Art Class - week 2

image: Autumn Tree

watercolour on Cotman 140lb, not, 300gsm

For the second week of the art class, we were asked to bring in a selection of magazine cuttings, photographs etc., and Miss would then look through them with us to decide which one to paint. As I like to do original work, I looked through some of my photos a few days before to see if I could dig up something worthwhile to paint. I printed a few of the best out on the computer at A4 size.

Once at the art class, I duly got out my paint kit and set up my board with paper stretched and turned to get my prepared photos. Do you know I couldn't think which folder I'd put them in and I was searching away when it began to dawn on me that I'd left them at home. 'Oh no' I thought, 'I'm not going to end up painting an animal again am I?' Well I wasn't, so the only thing to do was dash back home and fetch the printouts. I cursed all the way there and back! This made me late starting - again.

The subject we agreed on was a phone pic I took last autumn of one of the first trees I noticed changing it's foliage to lovely autumn colours. I gained time here, as a minimal pencil sketch was all I needed before getting to work with the paint. My main ambition with this picture was to try and keep my work loose and just let the paint flow around the paper. I remembered speaking to the tutor last week about wanting to loosen up a bit. She said that some people work tight and others work loose, but she didn't seem to worry about how we did it, just the result. I managed to finish the picture within class time, and the above is the result.

 After a bad start that evening, things took a turn for the worst, in fact, disaster! In my haste to get back home, I carried all my kit out to the car parked on the roadside and lodged everything against the car wheel while I unlocked it. Then I placed everthing on the back seat and drove home. On unloading the car, I couldn't find my painting kit anywhere, and another terrible thought dawned on me once again - yes, you guessed it, I'd left my paints behind somewhere in the road! I was frantic! All my brushes, pencils, paints and other kit must have cost me a few hundred pounds over the years, and now they were all gone. Again I rushed back in the car to see if they were still there where I had parked. As I turned the corner back at the venue, my heart jumped into my mouth as I saw the road was bear. GONE!

As it happened, a fellow artist had picked them up and taken them home for me. Phew what a relief, and I am now a deeply indebted man...

In conclusion, as far as compostion is concerned, this isn't much of a picture, though I suppose the tree is the main point of attraction. I think I worked pretty loose (well, for me anyway) and I like the way some of the colours mingled into each other. To make more of a picture of this, I think I would need to add a little more detail and get some more darks in there, but for this exercise, maybe I've done enough.