I’m pleased to report that my recovery from being laid up with back pain continues apace, to the extent that I’ve now been able to return to work.
This is great news, though I’m still having to be extra careful and am spending most of my days standing at my desk rather than sitting at it, which is taking a little bit of getting used to. I’m also being mindful to take lots of breaks, move around a lot more and do some stretches every now and then.
I have still been managing to spend some time with my sketchbook, though over the past few weeks I’ve slightly lost track of which sketches I’ve shared here and which ones I haven’t!
I think I did share a glimpse of this sketch in one of my previous posts, but here’s a more close up view which I thought I’d share as it’s one of my favourites from the past few weeks:
Whereas most of the sketches that I’ve done during the past few weeks have been based on paintings by Alvaro Castagnet, the following three sketches are all from my own reference photos.
I’ve really enjoyed being able to take some of what I’ve learnt doing the Alvaro studies and incorporate it into my own paintings.
I think this final one is one of my favourites so far, but this could be because I’m very fond of the pub that it depicts in Brighton. The orb like shape in the middle of the composition is a large spherical fish tank – which I think is another first for me in terms of trying to paint one! I thought I’d best explain this as it’s probably not that obvious to the majority of people that won’t be familiar with the pub in question!
I’ve so enjoyed working in my sketchbook like this and, while I’m also looking forward to working larger again, I’d really like to find a way of making these smaller scale works and studies a more regular part of my painting endeavours.
6 thoughts on “More watercolour sketches”
So glad to hear you’re on the mend John. Backs can be a bit dodgy can’t they?! Really like your 3 new paintings, especially the gate. I guess the gate leaves the interpretation to the viewer to go through and travel wherever they choose! … nice💕! I hope your back keeps improving…glad to see you’d need more than that to stop your flow of lovely watercolours.
Stay well, Carole
Hi Carole and thanks so much for this. It’s strange that out of all we’ve through in the past couple of years, having such a bad back is I think the closest I’ve been to packing up painting and posting for a while! Now that my back’s getting better, my fears have turned towards whether I can paint anything bigger than an A5 sketch now!
Nice series. And glad you are feeling better!
Thanks so much for this! so pleased you like the sketchbook work and yes, it’s a huge relief that I’m starting to feel better – it’s been a bit of a wake up call to be honest! Still a way to go yet but the stretches I’m doing seem to be really helping.
Glad to hear you’re on the mend. Some good work here, too. I particularly like the gate into the field and I’m sure your mate Alvaro wouldn’t have made such a good job of it.
Thanks so much Rob – really glad you like some of these. I think I’ve become so used to working at this size that anything larger is going to feel quite daunting!