Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Low Sun - February

watercolour 15x10cm

It’s February, and I find I’ve nothing ready-to-post except Window Work. Most of the window work stuff is of figures – pencil nowadays - but this one’s a quick tiny watercolour of the sun going down behind the buildings up the road.

Before continuing, I should draw your attention to the new ‘Works in Progress 2018–’ link near the top of the list of links to the right. It’s hosted on Google Photos, but should be viewable publicly. It’s the same format as the previous ‘Works in Progress’ in that it shows the progress stages and layers of each painting. Once opened - if you click the ‘info’ symbol - there’s text detailing the pigments, mediums, and brushes used for each session (mostly). It’s done primarily for my own benefit, as an online record of what I’ve used for a particular passage of painting or effect for when I’ve forgotten later, but it’s open for anyone to see if they’re interested. The previous ‘Works in Progress’ has about four years’ worth on it and was starting get a bit unwieldy to update. Both ‘W.I.Ps' are under the heading ‘Evolution’ on the right of the blog page – where there’s also another link to ‘Much, much Older Paintings'. These are from the 1970s and 80s, and I may post better photos, or put up more paintings or drawings from days gone by, if and when I feel like it. Very, very few people have actually seen these, and some of them do have some merit, even if they seem a bit raw. All quite different from the current work. OK, back to the post proper now.

Madam and I had not long done our usual pilgrimage to see the Turner watercolours at the National Gallery of Scotland (they are displayed every January, when the light levels are lowest) and that always gives me a little kick in the direction of watercolour. So…

This little sketch was done at about 4pm on the 6th of February, and was the first little ‘Sun Sketch’ of the year. The street we live on runs about SW/NE, and we have bit of a bay window jutting out that looks all the way up the road. We get direct mid-afternoon to evening sunshine for most of the year, but the sun dips behind the far roofs in November and doesn’t make it above them for a while. It returns in the first week of February, and as that time approaches the streetlamps’ shadows are stretched almost parallel to the kerbs and building fronts, and pedestrians drag long 30metre shadows behind them. It’s a great moment when the first strip of sunlight finally edges into the front room and blazes onto the interior wall. It’s a sign that winter’s being shown the door, and there are cheers and hugs all round – even the cats sit on the window table and stretch up to catch the light.

Anyway, when the sun came in over my shoulder I just stopped the easel work and sat down with a little watercolour block pad and sloshed away. I let it dry overnight, and then scratched out the whites of the sun and the cloud streaks above it. 

I was fresh from seeing Turner's watercolours, after all…