Ironbridge

Lovely painting Thea. The figure rowing towards the bridge is a great anchor to stop you from wandering off the bottom of the page and leads you back to the bridge.

Thanks very much, Joseph. We seem to get a lot of people canoeing on the various rivers around here so it is a very typical sight.

Hi Thea i agree with Joseph the canoe plays an important part in this painting it leads the eye into the picture and under that beautiful iron bridge. You live in a nice area Thea and i like your painting very much.

Lovely work once again Thea of a real historical treasure. I remember seeing a TV prog about the bridge some years ago and wondering how they managed to construct it without the mechanical aids we have today. They showed a painting done at the time by a visiting artist, which showed the bridge partly built surrounded by very precarious looking wooden scaffolding. The engineers of the past were very ingenious.

Very delicate impression of what is basically a stonking great piece of iron! So very well done on that score, pity you've been hit by Multple Poster Syndrome!!

Lovely interpretation of this famous bridge Thea!

Echoes of above Thea. What size is it?

Thank you very much Dennis, Stephen, Debs and Carole - really nice of you to leave such encouraging comments. Debs, at least the MP only posted 6 - not too bad in the grand plan of how MP's usually hit the gallery. Stephen, the bridge is actually a very elegant structure, but how they managed to lift such heavy iron and work across the steep gorge is beyond me. I will have to look up how they did it.

Thank you Derek - do you mean what size is the bridge or what size is the painting? Well, the bridge has a 73ft span and the painting is 11" x 8" - hope one of these answers your question!

A fresh and beautiful painting of a majestic bridge! Lovely work Thea!

Well, we don't have many pretty bridges like this one nearby but after seeing this, I thought of an old steel swing bridge over the M/C ship canal which swings open to let the big boats through. As children we used to worry that it might swing open while we were on it..lol. Interesting how a painting can make us think about these things! This is a beauty. I've looked closely and spotted that you rarely take the pen of the paper when drawing the foliage. This confident drawing looks good. The red canoe is the perfect addition as you know

I think Thea that you have a new and very attractive approach to your paintings. They are stronger, more confident and the colours are very fresh and pure. This historic bridge is a fantastic sample of the high quality of your work.

I love this Thea! It's a beautifully elegant, bright and vibrant piece. The lush backdrop of organic shapes and the architectural features of the bridge are a brilliant combination and work so well together.

Thank you very much Sarah, Louise, Satu and Seok for really kind and encouraging comments. I did beef up the colour of the bridge as I felt it, even although it is made of heavy iron, it has a lightness and prettiness about the shapes and design which I wanted to reflect in the colour palette. Louise, I do tend to use a lot of continuous lines and draw by lifting my pen off the paper as little as possible. It is actually the only way I can try to get a drawing right as it helps me to relate one shape to another to build the image. My drawing skills are not that good really so I need this way of doing it to help me or my perspective and scale would be all over the place (and frequently are, lol!).

A lovely fresh painting of this iconic bridge Thea!

Thank you very much, Christine!

Another stunning watercolour thea

Brave to leave those patches of unpainted white paper - I'd have itched and squirmed to fill them in! One of your loveliest paintings, if I may say so.

Thank you very much Anne, Petra and Robert for such nice comments. Robert, I just love my white paper and the more I can get away with leaving the better (also cuts down on the work as you don't have to bother to paint those bits - method in my madness, eh!). Perhaps you could try a painting where you don't cover all the paper, just to give me the pleasure of imagining you hopping from foot to foot with gritted teeth and paintbrush poised, lol!

Thank you very much, Michael - your very kind comment is appreciated. I would love to see the painting by your father - would you consider posting it perhaps?

Fresh, strong and elegant. No hesitation here!

Super painting of an iconic bridge Thea.