Exercise: Painting moving water

Fountain inside the orangery, Lyme Hall

Painting the sea, just a section of it and trying to capture what I see

I think the important thing when painting water is not to start with a wash as a background tone, the white of the paper is too important in providing the bright highlighted areas which are even evident on a dull day. 

After working on the water above I moved on to trying to paint moving water, possibly not too successfully! Wow it's hard. I really enjoyed painting the scenery around the waterfall but not quite so much painting the waterfall itself. Here are my attempts:- a small waterfall in Peasholm Park, Scarborough, a place close to my heart which we visit often. As I was out an about with children in tow these are completed in my A5 sketchbook, so I wondered if I was limited with scale a little here, or perhaps I am just making excuses! I think the first painting captures movement a little better than the second, I wonder if with the second painting I overworked it, I tried to paint wet in wet to achieve the wet look of the water. I am however quite pleased with the still water above the waterfall, as the layered paint seems to have given the transparency of the water.