Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Monastiraki Athens

Landscape Watercolour of Athens, 15" x 11".

Monastiraki was the site of one of the largest monasteries in Athens.  So little was left of the complex -  and only this little church remains, hence it's name 'monastiraki' or 'little monastery'.  The area around the square here has many tourist souvenir shops and traditional Greek Kebap Restaurants.  I very rarely go back to paintings to rework them, but the yellow taxi was an afterthought (there were tow many plain cars, so I washed over one with a Cad Yellow bit of paint).

On Saunders Waterford Rough Paper, 140 lbs.

 

Ridgewood Community Centre Chipping Sodbury 3

Landscape Watercolour of Chipping Sodbury, 15" x 11"

The rear entrance to Ridgewood Community Centre in Chipping Sodbury, home to my local art club up there on the first floor.  Not an obvious choice maybe for a sketch, being a fairly ordinary building with an older part of the left and the newer bit on the right.  I took the liberty of reducing the height of the building in order to accommodate the larger foreground car park (sorry Ridgewood).

 

Various Holiday Sketches from 2012

I don't often paint on holiday, but here's a few from last year, and all from my 10" x 7" sketchbook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tias Street Corner, Lanzarote

Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11"

Tias is a small town in central Lanzarote, a bit off the tourist areas and a popular residency for local and ex pats.  I don't know the name of this street corner, but I took the liberty of changing a few minor architectural details and put in the two people and the car to balance the composition.  Pedestrian crossing went in first with a dry wash of light blue pigment just to dirty it up a bit before the cerulean blue sky and ultra marine/alizarin crimson was on the lower half (with a bit of yellow ochre on the lighter right hand side of the central building.

 

Sunday Market Teguise, Lanzarote

Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11"

The church tower of San Miguel serves as a useful landmark if you're ever lost at the busy Sunday market in the old capital town of Teguise. I can remember doing the foreground in one go with bold dry brush strokes, and leaving a bit of the paper below to enhance a bit of sunlight sparkle on the surface.

Saunders Waterford Rough Paper, 140 lbs.

 

Haria Lanzarote 2

Landscape Watercolour of Lanzarote, 15" x 11" 

The small town of Haria in northern Lanzarote, is in the centre of the Valley of the Palms - a wide green valley dotted with random Canary Island Date Palms, with extinct volcanoes around the perimeter.  A bit of dry brush strokes for the palm trunks is a quick way of understating them against the light.

 

Mykonos Port, Greece

Landscape Watercolour of Mykonos, Greece, 15" x 11"

Mykonos, a small Greek Island and part of the Cyclades group.  It's a very popular tourist destination I suppose because it's not too commercialised and has the iconic Aegean scenery of pretty villages and white washed houses.  My sketch is of the New Port, a few miles away from the main Mykonos town and an early part of the morning when the air is still.

 

Piraeus Port, Athens

Landscape Watercolour of Piraeus, 15" x 11"

Pireaus, the port for Athens and the largest port in Greece.  This is the main road / dual carriageway that runs around the perimeter and is punctuated by at least two dozen gates and ferries leading to all the Greek Islands and beyond.  The building is probably a government office but offers an interesting contrast to the shadows of the larger apartment blocks on the right.

 

Tel Aviv Street Corner

Landscape Watercolour of Tel Aviv, 15" x 11"

A street corner in Tel Aviv.  Well it could be any city.  The painting is based on a holiday snap.  The first thing I do if the picture has some white in it or the stripes of the zebra crossing is dull it down a bit with some dirty or blueish paint, and not to make the stripe too perfect but cut across the edges.

 

Street Corner, Old Jerusalem

Landscape Watercolour of Jerusalem, 15" x 11"

A busy street corner in the old part of Jerusalem, just opposite the Damascus Gate.  There was a varied mixture of shops here, street vendors and even a Hotel in the middle.  What attracted me was the challenge of simplifying the scene (extracting many people and a few cars whizzing around the junction here), and I think the blinds with their stripes added a bit of interest.