'Peachy Glow' by Fiona Phipps

You certainly did capture that misty feeling, Fiona. This is soft, gentle and makes me go ahhhhh...

Nice and relaxing, lovely loose work especially with a limited pallet.

I love the colours in this -and yes it does have a misty feeling.I wonder where it was -would love to be there.

Fiona, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to do this ... it's peachy .... Awful line, yes, but the title was an inviation to cornyness. It's a lovely painting. Great. I take it is painted on the okra paper? I have some samples and the okra sealed paper is rather unique - lovely effects.

Thank you Jane, Peter, Carol and Gudrun for looking and taking the time to give me feedback. Nice one Gudrun. This one is on Arches paper, I've just finished another which is on okra will post in a couple of days.

I love your water coloursFiona. They are everything a watercolour should be.. This is beautiful.

hi Fiona It is good to try different ways in a watercolour ..to me thats what watercolour is about you are like me ..we wont walk down the same path every day will we? .we are looking for that certain some thing ,we may never find it, but by god we will never stop trying,. nice to view your lovely paintings any day of the week alan

Sky is fantastic; but I'm going to do you a favour by being horribly cruel .... your paintings based on Wesson/Hall were excellent. Those you've done subsequently are good. But I think they'd be better if you went out for a good long walk in the country, with your sketchbook and a pencil capable of giving you really dark tones, and drew trees against the skyline, hedgerows, cottages and farm buildings, rich in tonal contrasts. You had structure and good composition in those earlier paintings but their real strength lay in contrast, light against dark. Exaggerate, emphasize - seek out those contrasts and strengthen them; show the strong darks against a light sky, scratch tree detail, branches, telegraph poles, factory chimneys, whatever, against the light. And strengthen the roots, the base of things, with your darkest darks. Get yourself a Mars Lumograph 8B by Staedtler - a good waxy deep-toned pencil; or a carbon pencil. Then paint from the sketches you've taken from the actual, living landscape. I think you lack confidence in your own paintings, which is why you did a few based on Steve Hall's - do your own, boldly, and paint from them even more boldly. Get a strong composition - which is where trees come in very handily, because you can put them where you want them: verticals against horizontals, lights against darks..... look at Alan Owen's paintings and adapt them. But better still - take your sketchbook for a good long walk, and draw whatever takes your fancy.

Sylvia thank you, that's a lovely thing to say......I know I still have a lot of work to do but I'm enjoying the journey.

Alan you're a treasure...... you and your paintings are an inspiration to wanna be watercolourists like myself. I wish I were in your class; I mean the one you teach and your talent. Thank you, you've made my day, week, year!X

If I went for a good long walk where I live Robert I would need Bear Grylls with me, to make sure I got home again. I wish it were as simple as you suggest...in fact I long for it to be that simple. I live between mountain, moor and the Atlantic, and as beautiful as it is.....that's it. Oh for a tree or a hedgerow, I expect there use to be until the Lairds brought in the sheep, alas they've eaten anything resembling a tree. I have a plethora of croft houses to paint but every one, with the odd exception is painted white, no stone walls even. I do lack the confidence in my own paintings because sometimes I don't know where to start, but I'm hoping that in another thirty years I might improve just a little bit, as I'm sure Wesson/Hall/ and even our very own Alan have. Trouble is I don't think I'll have that long to get the hang of it...but you never know. I thank you Robert for your patience and advise, and I do appreciate it very much.

Thank you Kirstie, and believe it or not, this is my style. This is the style of art I enjoy looking at and it's how I would like to paint....with a few tweaks here and there of course. I don't want to copy other artists work but I don't share yours and other artists gift of imagination and natural talent, my gifts lie in other fields. It's going to take a while I'm afraid, so you will have to bear with me and if your expecting me to ever get as good as the 'old watercolourists', don't hold your breath.

Robert makes some good points but his is still a good watercolour which so many would be jealous of - as Alan says: your gallery is always a joy to look at.

Lovely peachy glow to this one Fiona.

I can picture it hanging on my wall and enjoying looking at it, lovely work Fiona.

Fiona, this is really lovely, you named the painting perfectly too because the sky you created does have a lovely warm peachy glow to it. it resembles the evening sky arriving after a hot day :-)

Thank you Michael, I do take notice of what Robert says about my paintings and he is always right, drat it! I WILL get there one day, I just hope he still frequents the gallery when I do!!Lol! It woud be a bugger if he missed it!!:)

Debs, Glennis and Rebecca, you are very kind to leave such positive feedback.

Love that warm glow in the sky. A really beautiful painting Fiona.

Many thanks Carole.

Love that pink glow in the sky, Fiona - it gives the painting such a lovely atmosphere.

Love this, lightly handled pastoral scene. Lighting superb

Manus, thank you, you are very kind.