It is so rewarding to see a painting come together over a period of time...the question is how long should that period of time be? I've touched on this before. All painters have been asked THE question, "How long did it take you to paint that?". The question, however many times asked, really has no merit when considering a painting or indeed any work of art. Personally I like to take my time over a painting.
With watercolour it is generally true that what you put on the paper ...stays on the paper. It is very difficult to cover up mistakes or change tack half way through a painting. Now you can do this with oil or acrylics, so you can get straight on in and worry about the details as you go along. Not so with watercolours!
It is a must to think about how you are going to approach your painting and this 'thinking' stage can take a long time especially if the subject is a bit complicated. I very rarely start to paint till I am 80% sure how I will finish it - this reduces the risk of making mistakes so I can concentrate on the painting process itself. A good way to start is by making small pencil sketches of your composition so that you get that right before moving on to a large sheet of paper - make your  errors on scrap paper rather than your painting paper.  It is always good too to walk away every so often, to stand back and take a look from a distance rather than close up. Never try to finish a painting if you are tired - far better to  leave it and finish it tomorrow.

Here are some stages of this painting done over several days before it was finally complete.
So have fun with your painting no matter how long (or not!) it takes you.

I was looking at some photographs of old paintings I have done, and came across one entitled 'Out to Sea'. It was a 30" x 20" watercolour that I had painted several years ago during my Gallery Forty-Nine days. We were staying at Flamborough Head for a few days. It had been a bit hectic to say the least. For the first two days my mum stayed with us, then I took her home and picked up Sarah and the girls for two days before we finally had the place to ourselves to finish off the week. After all the excitement we needed a rest so we spent time happily exploring this lovely part of the East Coast of Yorkshire. I remember how struck I was by this scene. The path leads right to the sea and beyond with signs and fence posts framing the whole thing....I thought it had great depth and wanted to paint it. 
Happily the original painting sold fairly quickly so the week was paid for! Here it is:

As I only had a low resolution photo of it, I decided to go back and  paint it again. After all, I still like the composition and I thought it would be interesting to compare now with then- 2006. You will have to make up your own mind which you prefer!
The first one was more exciting... the scene was fresher and I had the challenge of working out how to put onto paper what I was seeing in my head. But the new one just flowed, as I have a lot more experience of controlling the effects I want nowadays. I still  have the same paints (Windsor & Newton) and paper (Saunders Waterford 140lbs CP) so the colours and 'look' are very similiar, though Merice says the recent one is more 'painterly'. I agree with her....it's usually best to! Anyway I have framed the painting and it is now hanging in our bedroom, so I can  truthfully say  "we can see the sea from our bedroom"!

Bridlington Priory is celebrating its 900th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion there will be lots of events taking place in and around the Priory including an auction of art work. This is my contribution and is an iPad painting based on a black and white photograph taken round about the turn of the 20th century of Kirkgate leading up to the Priory itself.
I  like  working with old  black and white prints. For a start off there are no colour distractions which always makes it easier to do the drawing....and that was important as it is quite a detailed scene. Secondly I can use my imagination and use whatever colours I want ! I thought this would be an ideal scene for a 'nocturne' or moonlight painting. There is no better painter of moonlight  than John Atkinson Grimshaw (no..not even Whistler!) so I tried to imagine how he would have set about capturing this scene. The reflections in the wet cobbles certainly set the atmosphere and the lone girl adds an aura of mystery. Is she going to the Priory? Why is she on her own on a damp night like this? You can ask your own questions and give your own answers but she does manage to involve us.

One of the great advantages of the iPad is that you can save your work at every stage. This was the finished drawing and as you can see it is very detailed. I don't usually put so much in a drawing but I was pleased with the way it turned out. I very quickly sketched in the buildings to get the shapes and the perspectives right before washing in a pale green colour over the whole lot. I then reworked the drawing over my original marks but this time taking more time and care to get to this stage. The painting was built up as normal from here.
However because this drawing was saved it means I can use it over and over again without all the boring bit (and painstaking bit!) of having to redraw it. Blue and orange are complementary colours so I thought it would be fun to work over the sketch using just those two colours. The painting was never intended to be totally representational so  I left the drawing lines to show through very clearly and also deliberately highlighted the Priory itself. 

You can purchase prints of either image by clicking on the painting, but if you interested in participating in the auction on behalf of this wonderful historic building please contact me and I will send you full details when they are available.