BWTAS TOWERS IN EAST ANGLIA SHOW

Hope I am not boring you with these two latest pieces of work but thought you'd like to see them both finished now.

Water towers at North Walsham
I really enjoyed adding all the colours to what seems at first glance in real life just greyish white concrete. Having such strong sun light to give that glorious shadow underneath the big tower, I felt there had to be more colours in the concrete, so introduced yellow, then added greens and blues and reddish browns in the shadows, all colours that appear in the landscape and houses/roofs (or is it rooves?) .

Drainage Mill at How Hill

As I liked the hints of warm colours in the towers, I decided to add some into the grasses and reeds of this painting as well. I had felt all along that there was something I did not like about the composition and I realised it was the parallel path and drain near the bottom (see my post image of 25th June), which seemed to take ones eye away from the main focus... so - simple as it can be with acrylic - I added grasses and reeds over the dark brown drain that had been on the right hand side - and Oh how much happier I am.

They are now varnished, labelled and corded and ready to go.

BWTAS No: 3 THE WATER TOWERS

latest stage with first layer of the larger tower

second stage when I added the town rooftops and houses

first stage when I began with the trees and foliage

I had decided way back in the end of winter to paint the two water towers I pass on my way into North Walsham for this Felixstowe exhibition of Towers in East Anglia, so took some photos from all angles.

At long last came the time to produce the acrylic painting but felt the wintry trees with no foliage was not really what I wanted to work well with the other two entries full of the coloured landscape. So last week I went back to the towers, around and down the lane to the field beyond to find to my delight that a glorious field of ripening wheat was before me. With apologies to the farmer, I waded my way through to get far enough images to incorporate the smallness of the town buildings against the two white towers in the sky. My final decision was to use my 24" x 12" box canvas landscape format in contrast to the drainage mill, so that I could get all the buildings in and incorporate a number of the photos with a bit of cheating on angles and foliage shape, size and colour. I feel it works together well.

In the hope of getting the second smaller tower created from scratch and finishing off all their detail in time, I will be delivering all three on Thursday to my dear friend in Norwich to deliver for me.

I'll post the finished work later in the week.

BWTAS EXHIBITION OF TOWERS IN FELIXSTOWE

marsh drainage skeleton mill at How Hill - acrylic on box canvas 12" x 24"

Bet no one can decide what these initials stand for. We (Sandra and I) had a suprise on finding an entry on the internet about an exhibition of TOWERS IN EAST ANGLIA . The answer is THE BRITISH WATER TOWER APPRECIATION SOCIETY!! It was only then that I began to find them all over the county (Norfolk) mostly white concrete standing up proud in the flat countryside, so decided to submit ideas for taking part in this show at the Landguard Fort.

My three choices of towers in Norfolk are a church tower ruin, a drainage mill on the broads and (when I get round to it) a pair of water towers on the outskirts of North Walsham, a town some 7 miles from my home.

Here are some the stages of the finished marsh drainage skeleton mill at How Hill.

Part of the excellent literature about the show states ...'celebrates and explores the majesty of towers .... and the impact they have on the surrounding space.' As you all know by now, I came up via natural history so all three paintings have foliage, plants etc within the landscape the individual towers 'tower' above.