DAVID BELLAMY – THE JOYS OF SKETCHING

Whether you go out sketching to find subjects to paint back home, or perhaps to record days out in a sketching journal, or simply for the joy of being out enjoying sketching, there is no doubt that the value of this activity stretches well beyond just the artistic side. For me sketching is calming, and like nature, helps to reduce the stresses of life. I often sketch just for the joy of it, without any thought of working up a painting from the experience, and find that diving into old sketchbooks brings so many happy memories flooding back.

This pencil sketch was done on a December day on Dartmoor, a place I have always loved. I’ve only made on colour note, and that’s about the chimney pots being black, a rather unusual colour. In the centre of the buildings is a rather confused area, the sort of things we often find when we want to do a painting of the scene back home. It can be very annoying when you have a stunning subject to paint and there’s an annoying omission, and especially when it’s bang in the centre of the composition.

Here the problem is fairly easy to overcome: I could simply lose the apparent gap and join the buildings together, or hide it behind a bush, a figure, or another feature. However, one remedy I regularly use is to introduce a little bit of artistic obfuscation, which has the advantage of simplifying matters. I swipe across a wash of colour without attempting to add in any detail whatsoever. I also use the technique to substitute an ungly feature with the wash, sometimes dropping in a second colour for variety.

Erwood Station Gallery & Craft Centre near Builth Wells is now open after a short break, and they are organising an Amateur Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 competition over the summer months, to promote the arts, give amateur artists an opportunity to be seen and showcase how the arts can help people in their mental health. The first round takes place on Saturday April 6th. If you don’t feel up to participating just come along and watch, and maybe pick up a few tips. You can obtain information from Stacey on 01982 560555 or email her at erwoodstation@hotmail.com

David Bellamy – Looking into Fierce Light

Strong evening or early morning light, when it is low on the horizon, can produce some powerful atmospheric effects, such as losing detail, creating a dynamic sense of drama and changing the actual colours of various features. However, it’s not always easy to look into fierce sunlight and observe the scene for any length of time, even with sunglasses. Taking a series of photos, each with a different aperture setting can reap rewards, but if you are able to quickly capture the essential elements of the scene with a colour medium, so much the better. Watercolour pencils can be very effective for this, as watercolour paints can be quite a challenge in such fastly-changing effects.

Evening light, Llangwm

In this painting carried out on Waterford 300lb NOT paper I created the light area in the sky with Naples yellow around a white spot and then introduced quinacridone gold and permanent alizaring crimson. Working quickly I brought in washes of weak French ultramarine, in places mixed with cadmium red for the stronger wisps of cloud. These wisps were applied with a large swordliner brush. After allowing the paper to dry I painted in detail of trees and buildings with mixtures or French ultramarine and cadmium red in various strengths, sometimes with hardly any ultramarine. Aussie red gold also enlivened things up in places, particularly the right-hand bush.

By leaving out certain details like one end of a building on the sunlit side, the sense of mood is increased, with the colours becoming cooler the further away they are from the centre of the light. You may well have existing photos that can be used to create a work of this nature, but do take care when looking into fierce sunlight and wear dark sunglasses to protect your eyes. Avoid staring directly into the sun.

Well, Christmas is upon us once more, and hopefully you will find some artistic present in your stocking! Have a great Christmas and I wish you every success with your paintings in 2024, and good health.

David Bellamy – Painting the Wye

It’s been some time since I last created a blog post – the problem has been that the Blogspot blogging software appears to have been crapulated by the blogging company without warning or providing any idea of how to fix it. The pictures simply appear as a string of incomprehensible characters, which of course, is not what you would want to see. Additionally I have been away from home a lot this summer, but now we’re trying to fix it.

