I am no artist. I enjoy
painting and wish to inspire others to have a go. Read "Starting
out with Watercolours"
for a fuller explanation of what this site is about but basically I like
to think of it as a site for beginners by a beginner.
I've tried to provide a narrative to each picture and, where I can, attempted to explain some
of my mistakes. My objective is to try and demonstrate that we don't have to be the future 'Constables'
in order to enjoy what we do. In art terms, my work is quite poor ... but that doesn't stop me enjoying it.
This is where it all started. I have organised my work into a number of Galleries. My first paintings created as I followed the
lessons in the book, later paintings that I did on my own, and then other media as I continued to explore my capabilities.
As I've already mentioned, my page "Starting
out with Watercolours" will give you a much better idea of what this site is about
When taking my first
inexperienced steps into the world of Watercolours, I was of the opinion that
what gave a picture any sense of reality was colour ... green blobs are trees,
blue area's at the top must be sky, and the grey stuff is probably stone. Take
away the colour and the resulting image would be just an indistinguishable mess.
Wanting to understand how much
of the pleasure in my paintings came from the medium of watercolours, and how
much from the ability to create the right sort of shapes on the paper, I decided
to experiment with Pencil. I was very surprised with the result and have found the use of a couple of simple pencils much
more rewarding than the most wonderful array of tubes of paint.
My web pages are all about encouraging people to
'have a go' and see for themselves how enjoyable it is to create a picture. In
that same vein I encourage anyone who has tried watercolours but ventured no
further, to try their hand at pencil. I wager, like me, you will be surprised at
what you can achieve.
Many artists would probably not want to show you the stuff they got wrong, but
I'm not an artist. I encourage beginners to look at my mistakes, not because I'm proud of them, but
because I want to demonstrate that even the worst of our efforts can be a positive achievement if
we adopt the right attitude.
If you've taken the plunge and 'had-a-go' then why not send me a picture or two that I can
put on the site for others to share. This is a site for beginners by a beginner and you too
can help to inspire others.
