#DirectWatercolor2018 - paintings 27-29

27 - Walking on the Moon

28 - main entrance of Swansea Waterfront museum

29 - Swansea Marina Pump House Restaurant

One Sketch #90 #30x30DirectWatercolour2018 Swansea Marina

I'm blue,
Dabadee dabadoo
So are you, you and you
(in this sketch anyway)

This is a momentous picture - not so much because of any inherent quality, but because it is the 30th direct watercolour I've made in June, which means I passed the 30x30 challenge! Yeah! I had about 20 minutes of the South Wales Urban Sketchers Group sketchcrawl in Swansea Marina today, and just suddenly hit upon the idea of making this sketch of the tug Canning and surroundings in shades of blue. I think it was a serendipidous choice - I rather like this.

One Sketch #89) Manchester Town Hall #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Built on the produce
Of Cottonopolis.
Buttery stones stand out
In this red brick city
A civic castle
And a symbol of pride.

I've always liked this particular kind of Victorian, overblown neo-Gothic architecture. St. Pancras Station (alright, the Midland Hotel) and London's Natural History Museum are two of my favourite examples, and this, Manchester Town Hall, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.  This is actually number 26 of my 30 direct watercolours in the month of June, and I think the practice is starting to pay dividends. This is far more ethereal, far looser than I was painting at the start of the challenge, and far closer to what I was actually trying to achieve in this picture.

One Sketch #88) Sutton Hoo Helmet Replica

I sing of a dark age
A wind age, an axe age
I speak of the splendour
Of kingdoms and kings
The wrath and the rage
Of the warriors' wyrd
And the cunning and craft
Of the art of the smith.

No idea what inspired me to sketch this today, but it's an artefact I'm really fond of. The original isn't quite as photogenic as this one, in the British Museum near the original, which was made by the armourers of the Tower of London, I think, but it's a faithful representation of what the original would have looked like originally.

One Sketch #87) Giant Tortoise (Wednesday 20th June) #DirectWatercolor2018

Time passes slowly
So do I
What's the rush?
When you are long gone
I will still be on my way.

I'm quite pleased with this one. It was a very quick sketch made in the last 30 mins or so of last night's Artists' Group meeting - I'd spent the most of the evening finishing off an acrylic painting of a choo choo train. This is looser than my usual watercolours, and none the worse for that, I think.

One Sketch #86) Tall Ship (Tuesday 19th June) #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Driven across the world

By the engine of the wind

Like a wandering albatross

Wandering

But not lost.

I just fancied trying a tall ship with this one, especially since I thought I could probably do it almost (although not quite) entirely in shades of blue. I rather like this. 

One Sketch#85) Aberavon Rugby Ground (Monday 18th)

A place for shouts and sighs and cries
For up and unders
Scrums and tries.

This was made for a present for a big time Aberavon supporter. I've sketched the Talbot Athletic Ground before, but from an aerial view looking out across the ground and the town from Tydraw Hill.