Praia da Falésia Algarve

This was painted using Atelier slow drying acrylics on a canvas 100 x 75 cm.
 I found the slow drying properties of this paint really helpful when working on such a large scale.
 I also created some texture on the foreground rocks by incorporating some sand from the beach, held in place with Atelier's binder medium.
 In an earlier blogpost I wrote about 2 acrylics that I did of the colourful cliffs there. The view is from Portobay Falesia hotel up on the cliffs.
I used photos I took when staying at Olhos d'agua in the Algarve and bringing together some of my findings from earlier explorations in the form of sketches and watercolour studies that I did when there.
The painting was varnished using a satin finish.

 The photos below show different stages during the painting.

The big blank canvas

Under painting

close up: more work on the sea and a group of figures on the beach 

The finished painting is now on its way to a new home in time for Christmas.

#portobay #falesia #acrylics #original painting

Falesia Algarve Paintings

 Falesia and Falesia 1  Olhos d'Agua, Algarve
 acrylics by Tessa Spanton SWA (c)

Framed with a cream mount and light wood frame, approx size 18x22in

The one above will be on show at the Mall Galleries, London with the Society of Women artists July 28th-Aug 7th

These 2 paintings were done in my studio using photos I took and bringing together some of my findings from the earlier explorations and studies when there.

The colours there on a bright day and the smoothness of some of the bands of rock were amazing.

I love the orange blue pairing of complementary colours. We were going to the Algarve so because of the colours I bought W and N Desert collection of watercolours.  Watercolours are more portable and easier to use outside than acrylics so I took these watercolours.

I did several studies and experiments with these colours all done there in front of the views.

The beach is called Falesia which means cliff. The beach stretches for miles and the cliffs are the backdrop have the most stunning colours and patterns.

we stayed at the Portobay Falesia above the beach with views of the rocks and sea.

Watercolours

 Orange Peaks Falesia 1,2,3

Below Cliff top pines  watersoluble inks

The Desert Collection in the Algarve

 Sandstone Cliffs Praia de Falesia, Algarve   1 and 2
     watercolours by Tessa Spanton (c)

Winsor and Newton Desert Collection limited edition professional watercolours.
Transparent  Phthalo sapphire,  Indian red deep, transparent orange,
Opaque  yellow titanate, gold brown with mixes shown above,
and dark brown ( shown below right)

I bought these paints to take to the Algarve with me as I thought they looked ideal for the reds and ochres of the sandstone cliffs.
Phthalo sapphire is a beautiful blue that is complementary to the transparent orange. They really sizzle next to each other. The transparent orange is an intense colour bordering on red,
I don't usually buy tubes of brown as I prefer to mix my own and the gold brown looks similar to gold ochre but I decided to buy them all. I wanted to explore the colour interactions when set next to one another and to see what mixes I could make from them.

I also made greens from this group. I used these for the pines growing on the cliffs. The greens produced are fairly muted.

above  View from Porto Bay Falesia watercolour Tessa Spanton (c) painted en plein air.

I have tested how the colours react with each other on wet watercolour paper,
 and made some comparisons with other colours I have, i will put these and my conclusions in another post.