My work begins in small adventures from which I create watercolours for discerning collectors.
I cannot replicate what I see when I sit and paint in the field. Trees take decades to unfurl beautiful curves and cool dappled shade. Rocks take centuries of rolling in floods and violent storms. Each creature is unique. Each person fearfully knit together and showing the outcomes of a lifetime.
But when I honour what I see – when I allow the water and the colours to do their magic – when I allow the sheet to support the work – then sometimes the sublime unfolds. The work presents itself independent yet congruent with my intent.
I like to paint new topics. But I have some favourite views I like to paint often. One day I will get one of them right. But in the meantime I am recording a story of each place.
This is not a place for bargains. Though I sell High Resolution prints of the originals in my shop.
And I do commissions.
While I want to honour what I see – I also seek to respect those who create the watercolours, the watercolour paper and these remarkable brushes we get to use. Each day is about the joy of the work.
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My watercolour journey began in Swakopmund, Namibia, in a class painting desert scenes, listening to “Autumn Leaves” and enjoying the smell from the brewery over the road. I remember mixing colours in my dinner plate and creating that first swatch on the sheet of Arches taped to my bread-board. This was powerful magic.
Later I exchanged the ochre, sienna and umber of the Namib for the vast range of greens of The Fairest Cape. While I pursued a corporate and later a consulting career I painted in watercolour in all the free time I could carve out.
Then in mid-2020, everything stopped. I stopped. My consulting work with teams depends so much on being face to face. I decided I did not want to do this online. I asked God to be with me, I contracted with my wife and focussed my attention on SJQWatercolour.com. And here we are with a body of work, a plan and a long list of things to be done.
I am married to Aura and live with her in Somerset West. My three children working in their chosen fields.
