Skies, skies, skies

Social distancing is not too much of a hardship when you enjoy painting (unless you're a plein air artist, obviously). Since my urban sketching has to be put on hold somewhat, I'm practising skies. I was inspired when we were in Inchydoney two weeks ago, and the light was bouncing between the clouds and the sea. I did some sketches. But I also took lots of photos. Most of my photos are not great. Old iPhone. So I have to rely on my memory of the light. 

The difficulty with an Irish landscape is that it can easily look twee, particularly in watercolours I think. I'm not sure how to avoid that. So here is what I've been up to. My favourite part is always the first wash! I used a water spray to help the pigments stay live and moving.

3 versions:

Version 1:

A quiet interpretation. Main problem is that I placed the house right in the middle  of the view.

Here is the wash before I added the hill and the house!

Version 2

Had great fun with the sky. Enjoyed the glow. And I had practised the houses.

Here is how the wash looked before I added the other elements

And the practise for the house

Version 3

On the larger paper (550x380mm). Yes, it does help to repeat the same view over and over. Nothing wrong with being obsessive! I had to lift some of the pigment to reclaim the white of the house. And add a touch of white gouache. My next challenge is to figure out how to do a second layer of clouds without going too heavy!

The first wash: