The view from my studio
Posted: August 3, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: hydrangeas, still life, watercolour, window sill 18 CommentsWe’ve had a lot of rain over the past two days. So much that my hydrangeas are flopping over and blocking the view from my studio window. It was my intention to paint the old bottles on the window sill today, but when I saw the hydrangeas, I thought I would incorporate them into my painting. It was a bit of an odd experiment because usually things outside the window are further away and often lighter in value, or at least treated with a lighter range of values to separate inside and outside. But in this case they were right up against the glass so I incorporated lots of darks.
Painted on a quarter sheet of Saunders Waterford, CP, 140 lb, using a limited palette of Burnt Sienna, Quinacridone Gold, Payne’s Grey and Carbazole Violet. And a bit of Titanium White at the very end for highlights.
Pop!
Posted: February 23, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: marmalade, still life, watercolour 20 CommentsThe Seville oranges arrived in our local grocery store last week. We wait for them in January or February so that we can make enough marmalade for the year, and this year we were especially excited because we had a new recipe to try, thanks to our friends Andrew and Eleanor. We’ve never been completely successful in getting the proportions right but this is the best recipe ever. There are no shortcuts as far as slicing all the peel and separating the pith, but it’s worth the effort.
While I was waiting for the lids to pop, I painted the jars. I used a wet-in-wet technique because I wanted to get some of that orange colour in the reflections. If you want the recipe for the orange tones, I used Hansa Yellow, New Gamboge, Quincridone Rose and Burnt Sienna. If you want the recipe for the marmalade, you can find it here.
