Tuesday 16 September 2008

THE OLD PALACE WATERCOLOUR

If you go back to beginning of the month you will see I posted my acrylic painting of The Old Palace Ely. I had plans to do a further version for the November exhibition and sketched the building and some of the area to the right but this time as if it was viewed through the leaves of the 17th Century Plane tree in the garden. In fact that is how I sat all day in the cool shade while painting the acrylic work.
Pen sketch of building
At home I created the sketch in pen and only recently put colour to the page. Heres the pen sketch of the building section slightly different view than the acrylic - most of the right with the leaves, wall and quiet tones for the cathedral building behind were hardly sketched out but created with the brush and colour initially so nothing really to show you at this stage.
The finished piece.
I used the Daniel Smith paints Anita kindly gave me squeezed into a plastic lidded palette painted on new watercolour paper called Clairefontaine, which you can paint on either side with different texture. I bought it from SAA (Society of All Artists in Nottingham). The painting measures 16 x 12 inches and is in a double 4 inch mount with plain wood frame.
Not sure the large tree on the right works well behind the hanging leaves - but its the best I can remember and find out from a photo taken.

My third piece for the exhibition will be of three pots I fell in love with on the stairwell going up to the Long Gallery where the exhibition will hang. Not sure what medium yet - but will be working from photos Im afraid.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! This is absolutely stunning. So soft and evocative of a time and place.

E-J said...

Lovely watercolour of the Old Palace, Joan - and a subject that's so tantalisingly close to home, though I've never visited! I have read that their plane tree is one of the two oldest, perhaps the oldest, in England ...

Robert A Vollrath said...

Beautiful work.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thankyou all -
Shirley - Ive been over to your blog and left comment too.
Emma - I see you also work late into the evening/night 23.15! The Old Palace is well worth a visit and maybe you should introduce yourself to Hayley - fundraiser - and ask if you can do some work there for the November exhibition?? Im sure she woud be delighted to meet a very local artist.
Robert - kind comments as usual but afraid there are one or two aspects that could have been more accurate but I think it has a gentle quality for a place of care.

Anita Davies said...

Very nice Joan...You ended up with the same colours in your brickwork as I did in my acrylic version on this one. I've still to finish that, working on a commission right now, but I have it in view in my studio with real leaves taped all over the left hand corner...to see if I like leaves there. LOL!

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Great idea with the leaves - Anita . In actual fact the colour of my watercolour brickwork is nowhere near as pink as your acrylic you did the day we visited the Old Palace. Little warmer/softer in the scanning I think.