World Inspired Landscapes: United Kingdom

After writing many blogs on the topic of colonialism, we finally get to the United Kingdom, formerly the British Empire and center of the colonial power that dominated most of the world's trade. Cro-Magnons lived there tens of thousands of years ago, followed by various stone-age ancient people, then the invasion by Romans around the turn of the millennium. Just a few hundred years later, invasion by the Saxons, probably Germanic tribes or maybe Scandinavian, or both over many generations lead to what became an island of warring kingdoms. Somewhere in the middle of it all my ancestors survived, we know at least some of them came from Darlington, a city in the north east. Once a part of the European Union, it is now a separate entity after the infamous Britain Exit or Brexit, which dominated the news for all too many years before becoming a reality. Looking around the landscapes, there were a lot of familiar looking scenes that could have been Canada. I used Google Maps to explore Darlington and was impressed with the number of parks and woodlands they have preserved around this medium sized industrial city.

Obviously rain is one of the prevalent themes in the United Kingdom and I wanted to convey that in the painting. On the first attempt I used liquid frisket, known as masking fluid, to preserve the rain drops but the product was goopy and could not be removed from the paper so I tossed it (both the frisket and the failed attempt). Messing around a bit, I found a way to infuse wet washes using wet brush strokes to create the blurry forest and field scene in the background, while painting around some blank spots for the rain drops. Working fast to prevent it from drying, I got in the whole background in one go. Once that dried, I used a three tone scheme using small brushes within each droplet. Luckily (or not) it was raining today so I studied the drops on our windows and saw that the background was reflected upside-down by the drops. The entire painting was done with careful brushwork, and it turned out better than I could have hoped, almost photo-realistic. Its been a fun series, and this effort is a good example of how it has pushed me as an artist.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: United Kingdom, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2025