Postcard1 by Rebecca Louise Saunders

Well - I like the colours, and the composition (generally): the snag for me comes from the very free amount of water you use with the paint and the consequent lack of definition - it's only a matter of personal taste, really, but I find myself longing for a hard line, a strong colour, some definite drawing; the tree, in particular, looks as though it died some time ago; well, maybe it did, but some of your other trees look much the same, and I'm not sure it's a feature I should wish to see repeated too often. You have a view, I think, of watercolour as an essentially very fluid medium - and there's nothing wrong with that: but it is capable of far more precision; it doesn't HAVE to be nebulous and vague, and I'd quite like to see you sharpening it up a bit, adding more pigment to the water, letting it dry and then working back into it. Still - your view of what watercolour should do may be totally different from mine, so these are suggestions,not criticisms.

Hello Robert, thank you for looking through my artwork and for your sugestions, they are appreciated :-)

Hi Rebecca, I think I am in part in agreement with Robert. There is a lovely ethereal look to a lot of your work, but this does have to be balanced by areas that are sharper - I think it is called 'push and pull' i.e. some edges lost and some edges found. Without this excitement a painting can lose it's focus. It is good to have the more distant figure slightly hazier,but define the closer figure a bit more? This is only a suggestion because I am not you and I don't know what goal you had in mind for the painting. I utilize water a lot in my paintings but I make sure that I also use enough pigment to give the colours a bit of punch otherwise you risk ending up painting with coloured water rather than watercolour. All that said, I think your paintings have a very distinctive style and you paint a variety of interesting subjects, so it always keeps them fresh and lively. Keep up the good work!

:-) thanks Thea for your comments, i appreciate your advise :-) goals for finished paintings :-p as you can quite clearly see, i clearly have no goals for how i wish paintings to look when finished :-) it is difficult to explain the way i paint, but if i had to think about what i was painting, i could not create anything. My head is empty at the time of me painting, and i do not know what i will create until it is finished. Unless i am painting the cheat method paintings :-p I do see what you may be meaning about the first figure though, her clothes are pale and should be more vibrant if she is in the front of the painting :-) thank you for giving advise :-)

I also start a painting not knowing which way it is going to go. I don't do preliminary work so sort of 'fly by the seat of my pants' really! - so I appreciate what you are saying. However, when I am painting and as I go along I constantly assess what the painting needs (more colour, more definition in certain areas, less detail in others, etc) and try to react to that. I very often get it pectacularly wrong I have to say lol! I think you are right that you just have to follow your gut reactions to what you are looking at and both Robert and I were really only picking up on a couple of tiny technical issues (unfortunately although it is lovely to just let your artistic juices flow unrestrained, the dreaded technicalities do have to creep in and play their part!!). I think you are going great guns with your painting and you are obviously really enjoying it which is the most important thing in the end.

i totally hear where you are coming from and in fact have been looking at the paintings as they progress today and have made things richer in colour in front of the painting, used less water (hopefully) the 2 i have uploaded today compared with this are clearer and have more colour in them (i think) i have never ever been any good at (technicalities) i have not done art school (as you can all tell :-p ) , and did not enjoy art at school . So sadly i am not keen on my paintings looking like or similar to (correct) :-p I like and appreciate you taking the time to give me advise though, some does go onboard :-) thank you

Hi Rebecca, I think it is good that you are trying to progress your painting, but it is hard and frustrating sometimes, isn't it! I haven't any art training either (unless you count poster paints aged 5 at school!) - so I have had to find my own way. I have only been painting for just over four years now and the first two were such a steep learning curve I can tell you. However, painting is a wonderful relaxation and so absorbing that I am so glad I started. I shall go and check our your new postings!

Yes i enjoy painting too and it is relaxing depending on what you are using, for instance if i was given a pallet knife and oil paint, no, no relaxing for me :-p