Walberswick Boatyard by Thea Cable

I like the limited palette Thea it gives the painting a very jaunty feel!

It is beautiful Thea. love the composition and palette colour

Looks good to me ! If you want to put strong colour in why not ? It's the finished painting that matters and as far as I'm concerned anything goes - if you feel the need then that's you expressing yourself and the result is lovely and lively, just like the scene you saw. I saw a beautiful painting on FB this morning done in mixed media - watercolour, acrylic, ink ....... Laisse aller tes envies!

Super, love the bright colour. I'm not sure what the rules are with pen and wash but I agree with Avril, trust your instinct.

Hi Thea, loverly light and bright, must have the pallet right.

Lovely vibrant colours and a lovely painting

Thank you all so much for the comments and feedback - so useful and enlightening. I think that is it a case of the grass always looking greener over the fence in that I look at other artist's pen and wash paintings and often find them so very good that I feel that how they do it is the way to go. What I suppose I am failing to take into account is the way that I personally interpret scenes and that is always going to dominate regardless of admiring other's way of working. I find the feedback on the gallery really useful in gauging other peoples' reactions to the decisions I have made - so once again - thank you so much.

This is a lovely united painting Thea....whether that's the limited palette or the pen work, you've got the balance just right and it really works!

This is a lovely painting as always with you Thea but is there a tiny bit of stiffness there because of the limited palette. Why shouldn't you enjoy painting without rules and use as many colours as you wish? It's your hand that draws the images from your head onto the paper and as Avril said, it's the result that counts. Vive la liberte!

Thank you Fiona and Satus for interesting and valued comments. Satu, I think you are picking up the feeling I had about the painting coming over as a bit one dimensional and I put that down to the limited palette, so it is interesting that you feel it too. I am still very much a beginner at pen and wash and actually feel like I have gone right back to the beginning in my painting in trying to master this art. so everyone's input is proving enlightening and helpful.

You feel you've gone right back to the beginning! Well, here on POL I started out with pen and wash and it was suggested to me that I could probably manage in W/C without the pen ! Which is what I did ! Right or wrong ?

It is a lovely painting, but to me it seems 'tighter' than some of your other works, maybe because of the limited use of colour, or dare I say it because you were trying too hard to control the outcome to much and not go with your usual 'flow' hope that makes sense! Like others have said you should trust your instincts and paint as you want and not get hung up on the rules, as it would be a shame to spoil such a natural talent !!

Avril - I am going in the opposite direction to you I think! I started with pure watercolour and now I am having a go at using a pen. All good fun though. Thank you so much for your comment and ideas, Debs, which you know I value and listen to. I find it hard to achieve a looseness with a pen as by definition you are making more obvious and deliberate marks. I am not sure I was trying to control things per se as the limited palette just happened in a way. However, I have a lot to learn about doing a successful pen and wash and experimenting is part of the process. I am learning a lot from this particular painting, which is good.

... yes, go with the flow! Watercolour is such a beautiful medium, as is pen. You can also be "loose" with a pen! Actually as Satu says, you can do what you feel is right.

Sometimes I feel that we artists are too self critical. You say that it's hard to achieve 'looseness' with the pen. Does it matter? I feel that there are no rules and this particular pen and wash is a good one! If I was being really picky, I would have painted the boat in the foreground a darker shade of red to bring it forwad and add depth, but that's just my opinion. Well done again!

I like it Thea, I very much like the underlying pen drawing. OK - so a lot of people keep the washes light and simple to make the drawing a major feature but whoever said we should have rules about how to use any medium ? I understand what you are saying about 'rules' but I never learned any so just try to make any medium work for me and when I look at other peoples' art I am most taken by images which excite my eye and show an individual style - breaking rules often produces the very best work. You go for it, adapt it to suit you - not vice versa.

When the sun is shining colours always look strong and bright. This is the impression I have from your picture, of a lovely sunny day where everything is basking in the sun. It is very cleverly done. I just wish I was there now. Well done.

Thank you very much Gudrun, Louise, Jenny and Margaret for very interesting and helpful comments. I think what is emerging from this is that I shouldn't be so influenced by what other people are doing in pen and wash and just do my own thing. Trouble is that I like what other people do much better than I like what I do. What a dilemma!

Another winner to my eyes Thea. Forget about the rules of pen and wash, it really works which is what matters. I've wanted to visit Walberswick since seeing Edward Wesson's paintings he did there.

Thea - sorry - I missed this one first time round - works really well for me - have just posted a pen and wash in response to your query left against my pen drawing Tower Stables.

Love your boat paintings, Thea, and this one is really stunning in its excellence. The strategic placement of the colors really moves the eye around the painting.

Just seen this as one of the top paintings for November well done Thea, it is lovely, the colours you have used especially on the boat in the foreground draw the eye in to the scene, i agree with above comments as well use as many colours as you want, why not!

Thank you very much, Ros P. I was surprised about it's inclusion in the list because I wasn't too happy about my treatment of the colour washes. Still trying to master the balance between pen and paint.