Floods at St Ives - Cambs. by Peter Nelson

i loved your gallery peter for yo have given me inspiration to keep on with watercolour as the results of your paintings to accomplish such detail and reflections a goal to aim for for me thank you

Great painting Peter - also a bit scary as we have a river passing the village which rose quite dramatically a couple of weeks ago and flooded up close to some properties - thankfully now receded but still very high.

Really like this Peter, the use of burnt sienna, gives it lots of impact.

Fabulous painting, Peter.

Wonderful colours and I love those trees

This really caught my eye; the warm burnt sienna in the shadows. Lovely!

I think that the very wet-in-wet approach to the banking/undergrowth below the trees is super, particularly with those colours. I must give this a go, as I'm still trying to develop ways of dealing with plants/foliage. Again, I love your washes - I guess I'll need a lot more watercolour under the bridge before I can achieve a graduated wash like that. Can I ask what brushes you use? Until recently, I've been using synthetic blend flat brushes for washes, but I don't think they really suit me. I've recently bought a decent sized squirrel mop & I think this might work a lot better. Sucks up a lot of paint, though, so it takes some cleaning!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. Bill with regards to the banking/undergrowth, I enjoy working wet into wet, to create these effects, the burnt sienna was applied with a damp brush coated with a pigment direct from the tube. Additions of sap green and ultramarine blue was then added to give the deeper tone near the base of the foliage. The sky and water washes were done with ultramarine blue and naples yellow. These washes were applied first using a wet-in-wet technique with the main trunk structures being masked out. The washes were applied using a trusty old (25 year) 1" flat brush, that has now rounded on the edges. The blue was denser at the top and bottom of the paper. The board was lifted and tilted to mix evenly, it was then dried with a hair dryer to create an even texture. Hope this helps Bill.

Thanks very much for the helpful technical advice, Peter, much appreciated. Hope you have a good New Year!