Watercolour Pan

Watercolour Pan

Oil on ceramic tile

24x24mm

$60

Chinese Brush Painting/ Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Watercolour in sketchbook

This is one of the little self portrait sketches I have been making on a daily basis. I include it here as it's watercolour and I was trying out an unusual technique I discovered. I covered the whole page with a light wash and then drew into it using one of those pencil erasers. This makes a rather nice soft line and I like the idea of drawing with an eraser.

Chinese Brush Painting

Watercolour on Paper

$100

sold

This subject appealed to my perverse sense of humour.

Mixed Fruit

Three Limes in a Bowl
Watercolour on Velin De Lana
$150

Saucer of Fruit on Small Book

Watercolour on gessoed cardboard

$100

I was happy with the lively nature of the second one here. I tryed working on gessoed card which has a quite different feel about it to paper. The paint sits on the surface more and you can wipe it off more easily to correct things.

Persimmon and Other Things

Another mixed bag. I wanted to paint the Persimmon, but I felt frustrated with the watercolour medium. It would be so easy to get what I wanted using oil, but I'm stubborn when I decide I want to learn some new technique so I kept plodding along.

Persimmon
Watercolour on Velin De Lana
$100

The following small sketches on the sample paper were made on the same day as a kind of relief after the failure with the Persimmon. The limes in the bowl reminded me of eggs in a nest. I'm quite pleased with the pencil Eraser.

Limes in Small Black Bowl

Watercolour, ink and pastel on paper

$80

Pencil Eraser

Watercolour and pastel on paper

$80

Two Self Portraits

Ink and pastel on paper

Sold together for $100

Smooth Banana and Golden Tamarillo

Smooth Banana

Watercolour on Banana Paper

105x150mm

$100

Well I had to didn't I....?

"Come Mister Tally Man

Tally me bananas

Daylight come

and I wanna go home."

Golden Tamarillo
Coloured Pencil on Paper
$80

I've had dozens of coloured pencils in jars on the shelf for about twenty years or more and yesterday I dusted them off and sharpened them up, resulting in this little study.

Lemons

Lemon in Blue Bowl

watercolour on Arches Paper

$100

Cut Lemon

Watercolour on Strathmore Paper

$80

Hand With Pencil

Hand With Pencil

Charcoal and Watercolour on Sample paper

150x105mm

I feel like I'm going through an odd and restless time with my painting. I don't really know what direction to take. I jump from one thing to another with little concentration. I've been keeping a little sketchbook of daily self portrait drawings and I did some in charcoal. Then I looked at my hand with charcoal on the fingers and wanted to paint that. But it's difficult to do and I ended up with the charcoal pencil stuck in my hand so I thought - thats interesting too. But they are very rough because it's the same hand I'm painting with if that makes sense.

Cutting Edge Watercolours

Ladies Shaver

Watercolour on Sample Paper

105x150mm

$80

Blunt Scissors

Watercolour on Sample Paper
150x105mm
$80

Orange Plastic Knife
Watercolour on Sample Paper
105x150mm
$80

Another trio of watercolours quickly executed on various sample papers. It's always a bit hit or miss because I never know how the watercolour will react on the different paper. Everyone is different and these are not specificly made for the watercolour medium. Many of them are unsized and suck the paint up as soon as I touch the paper. Hence the "blunt" scissors. I didn't see any connection between the images until I posted them here and realised they are all cutting implements. I don't know what that says about my unconscious...?

Empty Black Bowl With Big Spoon

Empty Black Bowl

Pastel on Black Khadi Paper

105x150mm

$100

Another couple of "samples". The simplest subjects like this empty bowl always seem to give the most trouble. After I'd finished I thought I'd do a spoon to go with the bowl. It took about three minutes. If anyone wants both together I'll sell them at $150.

Big Spoon With Shadow

Pastel and watercolour on Khadi - Stone

150x105mm

$80

Four Quick Sketches

Apple and Bottle at the Window

Watercolour on paper

150x105mm

White Mask on the Floor

Watercolour on paper

Aprox 150x90mm

Self Portrait

Pastel on paper

150x105

Tin Can With Pink Peg

pastel on paper

150x105mm

This motley collection of quick sketches was done on various sample papers. I love paper and it's fun trying out different kinds. I did these the same afternoon after the Guavas, one after the other. I just chose random subjects in the immediate vincinity. If anyone wants one - $80.

Six Guavas

Six Guavas
Watercolour on Rag Paper

85x210mm
$100

Apple on Wooden Block

Apple on Wooden Block

Watercolour on Abaca Rice Straw (Light)

$80

Sold

I spent a couple of hours labouring over an apple. It was a bad apple. Out of frustration and a sense of lack of achievement, I grabbed this little paper sample and painted a very quick and spontanious apple that I was much happier about.

It's often the way - you have to spend the hours doing the labourious and uninspired in order to do something quickly and more lively.

Match Box and a Toffee

Beehive Match Box

Watercolour On Velin de Lana
130 90mm
$100

This is one of the old Beehive boxes. I don't like the new ones which are just red, white and black. I botched the lettering of "Beehive" and it looks like it could almost be "Beehave". I also stuck my signature on the box.

Wrapped Toffee

Watercolour on paper

110x110mm

$80

I got some new tubes of watercolours and in the package from the art suppliers they always include a couple of toffees. I couldn't resist trying out the new colours on a toffee.

Late Capsicum

Red Capsicum Pepper
Watercolour on Velin de Lana
90x255mm

$150

This was a small capsicum I grew. I thought I'd found them all, but I saw a gleam of red amongst the weeds the other day and there this was.

Cotton Bud and Match

Cotton Bud

Watercolour on Velin de Lana

95x130mm or 3.5x5"

$80

Diagonal Match
Watercolour on Velin de Lana
95x130mm or 3.5x5"

$80

Cotton Bud With Match
Watercolour on Velin de Lana
95x130mm or 3.5x5"

$80

I painted a cotton bud I'd been using to smudge pastel. I wasn't very happy with the first attempt so I abandoned it and started again resulting in the version at the top here. Then I went back to the earlier version and worked on it some more and added the balancing match. Then I felt like painting a match by itself.

Two Small Watercolours

Surf Highway With Cows

Watercolour on Velin de Lana

130x180mm or 5x7"

$80

Pink Peg
Watercolour on Saunders Paper
130x180mm or 5x7"
$80

A view out the window and another go at the pink plastic clothespeg.

4B Pencil

4B Pencil
Watercolour on Velin de Lana

130x180mm or 5x7"

$100

sold

This one's got my name on it.

Camelias in Crystal Vase

Camelias in Crystal Vase
Watercolour on Velin De Lana

370x270mm or approx 14x10.5"

Not sure about this one. I didn't really work quickly enough and the camelias opened out and dropped their petals. I'm not really happy with anything I'm doing at the moment.

Two Sketches of My Parents

Dad, Mum

Watercolour on paper

NFS

I did these rapid sketches of my parents the other day.

Red Capsicum

Red Capsicum
Pastel and watercolour on paper

170x160mm or approx 6.5x6.5"

$100

Another of the oddities I've been doing recently. It was started in watercolour but didn't go very well and I reworked it with chalk pastel, another interesting medium I havn't used for about ten years or more. Click here to see some early work in pastel. It may not be a great work of art but it's a nice feeling to reaquaint myself with these mediums.