fit-pixels art

Watercolour and digital art

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Watercolour of Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire and which I climbed on many occasions when I was growing up in t'area. Local legend had it that it used to be a mountain until the tip fell off rendering it a lowly hill. This was largely Davey Madeupstuff although it was true that the top did indeed fall off possibly due to a geological fault and local mining; never was it a mountain though. Mostly used flat brushes on this one for any watercolour nerds out there, it just feels better for some reason.

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I was kindly allowed to paint this photo, shot by @soniahunt57, in the watercolours. Trying to keep things simple. It's at the lighthouse end of the beach for them as knows this wonderful part of the country.

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Thirty minute lunchtime plein air from round the corner. Struggling with the wet wash watercolours (and other alliteration) at the moment so this is more in my wheelhouse, comfort zone, soft-play area etc.

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Chuffed with this little plein air from the River Stort near Spellbrook on a very lovely October day as I needed to get it done fairly rapidly and it came in around twenty minutes or so. Bit of a revelation working to a time limit as it forced me to really ignore plenty of detail that normally leads to second guessing and excessive arseing around.

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Painting from my local park using traditional techniques. I think this building used to be a stable back in the day, it's called The Stables Building I do believe which perhaps provides a clue.

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Traditional watercolour (as in wet on wet and reserving the light areas) of a bit of my local park where the fall of light is always a joy when the sun shines.

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Quick plein air watercolour and gouache sketch of the Eucalyptus tree in Lloyd park in Walthamstow near the William Morris museum.

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Plein air with a bit of later touch up; another one from down on Towans beach. Holiday all over now but wishing it wasn't.

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Super quick (15 min), tiny (5"x2.5") early morning plein air painting fun at the lighthouse end of Gwithian beach. No messing around, pigment, water, brush, slap it around, bang!, painting; time for swim. Holidays are great.

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Plein air on Gwithian beach after two or three hilariously bad paintings. So yeah, that point when one starts to think one has no clue what one is doing. Happy with this one though even if the church in the background is probably a bit on the large size or the people in front are perhaps a bit wee.

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Tom’s surf van on the bluff at Hayle. Tom (@hippieviking_) was kind enough to buy this one on the spot from me so whilst I’m a bit sad to let the painting go off to make its own way in the world, it’s nice to know that it’s gone to a good home.

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Plein air of the little harbour at Hayle in west Cornwall. Sold this on the spot to locals Sam and Amelie which was most agreeable.

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Plein air watercolour painting from Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent. This is (hopefully) obviously a tree and not a castle as it was the contrasting light what spoke to me hereabouts but the buildings are pretty cool too. It's a National Trust property originally created by the writer Vita Sackville-West and is designed with various garden 'rooms' although this painting is more on the outer perimeter where there's a compact water feature.

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Quadriptych of Robin Hood's Bay from photos we took on the day. I went out the other evening for a bit of plein air and produced something that went straight in the bin making me think that I had no idea how to actually do this. Needed to get back on the horse or something so I painted these little studies mostly with a 1" flat brush.

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As immortalised in an episode of Vera, this is a quick sketch plein air from Paddy's Hole on Teesmouth near the defunct steelworks. We always end up at this fascinating bit of the coast on our visits to Yorkshire and, apparently, the little harbour was built by Irish labourers from the blast furnace slag.

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Plein air using watercolour and some white gouache at Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby in North Yorkshire. Lovely place this (apart from the walk back up a very steep hill), had some nice chats with various people on the beach and we even saw Morris dancing in the town - there were some other blokes jigging about too but we don't know their names. Anyway, I imagine we'll definitely be going back next time we're oop north.

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Plein air at Coalhouse Fort near Tilbury which was built in the 19th century to protect the Thames estuary (and its accents) from pesky foreign types hell bent on conquest and making us speak funny - not that we'd ever behave like that of course. Currently, the fort itself is closed, or it was when we went, but I do believe it's jolly exciting on the inside as there's big old guns and other mad stuff. Pretty chuffed with this one as I was struggling to find a composition at first and, yeah, it turned out ok, I think.