Category Archives: atmosphere

David Bellamy – Creating the effect of old stone walls

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Writing blogs on a steam-driven laptop is an extremely slow process, and with extremely poor internet connections it can take me hours, which is the reason I’ve slowed down the number of blogs I do. Technology in Wales seems to be in some sort of reverse decline, and once the black-outs start hitting us it will be even worse. Progress is a funny thing!

Jenny and I enjoyed Patchings Art Festival, where I did two demonstrations in the St Cuthberts marquee to large, enthusiastic audiences. It’s always a joy to work with St Cuthberts Mill, and the Saunders Waterford High-White paper is superb for getting the best out of your watercolours.

I’ve just taken some new watercolours to Art Matters in White Lion Street in Tenby (Tel. 01834 843375) and this is one, showing a quiet corner of Tenby harbour. The lovely old stone walls provide an interesting backdrop, and these were done by laying an initial wash of Naples yellow over the entire area, and once this was dry painting in the stonework with cobalt blue plus cadmium red, to which I added a few drops of yellow ochre while the stones were still wet. I left some of the Naples yellow showing as light-coloured mortar between the stones. Once again I waited until the whole area had dried and then glazed it all with a weaker wash of cobalt blue and cadmium red. This both imparted a greater sense of unity and slightly softened off the edges of the stonework.

The background has been considerably simplified so that the emphasis is thrown onto the figures in conversation, and the surface was Waterford 140lb NOT, which is excellent for taking repeated washes if necessary.

David Bellamy – Highlighting a landscape feature with a glaze

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Some of you asked if I would show the full image of the promontory watercolour published on the post on 5th May, so here it is – the scene is in the central Highlands of Scotland, easily seen from the roadside as you approach Rannoch Moor to the north.

As you can see, I’ve positioned the lightest part of the composition behind the row of Caledonian pines on the further promontory, to give them more emphasis. The more shadowy parts of the background mountains were achieved by washing a mixture of French ultramarine and cadmium red over those parts which had already been painted. This was done with a large wash brush and quite a weak mixture, creating a thin transparent glaze across those areas I wanted to subdue, and thus emphasising the light section.

The painting is part of the exhibition at the John Muir Trust centre in Pitlochry (Tel.01796 470080) which I should point out ends on the 11th June, not 18th as previously announced. This is due to a mix-up, and I hope no-one will be inconvenienced.

Next week Jenny and I will be at the annual Patchings Art Festival in Calverton, just north of Nottingham, where I’ll be demonstrating for St Cuthberts Mill on the mornings of Thursday 5th and Friday 6th June. St Cuthberts Mill make the marvellous Saunders Waterford and Bockingford papers that are such favourites with amateur and professional painters alike. Do come along and say hello.

On the 20th and 21st June Jenny and I will be demonstrating at the Sandpiper Studio on the Wirral in Cheshire. Jenny will be demonstrating pastel painting on the afternoon of Friday 20th and I shall be demonstrating in watercolour on the Saturday morning and giving an illustrated talk on how to rescue watercolours that have gone astray, after lunch. You can find out more about these events from Julie McLean on 07788 412480 or email her at:  info@thesandpiperstudio.co.uk

David Bellamy – Recording Light and Shadow

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    Light is critical to our painting. Without it our subject is lost. On my recent trip to the Lake District I experienced many exciting ‘light moments’, often simply gazing at the light in wonder at the sheer beauty, then snapping out of my mesmeric state to quickly record the moment. Just watching, and observing, though will tell you a lot about how light and shadow affect what we see and paint. In the mountains these effects are often accentuated by the numerous folds in the mountainsides and the inter-relationships of peaks and ridges, which can seem to change continually in windy, broken-cloud conditions. If you take a series of photographs of these ever-changing moments it can be quite revealing how the emphasis changes.

This view of Upper Loch Torridon is just part of a composition. While on the spot I sketched it once and photographed it several times while the light and shadows on the mountain were changing. This method of working extends your options for the finished painting considerably. Note where the hard and soft edges to the shadows appear, and how certain crags are highlighted at times, thus providing a potential centre of interest. On distant peaks I prefer to suggest detail rather than make it stand out too strongly.

This watercolour was painted on 140-lb Saunders Waterford Not paper, made by
St Cuthberts Mill  and it has a very attractive surface to work on. The painting will be part of my exhibition at the John Muir Trust Wild Space Visitor Centre in Pitlochry from 17th April to 18th June. For details see the John Muir Trust site, telephone 01796 470080, or Our website
    I shall also be giving a demonstration of painting a highland scene in the nearby Pitlochry Festival Theatre at 2pm on Wednesday 23rd April.

David Bellamy – Adding colour excitement to your watercolours

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One lovely technique in watercolour painting is to float two colours into each other and allow them to merge, sometimes adding more of one colour or other while they are still wet, and then working a dark shape up against them when they have dried. This can really make your work sing, whether you paint landscapes, still life, flowers or figures.

 In this small section of a painting the bush on the right-hand side has been painted by washing in two colours side by side – cadmium orange and light red – and letting them blend in. Later I painted in the darker purple-grey to the right of the bush, taking it up to the top, in a hard edge, while allowing flecks of the original colours to remain here and there. Afterwards I added the shadow under the bush and finally the branches. This approach gives a rather pleasing variegated effect to the subject and is worth practicing.


This painting is part of  Wild Highlands, an exhibition to be held at the John Muir Trust Wild Space Visitor Centre in Station Road, Pitlochry from 17th April to 18th June. Do come along and support the John Muir Trust if you can, as they are doing all they can to keep the Scottish Highlands wild and beautiful, and free from inappropriate industrial development. I shall also be demonstrating painting Highland scenery in watercolour at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in aid of the Trust at 2pm on 23rd April. Tickets are £10 and may be booked by telephoning 01796 484626

For details of the exhibition see www.jmt.org/wild-space-gallery-shows.asp or telephone 01796 470080 or email  jane.grimley@jmt.org  The Highlands in spring are absolutely magical, so why not make it a wild painting break?

David Bellamy – Painting the right sort of bad weather

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We’ve just finished the studio filming with APV Films for my forthcoming DVD on painting Winter Landscapes, due out in September with my book of the same title. Most of the filming went smoothly, although the last part was heavily punctuated by wild gusts of wind and heavy rain lashing the studio, accompanied by a bombardment of artillery fire from the Sennybridge range. Thankfully they were not firing at us! It rather reminds me of the time I was sketching and camping on a Northumberland bombing range, having missed the signs somehow……….

At the moment I’m working on Wild Highlands, an exhibition in conjunction with the John Muir Trust, which will run from 16th April to 18th June in Pitlochry, Scotland. One of the aims of the exhibition is to highlight the ongoing devastation of the Scottish Highlands by industrialisation by massed wind turbines and their supporting power lines, which are now encroaching on some of the stunning mountain landscapes that epitomise the Highlands. Many of these will be on peat blankets and former forestry areas, which are the closest equivalent we have in the UK to rain-forests.

This painting of Beinn Eighe will be in the exhibition, and you can see that the mountain has several summits. Painting all these in good weather can invoke a feeling of having too many summits, so this is where it’s often a good idea to bring in some bad weather to hide one or two. It also adds a sense of mystery, which viewers love. I usually achieve this effect of mountains hidden in clouds by running the mountain washes up into a wet area in the sky – in this instance where you can see the pink effect. An alternative technique is to soften off the mountain peak with a wet sponge.

As you can see here, I’ve actually made my ‘bad weather’ rather more user-friendly by painting with alizarin crimson and French ultramarine mixed with cadmium red, so make sure you utilise the right brand of ‘bad weather!’