Looking up to Gay Street, Bath, October afternoon

Last Sunday I went painting in Bath centre with talented painter Paul Weaver who is also one of last year's Plein Air Prize winners at the Bath Prize. It was our first painting session together and it was nice to exchange tips on material and painting spots. I ended up wiping off my first painting as I really wasn't happy with myself (while Paul was effortlessly producing a little masterpiece which was rather inconsiderate!). But the afternoon session on Gay Street was more successful for me. Here is the little painting I did:

Looking up to Gay Street, Bath, October afternoon   8"x10" oil on board

What caught my eyes was the sun shining on the Bath stone and the masses of trees on the left.

Detail

Here is below a photograph of the scene I took as I was painting:

Here is below Paul painting with watercolours and myself. We set up at the corner of Queen Square trying not to be too much on the way. I know I look like the lazy one as I'm sitting down while Paul is standing up but for my defence, I broke a leg of my tripod in the morning so I could only use it at its lowest position...

As we were painting, a lady looked at our work and mentioned how she loved watercolour works, how great Paul's painting was and how watercolour is always more difficult than any other mediums. Then her husband asked me what I was painting with, and I replied "oils". He then strangely replied "Good for you!" and then walked away. Those words kept Paul and myself laughing for the rest of the afternoon as we were trying to figure out what he meant by that!

Paul adding some finishing touches to his lovely watercolour

My painting towards the end of the session

I have recently been painting again at Bath's Sydney's Garden so I will do an other post with more paintings in the next few days.