The image I have before me is an 8-line string of characters, but I am hoping that the resulting image on your screens will be a watercolour of the River Wye in Summer. The mountain and water have been kept simple, the more distant water a horizontal sweep of cobalt blue with very little water on the brush, softening down into a light area, with some dark reflections introduced at the sides. The dark tones on the closer trees suggest the impression of distance in the composition. I have over-done the foreground flower collection a bit, but sometimes it is interesting to include strong detail in the foreground when most of the composition is quite simple. The painting will be part of a small exhibition at Erwood Station Gallery & Craft Centre, which lies a few miles south of Builth Wells in Powys. It starts on Saturday 23rd September and runs until 15th October, every day. I shall be giving a demonstration of painting the Wye in watercolour on Monday 25th September at 7pm, admission by ticket only because of limited space. Telephone 01982 560555 for the Centre. More details with the next blog which hopefully will have all the problems resolved, although at the moment I’m more inclined to believe in magic than these software geeks!

David Bellamy – Back in Erwood

There is something about the old stone bridges scattered about the mountain regions worldwide that feels such an idyllic subject for the landscape artist. The one I am featuring today stands on the River Artro in Snowdonia, a quiet, heavenly spot that has a calming influence on the mind. I have painted it a few times, and this view is looking upstream with light filtering through the trees.

The overwhelming greens in the top half of the composition have been tempered by the mixtures of French ultramarine and cadmium red in the lower segment, often with yellow ochre dropped in while the passage was wet. The contrasting effect of tall dark tree-trunks on the left, with the negative painting of the trunks of those saplings on the right helps to provide balance. The river naturally leads the eye up to the bridge, and I have kept the foreground water calm and lacking in detail in order to throw the emphasis on that which is closer to the bridge. The soft, blurred effect of the background trees also helps to accentuate the stronger lines of the bridge, and I have considerably reduced the number of trees in the scene.

I am delighted to say that the painting now hangs on display in Erwood Station art and craft gallery, which has just opened again, and very much in the manner of my dear friend Alan Cunningham who built it up into a highly popular venue, but who sadly passed away many years ago. It was quite an emotional moment to be invited back by Jenny, the new proprietor of the place that brings back so many happy memories. There are works by several artists and some of the most delightful crafts by talented local makers, as well as a terrific tea shop once again, and a beautiful river walk beside the Wye, so do drop in – it’s about 8 miles south of Builth Wells, just off the A470, telephone  07584 258947.
   
Finally, I’m so sorry I’ve been off the air for so long, but I went down with the ‘flu in December when I was about to send out a Christmas message, and so missed seeing the family over Christmas, including Catherine’s amazing performance as the Genie in Aladdin at East Grinstead. It took a while to get over it, and in mid-January I set off for northern Italy to explore the Alpine scenery around the Aosta Valley, though still not in perfect trim. However, it proved to be a spectacular trip and I will be covering it in my next blog. In the meantime I hope you are all making the most of this absolutely beautiful weather for sketching landscapes.

David Bellamy – Painting weathered stonework

 I don’t know about you, but I do love weathered stonework, whether it’s a humble dry-stone wall snaking across a windy hillside, or part of a monumental masterpiece of some ancient temple. When I visited the vast Roman site of Baalbec in Lebanon’s Hezbollah heartland the amount of outstanding weathered and sculptured stonework really took my breath away.

The illustration shows a small part of an enormous watercolour of the main courtyard at Baalbec. By keeping the edges fairly soft, this has imparted a weather-worn appearance. In the large side of the left-hand block of stone I began with a wash of alizarin crimson, dropped in some yellow ochre higher up and weak French ultramarine on the right. When the paper had dried I drew in the Roman lettering using a number one round sable, easing off the pressure in places to almost lose the outline of the letter, and in fact deliberately missed some parts. Again I allowed the work to dry before vigorously rubbing parts of some letters with a small flat brush to lose even more minor parts, before applying a wash of lunar black mainly over the right-hand side. This DanielSmith colour granulates with a vengeance, speckling the piece as in the original stonework. I applied it slightly unevenly and added the odd little blob here and there. I have created this in a traditional manner, building it up slowly overall, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t include these techniques in combination with a more abstract design. 

The original painting can be seen in my book Arabian Light which is not a practical guide, but nevertheless contains a wealth of inspirational watercolour techniques, with particular emphasis on capturing light and atmosphere. Why not put it on your Christmas list? You can find more details on my website

I have delivered new paintings to the Ardent Gallery in Brecon www.ardentgallery.co.uk so do pop in if you are in the area. I have also done a Christmas card which is sold in support of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, and details can be obtained at CPRW