighten up. I did try to avoid too much fiddling, and I didn’t mess about anywhere near as much as I did on the first effort.

I do think that the overall result is much cleaner and fresher than my first attempt.

I still think there’s room for improvement but I found this to be a really valuable exercise. I doubt I’ll try this view again (for a while at least) but I’m hoping it’s a step in the right direction for some more varied approaches to included figures in my paintings.

Here are the two efforts side by side for ease of comparison:

Well that’s my opinion on these two efforts but I’d love to hear if others agree with me, or whether some people prefer my first effort?

The post The baristas – watercolour paintings appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

After after a few weeks governed by deadlines and things that may be related to my watercolour endeavours but not actually painting, it’s been nice to spend a bit of time painting for painting’s sake!

After my exhibition at Danny House I was keen to try to capture in paint something from the magnificent interior.

We packed up the exhibition on Sunday afternoon after the exhibition had closed. This involved packing up all our work and the display boards and then returning all the furniture to the Great Hall. Once the furniture was in place, there were a few people milling around and I captured a few photographs, one of which I thought would make the basis for a quick painting:

I was quite pleased with how this turned out and I did enjoy painting it. The figure facing towards the viewer, and especially the face, leaves a lot to be desired but overall (and from a distance!), it does capture the feel and atmosphere that I recall from the afternoon. I also like the colour harmony that runs throughout this painting which I think really unifies all the elements.

Feeling enthused by this interior painting, I set about tackling another much busier interior view:

Again, I was pleased with how this one turned out too! I did really enjoy painting this and particularly how it developed. I really lost myself in this as I painted it and it gradually took on a life of its own. There are still elements that I’m not overly enamoured with, but I’m pleased that I stopped painting when I did, rather than trying to rectify every element, which I think would have led to it feeling overworked.

A new endeavour!

I’m delighted to announce that some of my work will, for a short time, be on display and available to purchase from the Greenfinch shop in Ticehurst, Kent.

The owner of the shop contacted me after seeing my work on Instagram. The shop specialises in showcasing the work of artists and makers from Kent and Sussex. Following a lovely telephone conversation, I sent over a selection of available paintings and the owner of the shop has chosen a number of framed paintings as well as some mounted paintings for browsers.

The shop stocks a wonderfully eclectic mix of good quality work so it will be really interesting to see how this little venture goes. We’re still working out when I can actually deliver the work but it will be in the coming week or so and should be available to see and buy up until around January. I’ll no doubt be letting people know via this blog and elsewhere too as soon as everything’s in place. If anyone’s in the vicinity of Ticehurst, I hope you’ll consider stopping by, it looks like a lovely shop, in a lovely part of the world, and is perfect for a spot of Christmas shopping. Perhaps followed by a spot of lunch in a nearby hostelry. Maybe even one with an open fire? It’s almost making me feel quite festive!

The post two new watercolour interiors appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I recently had to get to Brighton train station early in the morning to get a train up to London. Aside from the disruption of an unusually early start to the day, it was great to be in Brighton’s wonderful train station before the morning rush hour started.

I arrived in time to get a coffee for the train and was surprised by the light flooding into the station. I had time to get a few photos thinking that I might be able to add to my collection of Brighton station paintings!

When I was sifting through my photos, I was, as usual, drawn toward the station’s incredible architecture. Even as I was planning and composing my painting, at the sketching out stage, my aim was for the station architecture, and especially the roof, to take centre stage.

If only I knew then what I know now

Only as the painting progressed did I start to explore the reference photos in greater detail. At this stage, I began to see that the real fascination in the image was not the station’s roof but the floor! Perhaps it was because I was there so early, and the floor had been cleaned during the night and its polished sheen not yet trampled upon by hordes of commuters, but the mixture of shadows and reflections was wonderful.

Had I the presence of mind to spot this from the outset, I think I’d have tackled this painting differently. I tried to indicate some of the intricacies of the shadows and reflections; however, it was too little too late to make much of a difference. Knowing what I know now, I’m keen to have another go at this painting but this time, to go all out on the floor.

It’s hard to view this painting objectively now because all I want to do is to move on to my next interpretation of this scene!

Considering the architecture was what I thought was the most compelling feature, it’s possibly one of the weakest elements of the painting! I was quite pleased with how I’d managed to simplify an enormous amount of visual clutter, and the figures are a little more varied and balanced than in some of my paintings, which is encouraging, but the more I look at this, the more I want to start it all over again!

I’m afraid there won’t be any prizes for guessing what I expect to be sharing with you in a week’s time!

Look what came in the post!

You may remember that earlier this year I was one of the artists selected to represent England and Wales at the Fabriano Acquarello convention in Bologna. It was a nice treat to receive the catalogue from this year’s convention that took place in May. It’s quite a publication! At over 700 pages long, it probably includes well over 1,000 artists from all over the world! I’m hoping to spend some time flipping through this in the weeks ahead and hope that it may introduce me to lots of other watercolour artists to be inspired by!

