'The paintings I’ve chosen this month demonstrate that you don’t have to search far for painting subjects,' says Jane Stroud in the June issue of Leisure Painter. 'There’s beauty all around us, much of it in everyday objects. Both Steve Cole and Trevor Lawrence have produced beautiful paintings from seemingly mundane subjects. Here they tell us about themselves and the inspiration behind these paintings.'

Seize the moment

A civil engineer, Steve has spent his life in heavy construction. He started painting three years ago and says, 'I am finally in love with something that I can do every day. I work from my home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia. I am a member of the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, the Chester County Art Association, a signature member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society and various other groups around the country. This particular piece is from a photograph taken in quaint Newtown, Pennsylvania, an hour east of West Chester. I caught this picture on one of my photo safaris, with the 3pm summer sun slanting through the backyard trees.'

Laundry, Newtown, watercolour, (24x30.5cm), by Steve Cole.

Click here to see more of Steve's work in the PaintersOnline gallery.

Simple beauty

Trevor originally wanted to be a technical illustrator and learnt about reflections and how to paint them, which, he says, 'led to a colourful career in advertising art. But sometimes life has another plan for you, and I now work at Royal Mail, painting for pleasure in my spare time and giving painting demonstrations to art clubs. Last year, one of my paintings was selected for the Royal Ulster Academy exhibition.”

Speaking about Fourteen Circles (below), Trevor says: 'The liquidity of reflections fascinates me. I was inspired by photorealist artists, such as David Parish and Scott Jacobs, and wanted to do a realistic piece based on the simple beauty of circles. I must have looked at a thousand chrome hubcaps, before I designed my own for the composition. I drew it onto canvas using a trammel compass then underpainted in acrylic overlayed with thin coats of oil. I used cerulean blue, and cobalt blue mixed with cadmium red to give me grey. Titanium white tied it all together for the highlights and the fine circles were put in with an HB pencil and waterproof fineliner.'

Click here to see more of Trevor's work in the gallery.