This week I want to talk about how I set about preparing some of the pictures that will be exhibited in my home for this year’s Festival.
I don’t make lots of sketches on site, which will be frowned upon by some. I do occasionally make watercolours in a sketchbook while in situ but if I see something that I want to paint when I return to the studio, like many artists these days, I take photographs for reference.
I should point out that I don’t paint from the photographs in a literal interpretation of the photographed scene. In fact, I like to take photographs at different times of the day if a landscape proves interesting. Different times mean different light and photographing a landscape in varying ways is a much more reliable reference than memory when one is trying to recall specific details months after visiting the site.

When I visited Big Karoo I knew immediately that I wanted to paint it. I took a few photographs of the place and settled down with my sketch pad to paint the watercolour that you see above. The second picture below is on the way to the final version which you will see fade in.
As you can see when comparing these pictures to the photographs, I do not try to make a literal interpretation of the scene. Rather, I hope to convey the emotional impact the location made on me when I was there.

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