Teaching in Bath, United Kingdom. July 2016.

I flew into Heathrow and headed straight to Bath to prepare to teach another 5 day watercolour workshop. It's terrific having that much time to thoroughly introduce watercolour to both new and more experienced participants.

My students spent the week getting familiar with their colours, making colour wheels and charts and painting a range of studies exploring many watercolour techniques. Washes, softening edges, glazing, wet-in-wet, dry-brush, splatter, salt...so many techniques to play with and explore :-)

Before and after classes, I headed down to the river to sketch the beautiful Pulteney Bridge - one of only three such bridges in the world, the others being the Rialto and the Ponte Vecchio.

Bath is full of gorgeous sandstone. We sketching just a little as part of the watercolour workshop and will do a little more in the repeat workshop in July 2017. We are considering an Urban Sketching week in 2018 though need to figure out great locations in case of rain.

I visited the Roman Baths in the evening. It's lovely to see the transition between the ancient bath house and the more recent upper story additions. 

I then visited the enormous Art in Action event, a massive festival of arts near Oxford, before catching a cross-country bus to Cambridge.

Sketching around Sydney

In between teaching my classes and workshops, I have been doing a lot of studies with materials, painting images for the books I am working on and getting out sketching around Sydney most weeks. Here are a few of the sketches I have done in and around Sydney in the last couple of months. More to come.

This was done on Saturday with the Urban Sketchers. I have always love this building and wanted to explore a few different elements on the same page. I started on the right with the lovely arch- ways over the stairs, then moved to the pattern of the floor at the bottom of the page, then moved to the purple stained glass window (and realised I haven't used purple while sketching!) then moved outside to add one of the domes. I added the logo later.

Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, in Canson mixed media spiral.

 This was painted on a gorgeous day at the end of May. It was very difficult to believe Winter was about to arrive.

A gate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

This was painted on the open day at Strickland House. It's a beautiful building in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney on stunning grounds overlooking the harbour. The grounds are open to the public for picnics and so on but it is more rare to be able to go inside.

I did this series of studies of the architectural details inside the house. I was testing out different water soluble inks, pens and pencils and the details were a nice subject.

Architectural details of Strickland House.

I am teaching a workshop on watercolour and plein air sketching at Art Est at the beginning of July and it is always fun to try out materials for classes.

My tiny travel kit

I have been doing a number of studies and experiments in my sketchbook which I may add at some stage, but for now, here's a sketch of one of my tiny travel kits. I have a little palette, a pencil, a water-brush, a travel brush and a kneadable eraser with me all the time. I then take a pocket notebook or watercolour sketchbook and I'm set for anything I may come across while I am out and about.

My very portable watercolour travel kit, painted in a Stillman & Birn Alpha landscape sketchbook.

Next up is a study of my full plein air kit. I also use this for my teaching and there is quite a bit in it so it will take more doing! 

(See it all here!)

July 2014 update

Here is the case I use, from Moleskine. The small multi-purpose hard shell.

Another trip to Cockatoo Island - just for fun

Liz and I spent a great day at Cockatoo Island, something we've talked about doing for a while since it seems to be a favourite place for both of us.

Liz sketches very fast and my challenge was to try to be much faster and freer so I wasn't holding her up too much. While she still did two or three sketches to my one, I also worked on A4 Moleskine this time rather than my usual A5 so I had a bit more splash room. A great day. She tells it pretty well...here.

We started at the old electrical boxes, as the weather was looking threatening and these were something I'd seen a number of studies of at the Urban Sketchers workshop and wanted to tackle without getting too fiddly....

Old electrical boxes at Cockatoo Island

The we went to the convict area. Last time I went to this part of the island it was stinking hot so this was a good day to paint this lovely wall.

A wonderful sandstone wall at Cockatoo Island

And after a well earned lunch with some compulsory paint and pigment chat, we went to draw the crane. It started to rain so we took shelter in one of the tunnels. Liz did three paintings while I did this one but I have still managed to be a bit looser than usual.

One of the many rusting cranes at Cockatoo Island

A great day with a good friend!

Pocket palette

This is a really clever idea from Maria Coryell-Martin. It is a pocket travel palette the size of a business card holder. It holds 14 colours in small, shallow metal pans that are held in by a magnet. Such a good idea! You can read about how it was developed on her website.

Pocket Palette from
http://expeditionaryart.com/shop/product/pocket-palette/

The palette open as it arrives.

There is no doubt it is small with a very flat mixing area, but if you are working with a water-brush on a small sketchbook, which was the intention for this palette, then it is amazing how little paint you actually need. I've just filled mine with my ultimate mixing palette that you can see here. I'll try it out and will be curious to see how long the paint will last.

Mine filled with my perfect beginner palette selections.

She sells extra pans and also larger square pans (that hold as much paint as a half pan) if you want to work with less colours. Her sample colours are lovely, and coming from Seattle it's not surprising that they are Daniel Smith. Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Pyrrol Red, Quinacridone Rose, Indanthrone Blue, Phthalo Blue RS and Phthalo Green BS.

Here is my new Pocket Palette all filled up, along with the optional larger pans, it's protective bag,
and the sample colours Maria recommends.

So if ever you are looking for a super-slim travel palette, this could be for you! I just think it is a lovely idea and worthy of sharing.


2018 update - the palette has been slightly re-designed with an edge to the mixing area and the extra tabs on the lower lip removed. It is also now in aluminium so is even lighter.

The little pans are now coated to resist rust and come in half sizes. I have shown one here made up with my Ultimate Mixing Set. The phthalo blue and phthalo green are in the new tiny pans. I think for urban sketching pyrrol scarlet and pyrrol crimson are better as tiny pans.

There are also super larger pans - the size of 4 normal ones - that some use as an extra mixing space.

If you want one in Australia let me know as I have them filled (AU$90) or empty (AU$40) plus shipping.

Cockatoo Island

I have been planning to spend a day at Cockatoo Island for some time and finally made it today. Many of my students went, along with the Sydney Sketch Club. Over 60 sketchers spread all over the place drawing or painting away. Great stuff!

I was interested in the way the water has leaked and created wonderful washes of minerals and colour on the walls, which were already an interesting mix of brick and stone and paint.

My first 'wall' study. Watercolour in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

The second wall with the ladder going up to no where in particular. Watercolour in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

One of the many defunct machines. Watercolour and sepia pen in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

 I could spend a year painting and drawing at that place. So many ideas for abstract compositions too....