Atelier by the Sea Open exhibition

This is just a quick reminder that the Atelier by the Sea Open Exhibition begins this week! The exhibition will open to the public on Friday 15th July and will run until 3rd September. For anyone unable to make the exhibition in person, all the works will also be available to view and buy on the gallery’s website.

The post Watercolour painting of Brighton train station before the rush hour appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

With this at the forefront of mind then, here are a couple of quick paintings!

Two colours, two brushes, one sketch

This first quick study is based on a black and white photo by Swiss photographer René Burri (1933-2014). I was really attracted to the monochrome of photo and the highlights:

When I started painting this, my main intention was to work as quickly and fluidly as possible and throughout, I endeavoured to hold my brushes as near to the top as possible, even when trying to cut around the highlighted areas, to encourage more fluid and expressive brush strokes.

I started off with a base wash of burn sienna, that went pretty much everywhere except for the highlights on the faces and clothes of the figures. On top of this wash, I applied a darker wash using a new addition – Sepia. This was the first time I’ve ever painted with it. I bought it as I thought it might add a different dimension to my darks – some of which I often find I go a little too strong with.

I was considering adding in some other colour tints when I decided to limit myself to just using two the two colours and, as I’d only used two brushes up until this point, I also decided to limit myself to just the two brushes too!

And the finished sketch:

I was quite pleased with how this turned out. From a distance it reads quite well and I was pleased that I was able to resist the temptation to fiddle unnecessarily. As a study, I think it’s the kind of thing I should be trying to do more often. I still think that the brushstrokes, especially when I was trying to carefully cut around shapes and highlights, lack a little energy and expressiveness, but that’s exactly what practising this type of study will help to develop.

Buena Vista Social Club Watercolour Painting

I received an ad on Facebook recently from one of Brighton’s many music venues. The ad featured a crop of the iconic Buena Vista Social Club image:

I wasn’t sure why at the time, but I rather absently mindedly saved the image. When I came to looking for some inspiration, I realised why I’d saved it! I think it was because it featured so many elements that are common to Alvaro Castagnet’s images and which are on my mind following the most recent workshop. The strong shadows, bold contrasts and lost and found edges on the cars are all key features in his paintings that I’m also strongly drawn to.

What followed was a quick outline sketch followed by an almost as quick painting! I wasn’t setting out to do a photographic reproduction of this image, more just to use it as a basis for practising the principles of what I’ve been learning.

I started off with light wash of yellow ochre across all of the buildings and the road, being mindful to cut around the hat of the figure in the foreground and, to his right, the figures on a bike. While this was wet, I also added in the sky using a mix of cerulean and cobalt blue. Again, while this wash was still wet, I added in some burnt sienna into the road in the foreground, some cobalt blue for the car on the right, along with some light brushstrokes of cobalt blue into the road, which were all left to diffuse. This was then all left to dry.

In the original image, the tone of the shadows is dark right from the foreground right through to the far distance. I wanted to use a little more variety of tone to help create a greater sense of distance. To help me, I broke out some recent purchases that had just arrived!

I’d decided to treat myself to a tube each of Alvaro’s Caliente and Fresco Greys:

I purchased these two tubes from APV Films as I know they supply some of his brushes too. The Caliente Grey is described as:

…a smooth, warm velvety grey on its own, mixes wonderfully with other colours toning them down and adding warmth

“A terrific hue, very powerful, excellent to create strong and warm paintings. In monochrome this wonderful Grey is perfect to achieve a powerful atmosphere with amazing glow. This colour is also perfect to add dramatic highlights and shadows.” Alvaro Castagnet

The Fresco Grey is described as:

…a cool midnight in mass tone and a cooling mist in washes, it mixes well with other colours, toning them down and adding a touch of coolness

“A very powerful and true hue, with no artificial look to it. Passionate and mysterious, great to evoke distant elements of any kind even the unknown…I love the hue.” Alvaro Castagnet

I’ve shown the labels of the paints to share what colours these two greys are comprised of. I already carry most of these colours in my palette (and I already don’t have space in my palette for these new colours!). Theoretically I should be able to mix equivalents to both of these colours with what I already have. I’m hoping however, that having these ‘ready to go’ colours will benefit me in terms of convenience and immediacy.

For anyone interested in learning more about these greys, there’s a lot more information available on this Daniel Smith blogpost which is dedicated to these two colours. The blogpost includes details about the pigments, colour swatches and examples of paintings by Alvaro created using these two different colours.

Back to my painting, however, I started to apply some of the fresco grey to the distant buildings on the right hand side, gradually intensifying the tone as I came towards the foreground. While this was still wet, I started to drop in the dark tones using my new found friend sepia! The cars and their shadows were done in just a few strokes and I was pleased with how these turned out.

