My Portmeirion Vase

Just had to be first to comment on your watercolour Thea. i love it so fresh and bright an absolute joy to look at well done Thea !!!

This is sensational,Thea......Absolutely perfect..It is your best!!! but I think I am wrong, again. You will suprise me next time....

This is sensational,Thea......Absolutely perfect..It is your best!!! but I think I am wrong, again. You will suprise me next time....

Thea, this is just superb! Another exquisite painting to add to an already stunning gallery.

Beautifully bright and fresh.....great vase!!

Thank you all so much. It is always a relief when the first comments are positive - so I appreciate that. In this painting I have been trying out some new colours, made by a company called American Journey. I was a bit shaky about them half way through but then they started to grow on me. I found I was getting stuck with the same palette all the time and felt it was time to push the boundaries a bit.

Thea, This is absolutely lovely..You have developed such a distinctive style....Onwards and upwards...Really well done!..... xx

Hi Thea. I just knew you'd do another vase and I was right! This one is perfect. I've looked long and hard and can't fault it! Well done, it's really lovely. Again, that vertical and horizontal line in the background pull the whole picture together and work well. I like your new colours, always a good thing to push those boundaries!

Lovely palette, it works beautifully and you have unified the painting so skillfully. That shadow on the vase is just right, another super painting of flowers.

Lovely Thea

I think the colours are lovely it's such a bright cheerful picture.Nothing wrong with those flowers.

Its beautiful Thea and I like the way you still use spatter but less of it for these subjects which are so soft and gentle - it is not easy to get violets and yellows to stay clean as you often see murky greys when they are used close together but not on this one

Thea, if you get any better, I will turn green permanently! This is so, so gorgeous! The colors are crisp, clear and simply beautiful.

Thank you all so much for liking my painting. It gives me such a buzz to read all the comments and I do appreciate them so much. Seok Yam, thank you for that compliment - however if you saw me during the painting process you wouldn't think I was getting better at all - lots of huffing and puffing and trying to sort out wrong decisions. I wish I could just do a painting 'just like that' - no hassle and it just comes out of the end of your brush. I wish...! But thank you anyway for thinking that I am improving.

It's all been said and I agree with everyone! Sooo beautiful these new colours.

The colours in this painting are just wonderful! An absolutely gorgeous watercolour!

Thank you so much Avril and Julia. The best bit about this painting was that I actually enjoyed painting it. Flowers have been a bit of a slog for me, so this is progress!

Paintings of flowers don't come much better than this Thea, so fresh and alive

Can not really say anything that has not already been said Thea. Lovely piece of work.

I love your natural white flowers Thea and your colour sceme here is so attractive. Really well done.

Absolutely stunning Thea, one of your best still lifes IMHO.

Thank you Peri, Amanda, Carole and Val for your lovely comments. Val, excuse my ignorance, but what does IMHO stand for?

missed this Thea, love all your work...so delicate!!! How long does it take you to produce something like this? I still haven't tried watercolours but i know i couldn't paint like this!!! angi x

Thank you for those kind words, Angi. It took me about three days to produce this painting - not painting all the time, of course! I find I can only paint for about 45 minutes before I start to get too repetitive and lose focus. The decisions are what takes the time and I often come back to a painting and just sit and look at it for 10 minutes or so and then walk away and think about it a bit more. I think I have to do this because I am quite inexperienced really and I constantly make the wrong decision and then have to go back and sort it out. I hoping that one day I will just be able to sit down and paint and not stop (and not make so many dodgy decisions!). I used to finish a painting in one go until about a year ago, but I then realised that after my 45 minutes or so threshold, it then started to be more about just getting the painting finished than thinking each bit through as carefully as I could. I don't mind how long a painting takes to do really as it is the painting process that I get all the enjoyment out of.

Gosh yes, i have slowed down a little to what i was like at first....but i agree with you, trying to 'sort out' mistakes is the hardest bit of painting for me, really dislike it! I can complete a painting in 2 hours sometimes (i'm told that's my 'better' stuff!) and other times i spend 8 hours in ONE day and am quite exhausted by it!! I rush the drawing stage cos i just can't wait to get my hands on The Paint!! :P lol So interesting to see how other people work!! It's a wonderful hobby and we are so lucky!!! :)

Another lovely work Thea. A joy to see. IMHO. (In my humble opinion), Unfortunatley it demonstrates just how far I have to go before I can produce this standard!

Tony's just beaten me to it Thea with the explanation of IMHO, hope you didn't think it was something rude. LOL

Thank you, Tony for your lovely comments and for sure you can produce wonderful paintings - have confidence! Val, all these abbreviations take a bit of learning - I didn't even know until about 6 months ago what LOL stood for - talk about being behind the times! I must learn to keep up....

Thea, at first I thought LOL meant lots of love!

Beautiful colours, Thea - I even love your GREEN apple! (I think my latest posting is more yellow than green!)

Thea, You are the Queen of watercolour! Every time you post a picture they just get better and better. I have looked up Charles Reid on" you tube" and I found him very interesting. I can see why you like his style.:)

Thank you, Ann - yes I even used GREEN!! I can do that in a still like without fainting, but it is another matter if it was a tree. I will leave them to you! Thank you, Sarah, for that compliment. I still class myself as a novice as I put brush to paper for the first time only about 3 years ago and still have so much to learn. Charles Reid is the king in my book - well him, Judi Whitton and Janet Rogers. When I first started to paint I knew deep down how I wanted to paint but couldn't work out how to do it. I then came across CR and that was my eureka moment.

Congratulations Thea on three out of ten top ten galleries, they are beautifull paintings and I am really happy for you. I havee not been too well so this is the first time I have looked in but I'm glad I looked at the top ten, I've not been painting but maybe next month I will post again, well done again.

Congratulations to you too, Thea. on getting three in the top ten. The thing I like the best of your art is you are constantly striving for higher standards, and truly you are excelling.

Many thanks Thea for your kind message and congrats on your three! I managed to scrape in at no 10 ! I'll try and beat you next month, this is a serious battle now you know ! :} Have a lovely holiday, you'll be missed!

Thanks guys - I actually feel a bit embarrassed as there are far better artists than me on the gallery. I always feel like I have strayed into the wrong room. You obviously feel like me Kirstie - a kid amongst the big kids - however we must be doing something right!

Well done Thea! What more proof do you need that your paintings are superb. They always look so spontanious (even if they're much thought out!) and the fresh colours are delightful. Bravo.

Thank you so much Avril and Mia - what lovely compliments - I shall be walking on air for the rest of the day! P.S. I am off on my hols today to a place with no internet connection, so if I miss postings then I am not ignoring anyone - I just can't get onto the site. Will have a lot to catch up on when I get back.

Hi Thea, hope you had a good holiday despite having no internet ! I see you've been busy catching up and many thanks for your lovely comments. You've been missed ! Kind regards, Louise

Thea, lovely fresh colours, like the green against the purple :)