Painting from photographs

22nd Jan 2020 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

As this is my first post of 2020, it seems appropriate that the painting above is of a walk I took on New Year’s Day. It is a view of the Peak District near Bakewell; I was walking with my friend Jill. I did not bravely sit on the hillside painting despite the January weather. I painted it a couple of days ago, at home, from a photograph I had taken during the walk.

Actually, I rarely paint from photographs. I am interested in painting on location, partly because I would rather get out of the house than paint at home. On the whole I have either taken art classes and trips which take this approach, or making paintings from my own drawings. In mid-winter, it seems worth trying an alternative approach.

I have started a new watercolour class, at London’s Morley College. This is week three, and we have been painting landscapes from photographs, although next week we paint still life. In the first class we were trying different watercolour techniques, such as washes and resists. Week two, we applied these to a landscape, using a muted palette (French ultramarine, burnt umber, yellow ochre) and a photographic reference. I think mine was a mountain scene in the USA or Canada. I feel my painting, below, is less than successful, but it was a beginning.

Week two

I put in some practice at home, and I am more satisfied with the painting at the head of this post, which is based on my own photograph taken in the Peak District:

Peak district

Today, week three of the class, the challenge was to paint a snowy landscape, learning how to reserve the white watercolour paper, again using a muted, winter palette of colours (French ultramarine, burnt umber, Windsor yellow). Here is the photographic reference (I have no idea of the location) and my two paintings:

img368 (2)

In Southern Italy

29th Oct 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

I have just returned from a painting holiday in Southern Italy, staying in Matera, and in Alberobello in Puglia. Here are some watercolours from this trip, all painted on location. Matera is famed for the Sassi cave dwellings which are believed to have been inhabited for 7000 years. The view of the town, topped by the tower of the cathedral with a river gorge below was certainly challenging. We then moved on to Alberobello, which is known for the trulli buildings, a traditional form of rural building now a focus of the tourist industry.

From here, we visited Monopoli, Polignano a Mare, and Locorotondo. Here are some other paintings I made on this trip:

Gardens and buildings

29th Sep 201929th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

Some more drawings from my sketchbook, in coloured pencil on watercolour backgrounds. The locations share a theme: a historic building set in gardens. The first two drawings here – each pair of drawings is actually one continuous image in a concertina sketchbook – were done recently at Newnham College, Cambridge. The ones below that were done at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, West London. This was the country house of architect Sir John Soane, and I tried to capture some of the characteristics of his architecture, such as the use of coloured glass, and the rounded brick arches.

Watercolour experiments

18th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

This month’s challenge has been to paint some quick watercolour experiments at home. I wanted to paint in a freer, more expressive way, and also to use some of the kit I have already but rarely use. I combined the watercolour with watercolour pencils, crayons, salt (for texture), and used different brushes. I found it easier to do quick experiments at home rather than when I was in front of a location subject which seemed to need a more complex approach. I ended up painting mostly from flowers I had bought – an advantage was that I have continually had fresh flowers in the house. Next, I need to take some of this further in more developed pictures.

More urban sketching

16th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ 2 Comments

This weekend I have been sketching in London. Above is a drawing I did on Saturday of the ever-changing City skyline, drawn from near Tower Bridge. It amazes, and sometimes worries me how quickly major developments take place in key areas of London. A couple of years ago, Norman Foster’s ‘Gherkin’ building on St Mary Ax dominated the view of the ‘new’ City. Now new buildings have shot up which dwarf it.

On Sunday, I was helping run a sketch crawl with Urban Sketchers London at Trinity Buoy Wharf. This is further east, across the Thames from the O2 in North Greenwich (originally the Millennium Dome). Trinity Buoy Wharf has the only lighthouse in London, surrounded by other older industrial/nautical buildings. It is now a centre for cultural activities and related businesses, surrounded by very new high-rise housing and offices, with great views of the river. My sketches take different elements of this and put them together. All sketches are done with coloured pencil on prepared but random backgrounds in watercolour, on a concertina sketchbook. Below are the drawings from Trinity Buoy Wharf:

In Amsterdam

1st Aug 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

Lately, I have spent a week in Amsterdam, including the annual international get-together of Urban Sketchers. About a thousand urban sketchers explored the city, painting and drawing on location. There were record-breaking high temperatures here as in other parts of northern Europe. I looked for shade, in particular enjoying the Amsterdam botanic garden and the parks. Here are some watercolour impressions of the city, including the canals, typical houses, the derelict areas of dockland, and dramatic modern buildings.

Experiments with watercolour

13th Jul 201913th Jul 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ 2 Comments

This week I spent a few days at St. Ives, Cornwall. I took part in a three day course called Expressive Watercolour, which had a particular emphasis on techniques to create effects and textures with watercolour such as using salt, resists, and different tools to apply paint. I had hoped for more opportunities to paint out of doors, but took the opportunity in the studio to paint three versions of the same view using different approaches. These were based on a pencil drawing I did on location of the church and houses overlooking the harbour at St Ives.