DAVID HOWELL RSMA
STUDIO NEWS
STUDIO NEWS
I'm back working in oils with racing pictures at the moment and the studio smells of oil paint and turps - such a nice way to start the morning when I walk in there. Although I love working outside, recent cold weather has meant that the studio is a much cosier option most of the time. However I couldn't miss out on the recent snow in Somerset and took to my mountain bike to get around. It's generally too cold to sit around painting with watercolours in snowy conditions, or to work in oils for any length of time and my preferred way of working is to produce a coloured sketch in pencil and crayon and take it back to the studio to be worked up into a painting. The picture below was produced in this way
'Langport in the snow' - Watercolour
I also managed a few days away in Norfolk just before Christmas and again because of freezing conditions relied on sketches rather than completing work on the spot. The picture of Cromer was sketched in the late afternoon and the temperature meant that anything longer then half an hour didn't bear thinking about. The finished picture in this case is very large and would have been too big to cope with on the beach, even in kinder conditions.
'Winter afternoon - Cromer' - Watercolour
I intend to photograph the sketches and put them up on this page in the next couple of days