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I’m not about to argue with Leonardo, but with watercolours, the opposite is kind of appropriate, but only because you get your lighter tones by leaving the paper untouched.

Lamma Island is about 30 minutes away from Hong Kong itself, and is a bit of a holiday or ‘day out’ type of place. It’s always a good day trip, and i have done a number of paintings here.

This one captures the mood of the day I think.

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This quote from Dali has absolutely nothing to do with the painting, but you gotta love the guy!

Anyway, we finally got some lovely sunshine here yesterday, so I headed up the road a bit and spent a few hours on this one, near Lac de Miquelou just outside Grauhlet.

It was the Mayday holiday here, and a number of locals were fishing nearby. They didn’t seem to be catching a lot – probably just an excuse to get out in the sunshine.

Private Collection, Switzerland

‘Watercolor, with all its subtle color and value gradations and its many welcome surprises, is the perfect medium for capturing mood. (Ray Hendershot) ‘

This is another of the French watercolours done recently near Chauffe.

It was an exceptionally windy and cold day, and I hunkered just outside the car out of the wind and sporadic rain.

While I was painting, a farmer stopped his truck and walked back to me and explained that that was his parents property, and that I was painting on his.

He didn’t seem to mind.

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Somehow, it’s kinda hard to return to France and not think of Claude when painting the countryside, so I decided to include this quote from him.

This is a view of the Moulin at Briatexte on the Dadou river in the south of France. The Dadou eventually flows into the Tarn – one of the major rivers in France.

The colours were a lot of fun!

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‘Perhaps watercolour is more art than acrylics or oil, because the opportunity to correct errors is very limited as the colours are transparent… The sun, wind and temperature influences water-pigment-paper!! Everything flows, painting with watercolors! (Adriana Buggino)’

Still with the aquarelles, but back in France. This one was painted in situ just outside a little hamlet called Chauffe (see map below), on a pretty cold and wet day. I did a series of about three or four in the same area, and came back a few days later and did a few more ‘layers’ of the watercolour wash on top of the originals – something which suits itself to this medium.

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‘It is remarkable how very individual technique becomes in watercolour. Every man of personality finally arrives at a method peculiarly his own, as unique as his own fingerprint. (Walter J. Phillips)’

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‘Water is the mirror of nature. (St. Francis of Assisi)’

This is another of the recent watercolours from Sai Kung. It is a view across the harbour done on the jetty. Although it looks like a Japanese ink drawing, it is actually aquarelle, being done entirely with washes of Paynes grey.

I find that this medium really captures the misty Hong Kong harbour on a drizzly day.

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As we are currently in transit back to France, and spending a few days in Hong Kong, I can take advantage of the surrounding countryside here.

Like most people, I used to think of Hong Kong as just the crowded island full of people, noise and cars. This is not the case, and there are many rural areas around the New Territories. As my oil paints are still on the boat, I can use the opportunity to play with watercolours. This picture was done in situ at Sai Kung harbour on a very foggy and misty day on the water, (not unusual in honkers) which makes it ideal for the medium.

Sai Kung harbour

‘ Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good. (Cennino Cennini)’

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‘Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)’