Autumn

What does autumn mean to you?

Woodsmoke, coffee, bonfires, apples, walnuts and roasting chestnuts. The smell of decaying leaves and unknown fungi, the rustling sound in the trees that was not there a week ago, dark earth, complex, textured colours, gold, green, red and yellow, cold dry air, a warm sun and a lack of birds.

good sketcher….baaaad painter

SO, I had a couple of hours off…great I thought and I packed my stuff and drove to a nice spot outside Winterthur to paint. It was raining of course, so that meant I was sat in the back of the car trying to avoid getting wet, but I’m just making excuses. Watercolours always look so easy when they’re done right (by someone with more practice than me!!).  I haven’t been painting outdoors in a while and I think by the end of each session I am starting to learn something. The problem is by the time I get to painting again, I’ve forgotten what I’d learned the first time, which says a lot about my retentive memory. In fact it seems the longer I spend on a painting, the worse it gets and here is a prime example.

The first painting was the one I spent the most time on and I totally overworked it. The second took me about 15 minutes and though not perfect, I’m much happier with it. Maybe you disagree? Anyway if your easily impressed with my work and need more proof of how to do it good then you should take a look at the work of the unpronounceable artist Joseph Zbukvic , who really knows his way around a pan!

Lake Constance

At last the sun arrived this weekend and we were able to spend some time at the lake, which meant as well as getting in a swim and attempting to convert my pristine English whiteness to something resembling the colour of weak tea, I could also get out my paintbrushes. This time we were in Steckborn and Ermatingen, two small towns on the Swiss side of Lake Constance which have very nice Strandbad’s, (beach bath or bathing area)…Long may the sun shine!

Pfäffikersee

The weather has not been kind these last few weeks…and the weeks of rain and overcast skies are now running into months. In german they call this kind of weather durchwachsen (streaky bacon), so the opportunities for getting out to the lakes and pools have been minimal, (only one day since the last time in June!) I did attempt to paint some of the aforesaid clouds but without success, so here instead are some happy sunbathers….