A change from buildings

After a few weeks of painting landscapes and buildings I felt the need to try something else. So what better than to tackle a reproduction of an ancient masterpiece? Boticelli's painting of Simonetta Vespucci caught my eye when it arrived on my phone via the Daily Art app (do get it if you haven't already) and I thought I would try to paint it in watercolour.  

Known for her beauty, poor Simonetta died from TB at the age of 22 but before then featured in several well-known paintings of the era.

 

After that, then what better than a bit of wildlife? Whenever we visit our son and his family in South London, I am always thrilled to see bright green parakeets flying around in the trees. Nobody is certain how these beautiful birds came to be established in London but they seemed to be escapees from captivity who manged to establish a breeding colony in the suburb of Twickenham. Now spread all over the London area and beyond, they are a joyful contrast to our usual sparrows and pigeons.

I used some Schminke granulation medium on the background - a first for me. Both these paintings are in my new Seawhite large spiral-bound sketchbook with 300gsm paper in it. The paper has a unique texture.

 

After a walk around the nearby town of Eastbourne, these old shops caught my eye and before long I was back to drawing one of my detailed buiding pictures yet again.