sketches, studies,and exercises, Oh...and a couple of paintings too!

Click on images to enlarge




Title: Winter Arrives [Watercolour on 140lb Bockinford paper.50x38cm]

Referenced from a sketch that I made at Trecwn, Pembrokeshire, whilst waiting in the rain for the bus to take me to town. West Wales can be very bleak and miserable when the weather turns, and this painting was expressing my mood!

Title: Still Life With Apples [Watercoulours on Fabriano 300lb cotton. 70x54cm]

An ambitious project [my largest watercolour yet] painted from life. Still can't decide if this is finished.

Title: Still Life - Mono [Grisaille watercolour on paper board. 34x27cm]

A winters day exercise in observation and tone control.







Title: Attitude [graphite on paper. 21x16cm]

I always enjoy working with graphite pencils, especially when i can use them heavily. I also love the challenge of portraying expression in faces.







Title: Lecha Farm, Llanhowell. [Watercolour on 140lb Bockinford. 22x15cm]

An October plein-air study of a typical Pembrokeshire farmstead that never quite became a hamlet.

Title: Pembrokeshire Trees [Conte wax pencil on paper. 33x29cm]

Just a grouping that I 'found'. A plein-air sketch...I near froze to death doing this...it was December!

Title: The Hair-piece [Charcoal on paper. 38x28cm]

I was supposed to be sketching the same subject that she was, but found her to be more interesting!

Title: Tea & Eggs [Graphite on paper. 35x29cm]

Another winter day exercise whilst living at the pottery in Wolfscastle...I have a thing about elipses don't I?

Title: Intent [charcoal on paper. 23x23cm]

Detail referenced from a photograph that I found in an old magazine.








Title: Birch Stand & Beech Fall [Watercolour on 90lb tough paper. 24x17cm]

A small study, expressing the play of light in the treetops


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Untitled Study [Conte pencils on paper. 33x26cm]

Another plein-air exercise, this time to study the play of light on rocks and water in the upper reaches of the Cleddau River in Pembrokeshire.








Title: Days End [Ink & colourwash on 140lb Bockingford paper. 35x25cm]

Pure fantasy. Based on the Lecha Farm study. A fun piece to do...this really does reflect the slow and traditional way of life which still prevails in rural Wales.

More Paintings

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Title: Accross Fishguard Bay Towards Dinas [Watercolour on lightweight card, 31x25cm]

A little known view and a favourite personal fishing spot, hidden behind the ferry terminal at Fishguard.

Title: Cobbled Cherries [Watercolour on 140lb Bockingford, 26x18cm]

A painting of Town Hall Square in Leicester, before the city fathers decided that the raised cobbles were an insurance liability and relaid them level and in straight lines!

Title: In Sealyham Woods [watercolour on Fabriano 300lb cotton board, 40x36cm]

Another studio painting from a plein air reference drawing, juried and exhibited @ West Wales Open Art Exhibition, and Abergwaun [Fishguard] Music & Art Festival, 1986

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Title: The Old Drapers Shop [Watercolour, 140lb Bockingfors paper, 33x23cm]

Studio painting worked from a reference sketch taken from life in Fishguard, this must surely be the last image of this shop, as it was converted to an estate agency two weeks later! I recently discovered a similar victorian shop, still intact but close to dereliction, in the centre of Leicester. Surely another painting waiting to be done!







Title: Fallen Bole [watercolour on 140lb Bockingford, 22x15cm]

A plein air study from Sealyham Woods, Pembrokeshire, still awaiting being worked up into a full size studio painting.







Title: The Late Great Eddy James - Tribute to a Lost Friend [watercolour on 140lb Bockingford , 27x24cm]

The title says it all really....referenced from a photograph taken whilst we were putting away the whisky on a Christmas Eve


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Title: The Wheel [graphite on cartridge paper, 29x20cm]

Just a pencil study of what i considered a busy subject, done whilst living in a cottage adjacent to the pottery in Pembrokeshire.







Title: Cryin' The Blues [Watercolour on 140lb Bockingford paper. 32x22cm]

The third from the series of paintings inspired by blues and jazz music. Juried and exhibited at West Wales Open Art Exhibition, 1986.

Click Images to enlarge



Title: Broken Windows Shattered Dreams [Watercolours on sculpted wallpaper. 300x250cm]

An experimental work exploring the properties of different surfaces. The subject was the result of living in the Highfields area of Leicester, which was basically the city ghetto.

Title: The Watch House [Watercolours on 140ln Bockingford paper. 37x30cm]

Much photographed by tourists on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, this 18th century excise officers cottage overlooked the sea at Llanon, near Trefin, just north of the St.Davids peninsula. It was virtually my next door neighbour and I painted this on the third day after our arrival. After living in an inner city for so long my new environment felt like paradise.

Title: The Pump at Trefin [Watercolours and ink on 140lb Bockingford paper. 26x20cm]

Painted soon after arriving to live in Pembrokeshire in the late summer of 1985. Being a father of three months, my mood was optimistic.

Title: Trumpet [Watercolours on 140lb Bockingford paper. 38x30cm]

Last of the series of three paintings from 1986, inspired by jazz and blue music.

Title: Going Cafe to Cabaret [Inks & watercolours on paper. 200x125cm]

An early work, inspired by the Joni Mitchell song, 'Free Man in Paris'.

The Art of Thomas Greaves

Ok! Here is my first attempt at displaying some of my artwork here in the net.
I have no previous experience whatsoever at doing this kind of thing, so the results are going to be unpredictable at the very least.
If some kind soul wishes to spare their time in order to tutor me, then their suggestions will be welcomed, and the results will no doubt improve.

So, a word about the images that I am about to upload here.

Most of these works I consider to be old...that is...they were produced shortly before i gave up painting in order to dedicate my time to becoming a lone parent of three small girls.
That was sixteen years ago. My daughters are now all grown and flown from the nest, and so I have returned to expressing myself through the medium that I used to enjoy so much.
My preferred medium all those years ago was watercolour, quite simply because it was the first medium with which i learnt my craft.
I had considered other mediums but practicalities and familiarity won the day. Watercolours were what i knew, and I saw no reason at that time to invest elsewhere.
Recently I have begun a journey in the use of acrylics, a medium that i am discovering to be very versatile and at the same time convenient to use. I am also very much enjoying the results of my efforts.
I have had no formal education in art other than the encouragement and guidance of my old school art teacher, Mr. Roy Porter, to whom i shall for ever be endebted for sending me on a journey of expressive exploration which I am sure will continue to the end of my days.
I am also extremely grateful for the advice, encouragement and great friendship of Royston Hopson [Google him], who I had the great fortune to paint with durin my years living in Pembrokeshire, SW Wales, in the late 1980's. The one great lesson he taught me was to never be afraid to paint as i feel and see, and never to heed too closely the words of critics.

So...enough of words...let's upload the first image

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