Snow II

Snow II - 10"x14" - Watercolour

This is the third of my snow scenes. In all of these paintings I have added snow. The part of town where I live is at sea level and only a couple of miles from the sea and it it rare for us to have more than one light snowfall per year. On average the covering is about half an inch. Even so when it happens the local schools all close and the buses and trains stop running. Heavy snowfalls of a foot or more come once every 40 years and get headlines in the local paper.

Royal Canal

Military Canal, Winter - 10"x14" - Watercolour

This was another contender for the charity Christmas card. The canal's full name is the Royal Military Canal and it runs across Romney Marsh. It was built as a defence against the threatened invasion of Britain by Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th Century. I like man-made waterways and used to have a share in a canal boat. I now have an inflatable dinghy with an electric outboard ideal for exploring these out of the way places.

Snow on the Tracks

Snow III - 14"x10" - Watercolour

This was one of several paintings of snow, done when I was asked to make a Christmas card for a local charity. On seeing this a friend remarked, "I don't think you've quite managed that Christmassy feel." Another friend said, "I don't know, at least the rails make the shape of a Christmas tree."

Canada and Me . . . (part 2)

White Onion - 14"x10" - Watercolour

 . . . Working in public for the first time was challenging but rewarding. I enjoyed myself and the onion paintings developed well. My display of landscapes and seascapes attracted much interest and I even made some sales.

I expected to be invited back for the next symposium two years later. It was taken for granted that invited artists would attend two events running so I was surprised when this didn't happen but accepted it as 'just one of those things'.

Recently, in conversation with one of the other artists who was there, I discovered a possible reason why I wasn't invited back. A member of the symposium committee had summed it up in these words: “We invited him here for his landscapes and he gave us onions!”

Next time I'll know better.

If you would like to see them, my two Canadian onion paintings are included in the combined royal watercolour societies' exhibition (Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Royal Watercolour Society) - 'High Watermark', Mall Galleries, London SW1 from 16 to 20 August 2011.