Palm

Palm
Watercolour
40cm x 50cm or 16 inches x 20 inches

Phew! That was complicated to paint! I was wandering through Trebah Gardens and couldn't resist the light on these leaves. There appeared to be such strict symmetry amongst such turbulence of colour and shape, I was hooked. I did feel a bit like Rolf Harris while painting it..."can you see what it is yet?"
I started with a bit of a drawing, trying to plan I suppose, I was going to make careful use of masking fluid but I found doing that was utterly confusing. So I carried on in pure watercolour, laying down many washes, gradually building up the picture, delving into the jungle. I wanted to get the essence of the shadow on the long leaves and the feeling of amazing order among the chaos, the splashes of bright light and the huge array of greens and yellows.

Here are a couple of details but if you click on any of the pictures they will be much easier to see how the paint is placed, if you are interested in that sort of thing!

Tree Fern

Tree Fern
Watercolour
42cm x 56cm or 16.5 inches x 22 inches.

Prehistoric tree ferns, a slight mist rising in the warm air, deep steamy jungle, the luscious fronds making a canopy of dappled shade.

Bamboo

Bamboo
Watercolour
42cm x 56cm or 16.5 inches x 22 inches

Far far away, down at the secret end of Cornwall is a sub-tropical garden, in the sub-tropical garden there is a bamboo maze, inside the bamboo maze there is a bamboo seat, on the bamboo seat sits a happy artist, in the happy artists hand is a scrawling pencil, underneath the scrawling pencil is a scribbly sketchbook, out of the scribbly sketchbook comes the scribbly sketch, from the scribbly sketch comes a splashy watercolour, after some time the splashy watercolour becomes a painting... and here it is. Bam! Boo!

The Night Garden

The Night Garden   SOLD
Watercolour
40cm x 40cm or 16inches x 16 inches

By the light of a full moon a garden becomes the stuff of fairy tales. It is perfectly possible to imagine all manner of magical beings inhabiting a world such as this. The tall bamboos and the giant gunnera all conspire to invert your own sense of scale, the silvery light throws unexpected shadows and conjure up another time.
This was a little sneaky of me to go here after dark but a bit of stealthy paddling and a tiptoe across a pebbly beach opened up such riches that I couldn't resist... I took nothing, only memories, some sketches and I left a few wet footprints, that's all.

Detail showing the white bridge, now an inky silhoutte

Detail showing the moon as she peeps through a troubled sky.

Night Lights

Night Lights  SOLD
Oil
15cm x 15cm or 6 inches x 6 inches

I was out and about, making the most of the full moon, actually I think it if fully full tomorrow. This is a little study of what I assume to be a night fisherman, maybe it wasn't, could have been someone like me, intent on a little moon gazing. Or something else entirely!

Helford Regatta.

Helford Regatta.  SOLD

Watercolour

40cm x 40cm or 16inches x 16 inches

Fireworks at the end of the Regatta. Chest punching booms and gasps of delight as the night is illuminated in brief glorious bursts. Colours flash and fizz into the water in defiance of the inky black of a summer evening.

Trebah Gardens

Trebah Gardens

Watercolour

Large Moleskine

Trebah Gardens drop down through a massive variety of tall trees and huge shrubs, different foliage making patterns everywhere. Wandering through groves of tree ferns and giant gunnera, past bamboo forests to a tiny beach where in June 1944 the American troops left for Omaha in Normandy. It is hard to imagine, standing among all this lush verdant peace, what awaited those poor men, what they must have been feeling, they were so young. There is a little memorial there, a bit moss covered now but still important.