No one has sent me any photos of paintings they have done this month, so I’ll show you what I’ve painted recently.
I absolutely love poppies and have painted them many times. Mainly as ‘weeping’ poppies at Remembrance time, with the red of the poppies bleeding into watercolour paper and with a quote dripping from the poppy’s black centre.
This time I painted poppies on a lighter theme, being inspired by a couple of photos on the IgersKent photo account on Instagram, where photos of Kent are posted every day.
The first painting is a bee flying to a poppy and the second is a view across a field of poppies, near South Foreland Lighthouse. Both are watercolours on Bockingford Not paper, 300gsm, 5” x 7”.
I’ve also painted a few beach scenes lately, so here are my favourite three.
Greatstone beach in Kent, where I went on holiday every year with my parents until I was 15 and which I still visit regularly with my own family. Watercolour on W&N Not, 300gsm paper, 8” x 10”.
A beach umbrella on sand, just out of my head. Acrylic on W&N Not, 300gsm, watercolour paper, 8” x 10”.
Sunset from the beach in Arenal d’en Castell, Menorca, on our holiday last year. Watercolour on Bockingford Rough, 300gsm paper, 5” x 7”.
Finally a painting I did last year of waves coming in on a beach. It is something you could do with your children or grandchildren, by collecting sand and shells from the beach. The close up photo shows I used newspaper, sand, shells, metal foil and gold paint for the beach. The sand stuck well with PVA glue but after the shells fell off I glued them on again with clear multi purpose glue and they stayed on. It was fun to do and easily done with younger members of your family.
Please send me any photos of any paintings you have done this month!
Medway & Chalk Art Group 
They’re lovely Tracy, especially the beach where you’ve used a mix of mediums. I hope we are all inspired now to have a go.
Thank you, Susan, I have enjoyed using mixed media, I must try some more!
These are lovely Tracy. My favourite is the sandcastle. X
Thank you, Kay, that sandcastle is my favourite too. We arrived at Greatstone beach one summer afternoon and found the amazing fortification already there, so we can’t claim credit for building it! We looked after it well though and added some feathers and shells.
Crikey Tracy you have been busy
I’ve tried poppies they look so simple but just to get the colour right is difficult
I like the back stories too
Thank you, Steve, I do love a poppy or two! The colours of poppies can be hard to get right as they are actually rather orange. In watercolour I find Cadmium Red in artist quality paint (not student grade) very good for the orange poppies as it’s quite translucent. For really red poppies I use the SAA paint appropriately called ‘Poppy Red’, which is opaque, almost like gouache. For my Remembrance poppy paintings I use Winsor & Newton’s ‘Winsor Red’, which is perfect for the colour of the paper poppies sold by the Royal British Legion every year. It’s taken me years to find these good colours!