Gallery

Welcome to my Gallery, with a selection of some of my recent paintings. I have always enjoyed painting portraits, landscapes and seascapes in Oils and Watercolours.
Some are more realistic paintings and some are looser. I find it depends on how I feel about the subject at the time. I hope you enjoy looking through them.

Oil Paintings

‘Low Tide’

Oil on Canvas Board ~ 30 x 40 cm

Oil painting looking across the Exe Estuary, from Exmouth, with an old sailing boat in the foreground.

‘Low Tide’ close up

Oil on Canvas Board ~ 30 x 40 cm

Close up of the oil painting 'Low Tide', by artist Nick Watton. Showing more of the brush marks.

‘HMS Montrose Returning Home’

Oil painting ~ Sold

Painted as a present for a friend who served on HMS Montrose. Here she is ‘returning home’, steaming into Plymouth Sound, past Drake’s Island.

An oil painting showing HMS Montrose entering Plymouth roads, steaming past Drakes Island.

‘Vigilant’ at Topsham Quay

Oil on Canvas Board ~ 30 x 40 cm
Along the Topsham Shore

Oil painting of the Sailing Barge 'Vigilant' at Topsham Quay.

Sailing Barge ‘Vigilant’ (Official No. 116176, 73 tons) being restored at Topsham Quay.

‘Bill – Jigging for mackerel’

Oil on Canvas ~ 50 x 70 in ~ Not for sale
Bill Painting

Oil painting portrait of a fisherman standing in his small boat.

‘First Mate at the Helm’

Oil on Canvas ~ Not for sale

Sailing in our little Mirror dinghy.

Oil painting of a boy in a lifejacket helming a dinghy.

‘Zinda’

Oil on Canvas ~ 30 x 40 in – Sold

Zinda Painting

Oil painted horse portrait of the head and neck.

‘Clyde’

Oil on canvas

A painted horse gallops through a field.

Oil painting commission of ‘Clyde’.
Clyde has a ‘wall’ eye, which looks slightly odd, but is part of who he is.
(Normally a horse has a dark brown eye, but Clyde’s is pale blue. Because of this, he wasn’t wanted until his present owner had him. He’s a lovely horse!)

‘Exmoor, Heather and Stag’

Oil on Canvas ~ 40 x 40 cm ~ Sold
Blog Post

Oil painting looking across Exmoor with Red Deer, heather and windswept trees.

‘Across the Exe’

Oil on canvas board

Oil painting looking across the Exe river at sunset.

‘Roxy’

Oil on canvas board ~ 30 x 40 in ~ Sold
Roxy Post

Tranquil oil painting of narrow boat moored by the tree lined canal.

‘Low Tide at Mousehole’

Oil on Canvas ~ 15 x 23 in

Boats high and dry at low tide in Mousehole Harbour.

‘Reflections’

Oil on Canvas ~ Sold

Oil painting of a lonely beach with the tide ebbing out, with a figure walking in the middle distance.

‘Pulled up at Restronguet’

Oil on canvas board

Oil painting of a boat drawn up on an estuary beach.

‘Exe Sunset’

Oil on canvas board
Exe Sunset Post

Oil painting of the sunset looking down the Exe Estuary.

Watercolour Paintings

‘Boats drawn up at Gweek’

Watercolour & Pencil

Tranquil watercolour of boats drawn up in a wooded estuary.

‘Avocets’

Watercolour ~ Sold

Watercolour painting of Avocets wading on the waters edge.

‘Turnstones’

Watercolour ~ Sold

Watercolour painting of Turnstones standing on a quayside.

‘Snowy Lanyon Quoit’

Watercolour ~ Sold

Lanyon Quoit, a Neolithic dolmen in Cornwall. With Ding Dong Engine House on the hill in the background.

A painted snowy winters day, with Lanyon Quoit, a dolmen, in the fore ground.

‘Long-eared Owl’

Watercolour ~ Sold

A long eared owl looks down at you.

‘Topsham Winters Sunset’

Watercolour

Painting of a sunset over the Exe Estuary, with the stern of a boat in the fore ground.

‘Failing light at Topsham’

Watercolour & Ink ~ A4 ~ Sold
Failing Light on the Exe Post

Watercolour and black ink painting of the evening light over the River Exe.

‘Mevagissey Inner Harbour’

Watercolour and Pen ~ A4
Mevagissey Harbour Post

Watercolour and pen sketch of one of the buildings on Mevagissey's Inner Harbour

‘Evening Light at Praa’

Watercolour and Pen ~ A4, Sold
Rocks at Praa Sands Post

Watercolour and pen drawing of the tide swirling around rocks on Praa Sands beach.

‘Last light at Exmouth’

Watercolour and Pen ~ A4 ~ Not for sale
Last light at Exmouth Post

‘Barn Owl’

Watercolour

A painting of a Barn Owl in the snow.

‘GWR’ style poster

Acrylic ~ Sold

Painted GWR style poster of a  King Class loco rounding the coast around Dawlish.
For oil painting, I work on stretched canvas, and canvas board. I also find that stretched acrylic paper, primed with Gesso is a good support too.
In the past, I have enjoyed stretching my own canvas. It’s a bit of a fiddle having to size the canvas, before priming with rabbit hide glue. My wife loves me heating that up upon the oven! However, it puts you in touch with artists of old. However, each canvas has its own character and is quite different from shop-bought Pre-stretched canvas.
The oil paints that I use are the Winsor & Newton Artist range. As well as Michael Harding handmade oil paints, which are lovely to use.

I love the immediacy of watercolour painting. Again I use Winsor & Newton Artist paints. I like hot and cold pressed papers and have lately been using Clairefontaine papers in a block. Which I find very convenient.

You can’t beat a good sable brush for watercolour painting. I tend to go for round ones.
However, for oil painting, a mix of round and flat brushes works well for me.

I do find that at the moment, with my illustration work, that I do not have as much time as I would like to do my own paintings. However, keep looking and hopefully, I’ll have posted some new ones soon!

Check out my Illustration Portfolio’s by clicking on the links below:

© All images Copyright of Nick Watton.

All Rights Reserved.