Painting Holiday
It seems like a long time since we’ve been to Italy. We’re still unable to make plans for our next painting holiday because of the uncertainty surrounding COVID 19. Despite our current lockdown, I’m grateful that I do have a rich supply of sketchbook watercolours painted on location to draw inspiration from. Venetian Reflections is a new watercolour painted on Khadi handmade watercolour paper. For several years now, I’ve been making my own leather-bound sketchbooks, made from Khadi paper. The bookbinder at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle has helped me with the binding process in the past. Lockdown has made this impossible, so I’ve recently purchased a Khadi sketchbook to see me through the next few months.
Sketchbook Watercolours
I’m working on a number of painting commissions at the moment. However, I recently found time to try out some new paint brushes from Frisk Art Materials. The reference I used for Venetian Reflections was a sketchbook watercolour painted on location in 2018. As I was thumbing through the pages, and the reference photographs, I decided to tackle this quiet Venetian canal. My Venetian paintings have always been popular since our first visit in 1991. Painting a scene like this, gives you the opportunity to be loose and expressive with the brush strokes. The same sketchbook contained the study for another Venetian canal seen below which you can read about in another blog post.