Isle of Sheppey Storms I & III

I’ve been recently commissioned to paint some local Kent seascapes for a couple near the Kent coastal town of Whitstable. Visible from the shore there to the west is the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary. Anxious to please, I did a trio of alternative paintings, initially for myself, but took them along unframed to the buyers so they could make a choice. The one they went for is being framed as we speak, so isn't here to show, but was in a similar vein. The sky is a mixture of wet-into-wet and dry techniques applied therafter. Incidentally, I always use BIG brushes. My favourite in fact is a Kolinsky blue squirrel size 26 mop! It holds water like no other and has a fine point should I be feeling in a delicate mood, which is rarely.
On the paper front, it was interesting to see how differently a heavier-weight paper behaved with the water too. This is 400gsm rough and took substantially longer to dry compared to a more commonplace 300gsm paper. The benefit of that of course, is a longer working time, which can be useful. Sheppey Storm I in particular is a good example of the spreading pigments creatinga rainy effect as one colour imposes upon others in the dramatic billowing cloud effects. The rough-textured surfaceI’m very pleased with these, clouds were made for watercolours. The rough-textured surface also lends itself well to dragging a dry brush (with a little pure pigment on) across the sea or sandy foreshore, to great effect. £95 each, inc P&P (UK only). • UPDATE: Friday 6 August 2010 - SHEPPEY STORM is now SOLD. Only Sheppey Storm III remains. Email me for non-UK postage.

The snow mixed with the stars

Still on the subject of arborial landscapes, I bought some white Winsor & Newton ink lunchtime from Cass arts in London’s Berwick Street. It comes in an old-fashioned trapezium-shaped bottle and sits inside a packaging design that seems to have remained unchanged since I first saw it at college when I was 17. Experimenting with stages between undiluted and very diluted, it was a joy to use the white ink on my black sketch pad, watching the pigment sink in and lighten as it dried. The result on such paper inevitably has a nocturnal feel about it, but I’m not complaining. Those birds are up late.

100113 Winter Walk

This handmade Khadi Indian paper is very pulpy and absorbent, so tricks like the soft-edged clouds are really done justice with this paper. Inspired by the consitent snow we‘re having and my New Year’s walk on the 1st of January in a Kentish wood. Quink ink.

Benson the 64lb carp, RIP 2009

Reading the festive 'looking-back-at-the-year' Angler’s Mail over the Christmas break, I read about and was inspired to sketch Benson, a 64lb common carp, who shuffled off his watery mortal coil to much media attention during 2009. Massive carp aren’t really my bag when it comes to fishing, though I do enjoy catching carp with a fly rod in the summer. But it must be something else to catch a true whopper like Benson and credit to anyone who managed to pull in this bag of spuds! Charcoal pencil and Quink ink on Khadi Indian rough paper.

Tudor Tea Rooms Christmas

A painting finished last night for a very nice chap called Anthony who runs a unique architectural gem of a building called The Tudor Tea Rooms in Harbour Street, Whitstable, Kent, UK. It has lovely arched windows with white stitch-effect details and herringbone brickwork shown in the painting under the sills. This will be the cover image of a calendar Anthony will be giving away to his happy customers. The rest of the calendar will feature 12 of my other 'local/Whitstable' works seen on this site in landscape format. Anthony will be hanging some of my works inside the restaurant soon too. Watercolour and gouache on 300gsm Langton rough.

Girl on number 73 Bus

Girl on number 73 Bus
Originally uploaded by Peter Gander

No, it’s not painted from life (sorry, purists ;) - I’d spill my ink on the bus! No, it’s drawn from a photo. I never trace, of course, but draw freehand by eye, using the photo at arms length as a loose reference point. This stylish young woman had a very characterful face and a lovely-to-paint fake leopard print coat. Quink ink on Khadi handmade Indian paper.

Running rabbit (linocut) 091118

Still on the subject of English countryside fauna, here's a running rabbit linocut that I cut last night. The blue and green inks were blended on the roller, an effective technique behind the negative shape of the rabbit. In this particular artists' print, the ink was running low, but I do like the fatigued effect that comes with that. I also cut away the hard-lined edge of the block to soften the look. Oil-based ink on cartridge paper.

Black as the Night (crow) 091117

Black as the Night Crow © Peter Gander

Did this during lunchtime at work. Drawn in white Conté Pastel pencil, or rather, not drawn, as everything but the crow is drawn of course! On Daler-Rowney black sketchbook. The smaller crows were ticked in afterwards with a black Conté pastel pencil. With my new passion for relief printmaking, I see a strong future for this kind of image with its strong design and mono appeal.

Whitstable Fish Market Figure, hand-coloured

Not a great image quality as I had to shoot it behind glass now it's up in 'the exhibition (ends tomorrow). The colours here (for those local, 'in-the-know types) are the original colours he was painted in, not the current colour scheme of garish process yellow, etc. The original figure had nicer, egg-yolk yellow waterproofs and the cod was as shown, as opposed to the flat silver he's now rendered in.

Whitstable fishing boat 091102

One for my current exhibition, this is a tiny (8cm square) watercolour of a fishing boat at low tide. The gritty mussel-bed shore revealed in the foreground. In the distance is the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary. The scan failed to pick up the subtleties of the pinks (rose madder) in the sky to the top left which you’d have to see in the flesh at the show to appreciate ;) Watercolour on Langton (NOT) rough paper. SOLD (Fri 6 Nov 09)

Maunsell Fort - ‘Standing Sentry’ watercolour

Whilst the former print (see previous post) was drying, I painted this version, based on the same sketch, but drawn ‘by eye’ rather than traced for a freer feeling. Drawn in fine waterproof pen first, it has my ‘trademark’ use of wax resist evident in the clouds/sky.