Night Mooring by ArtKatSurrey S

A lovely strong image - I do like your colour scheme too.

Thanks for your comment Julie. You are obviously a much better figurative painter than me and I particularly like your portraits -especially that of your grandaughter. I struggle with convincing detail so I tend towards simple composition and colour. Thanks again

I like your style. The colours are great and I like the strong patterns in the scene :)

Thanks Sarah. We have swapped comments before. I find it easier to do strong patterns and shapes than delicate ones. However, I admire the techniques of watercolour and often wish I could achieve similar effects in acrylics and oils. Looking through your work again, I particularly like the following: 'Going back to my roots'. A lovely, harmonious style with only 3 colours, where no more are needed to create a very atmospheric result. A good lesson for all. 'Marigold'. Cling film? 'Beside the harbour wall'. 'Time to go home'. Carry on painting!

Thankyou for the compliments, my head is swelling now :) Your paintings are more up to date and you have great strength in them than I do, that is what I admire about your work:) Clingfilm is great fun. Splodge on any watercolour mix, preferably a light tone and then cut a square of clingfilm and place it on the wet watercolour splodge. With your fingers cringkle it up a bit although it still touches the wash and then get some other colour paint on your brush and let it gently flood up the channels that the clingfilm has made. Leave it to dry before you take off the clingfilm. It makes interesting textures to stones, flowers and foregrounds. Have a go and post your results once you get the knack. I would like to see them :)

Thanks for your further comments Sarah and please accept mine. The technique you describe puts me in mind of what I learned from a wonderful (blind) artist lady. I help out with a disabled art group and this lady gave a 2- hour talk/demonstration of how to stimulate people who would say, ' I could never draw or paint'' - or even worse - by giving them exercises by which they could not fail to produce a pleasing artwork. This then gives them confidence to persevere. She also produced some paintings of her own in the course of the lecture! There are many forms of these techniques and they are brilliant, but I can't remember all of them. However, some involve clingfilm or similar.techniques. I have never tried to use them in my artwork but I will experiment to create effects in selected parts of future work. I will let you see the results when I do so. Best wishes

Hi again :) If you go onto" you tube" and look up Jean Haines' watercolour passion dvd trailer, at about 3.00 on the trailer, she uses clingfilm to create carnations. She is very good and explains it far better that I can:)

Thanks Sarah that video has shown me a lot about watercolour that I didn't know before, I can see how it can be an exciting medium. Got the clingfilm bit - will try that when I do a suitable subject.

A lovely piece - love the bold colors and shapes.

Seok Yam Chew, Thanks for your comment. I have looked through your portfolio and it is an impressive range of work. Your landscapes are perhaps not too dissimilar from mine but your still lifes and watercolours (e.g. of whippets) are far beyond my mastery of detail. I am generally OK on composition and colour but I am often frustrated when trying to capture detail. How did you learn to master all that lovely detail on the teapots, etc? Any tips/?

oooooo now it's bigger. I could get lost in your colours. I know this blue is my favourite but it just all blends together so well. great texture. I could never get bored looking at them. Thanks again for commenting on mine because it brought me back here.

Hi Dawn, This is based on a real pic of the river just upstream of Kingston-upon-Thames. Difficult to believe I know, but the light made the surrounding trees look like cliffs I struggled long and hard to create the blue(s) that the camera captured in the moonlight. I tried to contrast the tranquility of the night with the movement embodied in the arc of the barges' mast lights, the mooring lights and the red mooring buoys.