Author: grahamfindlaywatercolours

I am an artist and teacher based in the Cotswolds, United Kingdom.

Watering can

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Sometimes I use my sketchbook to play around with ideas, try something different, without meaning to create anything in particular. Here I was using a stronger ink line in the sketch, making it play a more dominant part in the finished drawing instead of having it disappear beneath the watercolour when I paint over it. Apart from having the side of the watering can coincide exactly with the centre line of the sketchbook, which is bad designing on my part, I quite like the look of this sketch.

I also like the way the watercolour has behaved. I made the main grey area from French Ultramarine, Indian Red and Yellow Ochre, mixing them very loosely and allowing them to merge on the paper. I also like how dark they went when I added a little Winsor violet. There is also a little Cerulean Blue on the top of the can and on the handle.

Painted in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook portrait format 8×5 inches.

Flower tower

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Some places have hanging baskets to prettify their surroundings. Others have window boxes. In Stow on the Wold they are big on flower towers dotted around the town, to bring some welcome colour to the summer months. The place is also big on vehicles, making it hard to find anywhere to park unless you get up really early in the morning. In reality, there were lots of cars parked behind the tower, and something obscuring some of it in front, so I suppose they have to stack their flower pots on top of each other, otherwise no-one would ever see them.

Door to the old Manse

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I like painting doors and doorways, but it was the old lamps either side of the door and the cascade of flowers above it which caught my eye this morning, in that hour when everyone is preparing for a new day, but not yet ready to welcome the rest of the world.

You may be thinking that it is an odd name for a hotel. It is actually the ‘Old Manse Hotel’, but the flowers have hidden the middle section. A Manse is a name for a house given to a church minister. This one was built in the 1740s for the Minister of the local Baptists. He certainly must have lived in style!

Down by the barn

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In the middle of the countryside, surrounded by nothing but fields, some with crops, others with cattle. Little noise except the buzzing of insects, (and sometimes the buzzing of far-off chain saws), and every so often a lonely barn, not much used now, since the farming community use machines built for giants. The barns are still an integral part of the landscape and one of my favourite subject matter.

At the end of the road

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I drive past this view two or three times a day without thinking about it. Today, for some reason, it struck me it would make for an interesting sketch. The cottage, tree and postbox went in quite well, but I was a bit frustrated with the vehicle which took more time to draw than the rest put together. The weather hadn’t decided if it was going to be cloudy or sunny, so the light was a bit flat. They said more showers were on the way, so I didn’t want to wait too long to see what happened. There are a lot of greens here which need to be separated into warm and cool areas. The main tree is made from New Gamboge, Permanent Sap green, French Ultramarine with Prussian Blue and Winsor Violet in the darkest areas.

Café conversations

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The tail end of a storm passed through this morning, so I had the chance to draw a few ‘types’ taking refuge over a cup of coffee. Despite restrictions having been lifted, there are still a lot fewer people around than in pre-covid days. This meant I had a choice of tables where I could sit and draw without being too obvious. It is always fun to try and capture these mini-characters, but it’s been a while since I had the opportunity. If I had been able to sit there uninterrupted for a few more hours (days?), I might have begun to get somewhere.

Two Blue

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After a morning in front of a computer screen, I needed to get out into the fresh air and stretch my legs. I took a sketchbook with me as usual, but I didn’t go out with the prime intention to ‘find something to paint’. In my experience, the more you search for a subject, the harder it is to find one. The danger then is to become frustrated at having ‘failed’ to find anything suitable. So, in desperation, you grab hold of something which isn’t at all ‘suitable’ and try hard to make it into a masterpiece. That mostly doesn’t happen and usually leads instead to feelings of negativity. Not good.

However, none of that happened today. I went out more to think than to look , and having a sketchbook with me was more by habit than anything. But on my way back, I happened to glance across the allotments and for some reason these two barrels caught my eye and I knew I wanted to sketch them – just for fun.

Fresh from the garden

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With showers on and off all day, I travelled only as far as the vegetable patch and back. Looks like courgettes (zucchini) and beans are on the menu tonight. Not sure about the beetroot yet. Can’t get fresher than that!

The cooler greens of the beans are from Lemon yellow and Cobalt blue, while the darker greens made use of New Gamboge, Permanent Sap green and French Ultramarine. A little Prussian blue was used for the highlights as well as leaving some unpainted paper. Permanent Rose, Permanent Magenta, Winsor violet and a little Raw Umber were used on the beetroot.

Before the rain

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We’ve been used to blue skies and sunshine recently despite warnings of thunderstorms since the weekend. Today was grey, it’s true, but I went out anyway and managed to paint this little barn, which I have done many times before. The rain stayed off long enough for me to walk home, and when it came it was heavy but brief. Not long enough to give the gardens as much as they could do with, but there may be more on the way.

From little seeds

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The Poppies have been beautiful this year and are always a welcome addition to the garden whether planted on purpose or a gift of Nature. Although their delicate petals do not always last long once the wind blows, their tall elegant seed heads add another sculptural element to the borders.