And now for something completely different!

A decorative semi-abstract flower piece painted on watercolour paper using acrylic paint and ink.

The technical problem here is to achieve a balance of colours and contrasting tones

I normally make up my paler colours by adding white to a deeper version, but somehow a good pink had eluded me.
This week I bought a tube of acrylic CARNATION PINK , as the manufacturer called it.
As usual, something new inspired me and I painted these pictures employing the
colour in all its glory.

I have always enjoyed paintings with
"lost"and "found" elements in them.
I used this technique when I painted
these two ladies.
I restricted the palette to no more than
five colours in each painting.

For a change I fancied painting a portrait of this beautiful girl from a picture I had of her in a magazine.Her pose is quite hypnotic and appeals to me very much.
I worked in watercolour, creating a mystical background in various shades of blue and green to set her off

IF YOU LIKE ANY OF THESE PAINTINGS, I CAN ALWAYS PAINT A VERY SIMILAR ONE TO ORDER.
I prefer to paint in a 7"x10" format, but I can produce larger work on request.
If interested, please email me at fredericksegal@gmail..com
Thanks.

Cornwall! Boats and cottages, sea and hills.
What better subjects to paint?
There is a liveliness about the place which
begs to be captured.
These were painted with a mixture of watercolour, acrylic and ink.

Really the colours in a painting are secondary to the tonal values. I used a very restricted palette for this view of a flower market...just Cobalt Blue, Alizarine, Neutral Tint and a hint of Cadmium Red. It was painted extremely loosely so that the viewer's imagination comes into play.
Great fun!

I am always exploring new approaches to my work and this week I bought
some hot-pressed watercolour paper, which is very smoth and takes a pen
well.
I chose Cornish subjects and created a fantasy land by
outlining many of the watercolour stains.
This was exciting because I had no idea what
would result and had to modify my approach
several times till the painting hung together

Here is a busy square in Rome, Piazza della
Rotunda it's called. It was always packed with
tourists looking for bargains in the nearby market.

Florence...I painted this view of the Duomo and Bargello Tower from a photo I took from our hotel window when we were there. The road beneath was cluttered haphazardly with parked vehicles.
I used a mix of watercolour and acrylic paint on Fabriano paper.

Here is another riverside painting I did of Richmond.
A simple subject such as this boat manages to have an imposing presence.
I kept the focus on the boat and painted other parts of the picture less distinctly.

Richmond-On-Thames is a fascinating historical town set south west of London. I went there this week on a beautiful day and took lots of photographs.
The river front has several fine buildings of architectural merit and I took one picture from the bridge of these, over the top of the umbrellas which cover the tables in a cafe.
I used a looser technique than usual, on Fabriano paper , which is almost fabric-like and gives a mellow soft result

I couldn't resist painting another Still Life.
This one, however, has my usual vivid colours toned down considerably.
I kept glazing over the items till I got the effect I wanted, and introduced the suggestion of a third dimension, rather than painting the objects flat against the background.

This painting in watercolour with its varied shapes and colours needs juggling with the paint to achieve its harmony.

Juxtaposition of contrasting hues creates a tension of its own together with varied shapes close to eachother

Painting Still Life is becoming an addiction, and this one was developed from a sketch I made without reference.
It developed into a technical challenge of balancing the shapes and the colours in order to achieve a harmony of sorts.
I hate intellectualising compositions...you either like the result or you don't....can you see it on your wall at home? That's the key question.

Found objects in my home make ideal subjects for a Still Life.
I have several Chinese articles which friends have given me and I assembled them and constructed this painting.
The ideogram is "cha"...no prizes for guessing its meaning.
I ate the banana shortly after painting it.

I was lucky enough to sell my first still life (below) the same day I put it in Ebay.....so I thought "Here goes..." and decided to paint another, using found objects around the house.
The technique of joining up the background shapes to the objects, thereby creating new patterns, requires balanced colour contrasts, which are fun to work out

It has been ages since I painted a still life, and, being in a still-life mood, I assembled some objects in the house and focussed on my small coffee set which I bought in Istanbul years ago, together with a fruit bowl and a wine bottle.
I broke up the background to enliven the piece and the result is above...

Polperro with its crowded houses and boats, is a favorite subject of mine.
On a whim I used Fabriano rough paper which I haven't used for years....a top quality cotton paper, slightly off-white, somewhat mellow, and a pleasure to paint on.

Markets always fascinated me, with their colourful interaction of goods and people.
Here is an ink and watercolour painting of a lively flea market in Brittany, France

A client of mine requested me to paint a picture of Lake Garda, one of the lakes in the north of Italy.
I had to use a different palette from my usual range as the subject was very bright and colourful.
I decided to use a selection of different photographs of the North of the lake, which is mountainous, to help me with the composition.

I fancied painting a loose watercolour today of a cityscape, and found a photo I took some time ago of a working class area of Naples, Italy.
I used just four colours...a Warm Sepia, Windsor Blue, Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red with a wet-in wet technique on Arches paper.

I always find that new tools or paper stimulate me to work .
I bought a beautiful little pen containing waterproof ink with a microfine tip yesterday, and, of course, I was dying to try it out.
Fine point lends itself to architectural subjects amongst others, so I sketched a Venetian scene on Arches paper and used watercolour paint as a wash.
I then tried a little figurative work which I called The Beergarden.
Here are the results

A Spanish friend of mine commissioned me to paint a picture of the beach near her home in Carnota, Northwest Spain.
This was a challenge as there were few features in the photograph I worked from, and the success or failure of my effort was dependent on my capturing the light and the colour perspective. I was allowed a little "artistic licence" but didn't abuse the privilege.
I used watercolour and a heavy weight Bockingford paper.
My painting and the original photograph are shown above...

Polperro, Cornwall has a magic of its own and this is an ink and wash painting of the harbour.
I abandoned my usual flamboyant colours and restricted the palette to browns and bluish greys, with a touch of green umber for the plants and trees, leaving the white paper to catch the light.

A short trip to Cornwall inspired these two paintings.
I tried to capture the light, the higglety-pigglety houses, and the lively harbour life.

A few days ago I felt like a change from using guache and acrylic paint, and decided to work purely with watercolour on Arches rough paper using a looser technique and a restricted palette.
I chose two Italian subjects...a street in Rome and a Venetian canal scene.

London, my birthplace, has an astonishing variety of sites from Theatreland to the mighty Thames.
There are four theatres in this picture of lively Shaftesbury Avenue, which contrasts well with the view of HMS Belfast and the magnificent Tower Bridge

The races make a wonderful subject with their action and colour.
These paintings were fun to paint and
I did a large series of them, of which these four are a sample

Women are a source of inspiration for me to paint. From the seductive to the maternal there is a mystery about them which I try to covey in my work.

Here are some nude studies
of three models I painted a few
years ago. One decided that she felt uncomfortable being ogled in here, so she disappeared.

CAFES always fascinate me and I have painted cafe scenes many times in varying styles