watercolour by Fiona Phipps

Nice and fresh - loose and atmospheric - well done.

Hi Fiona, nice sky here. It is very atmospheric, a really still day. I know what you mean about smooth paper, I don't like it for watercolour either !

Thank you Jamie and Louise, the sky is perhaps the only part of the painting I like Louise.

Nice athmospheric painting

I like part of the sky; I like the foreground. Less keen on the way the horizon line seems to curve down towards the right, the distant land and its wobbly horizon line, and the slightly odd distribution of the yachts ... they seem very isolated from each other: and there's no focal point. The red yacht could have offered that, but not stuck out where it is, half in and half out of the painting. Unless you're working on a really huge scale, when you can begin to indicate the curve of the earth, horizons need to be straight. The smooth paper has probably put you right off! I prefer rough myself; but the sky does suggest possibilities - tell you what: try a hake brush painting on smooth paper, and one on rough: both benefit from big, broad strokes, and your sky suggests that you could readily manage the way washes fuse together on smooth paper. It's almost certainly just practice that you need.

Thank you for your advice Robert......do you take paypal? LOL!!!! You are quite right about your criticism, I promise to try harder next time.

After reading all the above comments, Fiona, I don't know what to add to it. I can see what you were trying to achieve. Maybe you should try a pen and wash on your smooth paper. I always use NOT-paper for my pen and wash work, but it is excellent for ink drawings!

Thank you Mia for the advice re: the NOT paper, I'll give it a go using ink.