Excited by colours

As you can see by the yellowy-grey tint of the paper, the photo doesn't do this little piece justice.

So you'll have to believe me when I tell you about the excitement that overtook me when I painted this scene from the Dingle Peninsula (Béal Bán). First of all, I always seem to turn my back on the Three Sisters (I don't know why those three hills are called that to be honest - some research will be required, as even Wikipedia is not offering much in terms of useful information! Oh and by the way, Béal Bán means White Mouth, I'm told) and photograph the other side of the bay, looking towards Ballydavid. Maybe it's because the clouds always seem to cling to the mountains behind?

So when I set to work on this with my new paints, it was all about the clouds. Such fun! Buff Titanium, Lavender and Moonglow, with a touch of English Venetian red towards the horizon. It all moved and blended and pooled just so!

As this was also an exercise in controlling the wetness of my paints (I went back to yet another one of my watercolour bibles, Watercolor Painting, A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium, by Tom Hoffmann, after a disappointing landscape painting), I had to wait just the right amount of time before I started to paint the mountains (prussian blue and moonglow) - I wanted a softness that indicated clouds kissing the mountains, but I didn't want to end up with a complete backrun that would bloom into the sky. The trick is not only to watch the paper, but also to be careful about the amount of water in the brush. Squirrel brushes are not good for that - they hold too much water.

After that, the sea (prussian blue + naples yellow) and sand (buff titanium + English Venetian red) were easy!

That just makes me want to paint more!

PS: yes, I've changed the theme background and width on my blog. After so many years, it was about time!