Watercolours

Here is a collection of watercolour paintings by me. Select the thumbnail displayed to see the full resolution image. The size of the original is displayed next to each thumbnail.

A view of Antwerp from Linkeroover, Belgium

7"x10"
It should have been a cold October morning, but the sun was out casting a very strange light on the limestone buildings of the Antwerp, most noticably on the cathedral which was a distinct shade of green rather than its usual sand colour.

A view of Hertfordshire from Bibsworth Hall farm in the UK

A view of Hertfordshire from Bibsworth Hall farm in the UK

A4
When I arrived at the farm and set off into the field to paint this one, the farmer came up and asked me what I was planning to do. Unbeknownst to me, due to its remote location, this is apparently a favourite suicide spot!

A view of Brugge in Belgium

32x24cm
I started drawing this on the bridge its painted from, but so many tourists kept watching I gave up, took a picture and worked from that.

A view of a fantasy hamlet

32x24cm
The buildings are from a resin cast fantasy building set, the setting and background I just made up. I set the buildings on my knee and drew the scene from there.

A BAC Lightning F.Mk3 from No 56 squadron

A5
The English Electric Lightning was the first British aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and became operational in 1960 but no longer in service (even we get to replace aircraft occasionally). I had one do a 'storm climb' directly over my head on a parade at RAF Cranwell. I remember the incredible noise which shook my insides with the pressure waves and an intense smell of kerosene - WOW. Unfortunately I was on parade and couldn't look up. We're very disciplined - no one looked up except the guests, many of whom were terrified by the experience, and many of the ladies had their hats blown off. Storm climbs (over the parade ground) were banned shortly thereafter. I did see a Vulcan do one, and although I was about 1 1/2 miles away it still nearly knocked me off my feet, two people of my squad did actually hit the deck. I guess a nuke would be louder, but I can't imagine how!

'Storm Climb' - the aircraft glides in, as quietly and as low as possible, and when it reaches a target point goes to maximum thrust, plus afterburners and climbs as hard as possible, avoiding a stall of course, it wouldn't look good to 'land' on the spectators. You really feel the sound, pressure waves like no hi-fi at any concert ever produced!

My personal Spitfire

A5
One of the greatest fighter aircraft of all time, a Spitfire, with my personal id markings.

A Fantasy Foliage

A4
A very loose painting I did, just to relax one day, of some fantasy foliage.

A view of country side near Welwyn, Hertfordshire

A4
This view of some country side near Welwyn Garden City was painted on a very cold winter morning, from the middle of a muddy field. Immediately behind me was some sort of chemical dumping site, although it probably was not supposed to be, when I checked it out as a possible place to paint from, it was full of chemical drums, some leaking, so I made a hasty retreat to the field you see above, much nicer.

Vines at Vasa, Cyprus

A4
This view of the country side near Vasa was painted while I was on holiday. I went out for a walk with my light art kit in a small rucksack, saw the fairly green scenery (there's lots of red earth and dust mostly) and just had to do some painting, in a loose style (it was too hot to spend much time in the open, around 40 C that day).

Blue Tits

A4
A simple but pleasing picture of some birds in an imaginary setting.

A Duck

A4
A duck by some reeds. There were many such ducks around the lake in the park near my apartment where I lived in Antwerp.

Smugglers

A4
Smugglers off the dutch coast. I saw a sloop very similar to this on a trip to the dutch coast, so this along with some naval fiction inspired me to do a quick sketch on the subject, which I think turned out quite well.

Fantasy Girl

A4
Inspired by the art of Boris Vallejo, I did this one in 1987, my idea was sound but the technique was lacking. I still like it but it's a constant reminder of how far I'm away from being where I'd like to be. I don't know about you, but having to work for a living is really getting in the way of my living! Still, work pays the bills.

Fairy Girl

A4
Still one of the most dairing painting I've ever done, back in 1987 I was getting back into fantasy books and arts and this is a worthy result.

Trek Arrival

A3
I've always been a big fan of Star Trek and so I've done several Trek scenes, here's one of the Enterprise NCC-1701A arriving back at Earth, about to enter Star Fleet Command's orbital HQ.

Empire and Alliance Battle

A3
This one took a lot of work. I used an airbrush to get a very smooth black background, but as I was using watercolours I couldn't paint the light coloured ships onto the black as the colours would blend. After I had drawn the scene, I individually masked each ship, explosion and planet, then sprayed the background, then cleaned off the masker and then started to paint the actual ships. On and off, it took a week to do the preparation of drawing, masking and initial spraying. The detail on the small ships is fairly good but you can't see this in the scanned version here.

War of the Worlds

A3
Using my (then newly acquired) airbrush I did this painting of a sea battle between our warships and an alien craft. The alien craft isn't much as I was much more interested in the sky and smoke from the ships.

On Patrol

A3
Another one I did in 1987, I was going through the females in stockings phase. Isn't it time I passed it...guess not. The hover car is based on a Ferrari Testarossa without wheels or arches.

Planet Explorer

A3
Yet another one I did in 1987, it was a busy year, this is from a photograph I took while exploring the planet Kxigarf, or maybe I just imagined it, no it must be Kxigarf.

Oriental Girl

A3
Yet another one I did in 1987, I seem to remember watching Shogun on TV and that inspired this rendition of what I hope Japan will be like (although there are more Chinese influences in this painting).

USS Enterprise

A4
I'm a big fan of Star Trek and here's a rendition of the USS Enterprise I painted back in 1986.