The buildings on the left felt altogether darker, and that’s how I treated them, again working from the distant buildings towards the foreground and just trying to indicate the sense of some of the buildings. I had to be a little careful cutting around the figure, and in painting the figure too but by this stage I wasn’t trying to copy the reference image – I was just trying to make the figure work in the painting that had developed.

Once the main figure was in, I just added the suggestion of a few figures in the distance, some directional brushstrokes on the road to lead the eye in and a bit of spattering on the road for some texture and it was all done.

I had fun painting this. Again, I could have fiddled around with this some more, but I doubt it would have improved it any.

It felt good to paint with a sense of urgency, and to put into practice some of the advice and learnings from the most recent workshop. Hopefully these are all things that I can build on and carry forward into future paintings.

The post Buena Vista Social Club Watercolour appeared first on John Haywood Watercolours.

I deliberated long and hard about whether to share the ‘how not to’ painting. Partly because I was just so utterly frustrated by it – when I say ‘it’, I obviously mean myself! – and partly because I could barely bring myself to look at it, let alone share it with others and have to write about it.

All of this however does go to show just how fickle it can be. I expect this isn’t just about watercolour painting, but about all creative endeavour. One minute you have it, you’ve got it cracked and can do no wrong! The next you’ve totally lost it and you’re the one that’s cracked!

This is certainly how it often feels for me, so I thought I should at least have the courage to share my downs with you as well as my ups.

How to watercolour

Disclaimer: A lot of ‘what works’ is all down to taste. It just so happens that my taste is for the more loose approach, trying to portray a feeling of a place, a sense of time, a quality of light, where the evocation of a mood or atmosphere is far more important than any topographical accuracy. These preferences influence what I think works in watercolour and what I seek to achieve in my painting.

For me, this painting works really well:

But what makes it work?

First and foremost for me is the light. I can really feel this light, it has a warmth to it, I can imagine myself in this painting, in fact I would really like to sit at this exact spot, at this exact time of day and experience everything I see in this painting!

Secondly, is how it’s painted. It doesn’t feel laboured. It’s not been overworked, the way the paint has been applied has a confident immediacy and energy to it, with colours mixed on the paper rather than just in the palette. Each passage and brushstroke has been painted once and then left alone, even when it’s not quite right!

There are clear areas of contrast and counterpoint and a wide variety of edges – some soft, some lost, some well defined – that work together to suggest what’s going on, different elements in the scene, without explicitly spelling anything out. There are places for the eye to wander and wonder, as well as to stop and linger.

How not to watercolour

Next up on the easel, was this painting. On the one hand, you could argue that it’s unfair to compare the ‘finished’ effort above with this ‘unfinished’ second one. I would argue however that this painting was finished a long time before I actually stopped painting it!

First off. Where’s the light!?

This is entirely my fault, and here’s how it happened! In the original source material for this, the interior is quite brightly lit from a wide range of electric light sources. They hang from the ceiling, there are lights in the bar on the right hand side and they run along the wall next to the tables down the left hand side. There isn’t one light source, there are lots of them. Where I think I went wrong was to omit these light sources (mainly because I thought the lights themselves were unattractive / a nightmare to paint!) without replacing them with any other discernible light source. This meant that creating any sense of atmosphere or drama through the use of shadows was really challenging.

From this point on, I think I was just painting without a clear sense of direction, all the while painting and repainting areas leading to muddy passages of overpainting colours and laboured brushwork.

Where the first painting had a feeling of being light and fresh (even in the darker areas), this painting feels leaden in colour and application.

Furthermore, it’s not clear what I was trying to say in this painting, what my own vision for it was. I think this lack of really pinning down what I wanted the final painting to look like, to be able to see it in my mind’s eye and to have a plan for all the elements meant that this painting was flawed from the outset!

I was really surprised by how I could do one painting one day that left me feeling uplifted and bouyant, and then the very next day paint something that left me feeling so utterly dejected and despondent!

Takeaways

These are more notes to self – a little eavesdropping on my internal monologue!

• It’s only some paint, paper and a little bit of time! Really, there’s no harm done!
• Yes, the second painting is disappointing. Yes, it gets me down. But remember how good I felt after the first painting!
• You can’t have the highs without the lows
• One poor painting doesn’t make you a poor painter
• There’s nothing wrong with producing a bad or disappointing painting, it’s to be expected. The important thing is to try to learn from every painting
• Try to be clear with yourself about what it is that attracts you to the view or scene and what you want your painting to look like.
• Trust your instincts about when it’s worth carrying on with a painting (there’s a moment in just about every painting when I want to stop!) but sometimes it’s better to just let a painting go!

These aren’t in anyway encyclopaedic – but these are the ones that have been running through my mind over the past couple of days!

Do you have similar thoughts running through your mind? Do you think I might find any of them helpful? I’d love to hear them!

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