Fisherwoman!

what a lovely painting. I actually like the hair it looks as though she's been having a great time.

The first thing that caught my attention was the hair, Thea - such a light yet effective touch that conveys wildly curling ringlets perfectly. And I like the warm against cool colors of the skin tones as well. Beautifully done

This is a really charming painting Thea and a sure contender for the POL /Derwent competition based on photo's from the family album!

Could be one of your 'personal best'! A delightful painting of a lovely little girl. Good skin, good colour, good curls, in fact, good all round!

Oh, the sweet little girl! Lovely colours, beautiful hair, gorgeous skin. A real winner Thea!

Lovely gentle watercolour, soft washes.

Lovely portrait of your grand-daughter enjoying one of the carefree joys of childhood, time on the beach on a sunny day, it is gorgeous Thea, just enough detail

Thank you so much Dawn, Seok, Helen, Christine, Louise, Satu, Glennis and Ros for such lovely comments. No sure about the POL competition though as they never seem to like my style and always go for a much more literal style, usually done in acrylics or oil. It is a bit disheartening to keep entering their competitions without any success, so I will give this one a miss.

Loving the curls too! A happy memory captured in such a pretty style, lovely work!

Thanks, Debs - doing a figure was pretty tricky for me - not much experience, but worth having a go.

This is really good, so natural and lifelike Thea. Well done.

Don't give it a miss, its just lovely, children on a beach know how to enjoy it.

Lots of joie de vivre in this Thea! Brilliant bobbing curls too.

Thank you very much, Carole and Karyl for your encouraging comments - much appreciated. Karyl, I presume you mean the competition. I like entering competitions but you do have to have some hope that you stand a chance. When I look at POL competitions, I never see any winners with painting styles similar to mine (and few in watercolour) so there does seem little point. They have the same judges for all of them and those judges do seem biased towards representational work, which mine is most definitely not. A shame - but there you are.

Thank you very much, Sarah, - the bobbing curls gave me a bit of grief but I was pleased with them in the end. I have always struggled with painting hair but I think I am finally improving!

I think this is excellent, likeness or not. It is a girl having a great time on the beach.

Hi Thea, thanks for your lovely comment on my pastel drawing of my son, pleased to see that you like it, yes I was thinking myself it might be a good one for the online competition, glad you think it might be good for that as well, my son thankfully likes it as well!

Hi just browsing and found your portfolio. Wonderful work for sure I will be watching for new postings!

Thank you very much Gudrun and Wendy for your nice compliments, very kind of you.

Hey Thea, just had to let you know I have finally got round to doing a little watercolour of a boy on a beach, just posted it, had to tell you as you are so good with watercolour!

Hi again Thea, I forgot to say, in answer to your question Museum Aquarelle Watercolour Pencils can be used to draw and sketch with and then if we want we can, as I did this time, go over the coloured pencil with watercolour brushes with a little or a lot of water on them, which turns them immediately into watercolour paints, it is a little harder to control the colour depth and richness, something can look quite pale as a watercolour pencil but as soon as water is added it can become much brighter, they are just like ordinary watercolour pencils I think, I just got your email about replying to people's comments on my work rather than on their work, you could be right there although I think that might apply more when you get as many comments as you do on every work, anyway it's late and I'm off to bed, bye for now Thea x

Dear Thea your delicate watercolours are all very beautiful - watercolour is indeed a very difficult medium to master and you have the makings of a true artist in all your work. I can see that besides using the medium correctly you also paint from your heart and that is where a true artist stands out from another. You should be very proud of your beautiful galleries and work here and I look forward to seeing more of your new work too. With very best regards and greetings Doranne