Painting a house in Antibes in aquarelle watercolours

This was a truly great commission! I received it from Chris Davenport of RHF Antibes and initially I almost panicked because there wasn't a better picture available than this one:

But as Chris said that I was allowed some artistic freedom and I realized that it was a great opportunity to do something nice with the foreground - and so I added my favourite flowers...

The drawing was relatively easy - not much detail there, grass was straightforward. The shiny yellow stuff around the painting by the way is masking fluid - helps me stay within the lines...

The front of the house was pretty recognizable, and I made up some garden furniture and a palmtree

The rest of this very sunny house - and a tree

 I hope I have correctly interpreted the darker spots as doors, shutters and windows

 Almost done... a tiny bit of contrast, removing the masking fluid - and off to the client...

House in Antibes

Here's a lovely house in Antibes, a commission of very nice Dutch people. They preferred a small painting and for one I found out that with my way of working, it is not faster than larger size, I just have to use a smaller brush... But I'm proud of the result!

I worked from 3 small photo's, one for the sketch of the basic shapes and the light, and two others for the plants in the foreground... and as always I started with the sky...

If you enlarge this picture you'll see that I painted the hard stone wall with the method I explained in an earlier post - wet drops in very diluted sepia, ochre and burnt sienna tones. They'll dry up with a rim -  which gives a logical and natural effect.

This is the stage in which I always want to stop, the white looks so nice here... but also unfinished and my clients will not be happy as they choose me for my love of detail

Almost finished, only a bit of contrast and I'm done... great project, enjoyed it! and now on to the next one, another house in Antibes!