Out sketching today in the spring subshine, I had to remind myself that you don’t have to wait for the perfect view before you start to sketch. Indeed, its a good discipline to plonk yourself down and draw what you see.
Here’s a rare (for me) watercolour from a few years back. It’s on a lovely handmade watercolour paper that I wanted to do justice to!
I enjoyed this portrait painting demo by Edgar Silva. He demonstrates a very traditional technique but it gets results!
Tags: How to Paint, Video
I’m quite obsessed about the way the seasons change the landscape, about how the same view in summer is completely different from the same view in winter. Many of my paintings are inspired by these seasonal changes.
But seascapes like this one (above) don’t change with the seasons and that, too, is part of their charm. Here’s a seascape that could have been painted at any time of the year, and is therefore timeless.
I took a walk through the Lancashire countryside today and recorded my thoughts in the form of a podcast. I talked about how the landscape changes between the seasons, and even week-by-week. The podcast lasts just under 2 minutes. Press the play button and make sure your speakers are on. Apologies for the heavy breathing – I was trying to walk and talk at the same time.
vermeer.street-delft, originally uploaded by archi01.
I’m working on a commissioned painting of a house at the moment, and one of the hardest decisions to make (in any painting of a building) is “do I try and paint every brick?”). These days it’s fashionable to say “no, just suggest a few bricks and let the viewer’s imagination do the rest”.
Well, here’s Vermeer’s response to that problem and he’s certainly of the “paint every brick” school of thought.
But just look at the way he painted those bricks: a simple brown body colour and then a fine (sable?) brush to indicate the mortar. No complexity, just perfect brush control.
And while were here, see the cobbles in the foreground? He’s just used a slightly bigger brush and a wriggling line – but the effect is spot on!
Hmmm, plenty to ponder and learn here as I try to finish this commission…
Advancing Storm (Tockholes Farm), originally uploaded by David Pott.
It’s the suddenly changing effects of the weather that inspire me most frequently to paint. A couple of years ago I noticed an advancing bank of dark grey cloud about to obscure the otherwise blue sky and, suddenly, an unremarkable view of this farmhouse in Tockholes, Lancashire was transformed.
Tags: Lancashire, Tockholes, weather
I’m often asked if I do commissions, and yes, I do. Here’s a painting I was commissioned to paint a couple of years ago - a view of Grasmere in the English Lake District. Its a long time since I finished the painting but I stumbled on this photo of it today and was pleased with the work I’d done. Its always a good sign when a painting still looks good after a couple of years!
Tags: Art, commission, Grasmere, landscape, Painting
I sometimes post short clips on YouTube where I just pan the camera around to record the sights and sounds of the countryside.
Last night I realised that, completely by accident, I had duplicated two videos, shooting one on a bright spring morning and the other on a snowy winter’s afternoon but both at exactly the same location.
Viewing them side-by-side you can really see how different the winter forest is from the springtime version of itself. It struck me that winter really is like a different country! See for yourself, the two videos are here:
You can see my other videos at www.youtube.com/pottd
Here’s a time-lapse video of one of my paintings. The landscape is a view of the Langdales in Cumbria. It’s been on YouTube for a couple of years and seems very popular! It lasts for about 30 seconds and there’s no sound.
Tags: demo, landscape, Painting, step-by-step, Video
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