December! Wauw!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Loose Watercolours with me, your host. And it’s a Christmassy edition this week, as that’s right – it’s December! If you’re anything like us, the Christmas lights will be twinkling already and the tinsel will be strung up all over the house with great enthusiasm. What can I say? We’re a festive household.

It was lovely to see so many of you join in the holiday fun last week with Monday’s live broadcast, ‘Snowman Moment.’ ‘Lavender at Christmas’ is tonight’s subject – a lovely little festival floral for you all to enjoy – and I’m looking forward to seeing all of your interpretations! I was very impressed with all of your snowmen – I almost felt slightly chilly looking at them all! Tonight’s broadcast is on at the usual time of 8pm GMT, so make sure your brushes are prepped and ready for some festive fun! Here’s the link to join in: https://loosewatercolours.com/live-broadcast/

And of course, Christmas isn’t the only holiday that’s come round quickly. If you’re stateside, you’ll be well aware that it was Thanksgiving last week, so we had some fun on loosewatercolours.com with a new tutorial, ‘Technicolour Turkey.’ It’s a simple tutorial perfect for beginners, only using four different colours, but great fun to paint! And just because you’re still feeling a little full from eating all of that delicious food doesn’t mean the Thanksgiving fun needs to be over, as you can still go and give this fun little tutorial a try. You can find it by following the link here: lossekleuren.com

Watercolour Basics #5: Using the Mini Dave Brush

This week, I thought we’d also take a little look at the brushes we use in the loose watercolour style, so this time, I wanted to take a look at one that’s a particular favourite – Mini Dave! Mini Dave is a dagger brush, meaning that he can create precise points on the page and add lots of definition to our painting, so why not give it a go yourselves?

Watch the short help video below, where we’ll take a closer look at what he’s all about and how to use him in loose painting.

If you’d like to practice your newly honed Mini Dave skills, why not give them a go with the new tutorial availible on Patreon, ‘Moon & the Church?’ It’s a Christmas-themed Wash & Line, with lots of interesting elements to play with, including the fir trees, wintery cottage, and dramatic church spire in the background. I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel ready for Christmas. If you’d like to give it a go, you can follow the link to my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgeesonloosewatercolours

Historisch Wells & Somerset schilderen: September 2025

Ik heb het al eerder gezegd, maar voor het geval je het gemist hebt: ik geef een workshop losse aquarel in september volgend jaar. 7 september tot 11 september om precies te zijn - in de prachtige omgeving van Putten & Somersetzodat je naar hartenlust kunt schilderen in het schilderachtige landschap van het Engelse zuiden.

Bestemmingen voor schilderijen zijn plaatsen als Kilver Court en Nunney, maar ook Vicar's Close met zijn stenen gebouwen, Bishop's Palace met zijn slotgracht en de fascinerende middeleeuwse markt.

De kosten zijn £925 voor vier dagen, inclusief volledige accommodatie in het Swan Hotel in Wells en persoonlijke lessen in zowel atelierwerk als plein air schilderen.

Als je meer informatie wilt of wilt reserveren, neem dan contact op met Alpha schildervakanties voor meer informatie. Je kunt ze bereiken op www.alphapaintingholidays.comof op hun telefoonnummer 0044 01934 733877. Je bent ook meer dan welkom om contact met mij op te nemen als je geïnteresseerd bent, en je kunt me bereiken op [email protected]. Je kunt ook de link hier volgen: Schildervakantie in Wells 2025

In terms of my own painting this week, the newly strung-up Christmas decorations have clearly had an effect on me, as I took a quick trip to a Christmassy Paris through painting. Well, it was slightly cheaper than the air fare this time of year. With wintery coats and a purple sunset on the horizon, I was happy with how it turned out.

That’s all from me this week, as there’s a Christmas fair on this week and Toby and I are off to go and sniff it out. And by that, I mean we’re off on a mince pie hunt, which is always my favourite thing about this season.

As always, though, there’s an exclusive tutorial included at the end of this post especially for all of you paid subscribers – after all, it’s your generous support that helps keep this Substack running. So I hope you all enjoy painting along to ‘Winter Walk.’

Maar tot de volgende keer, tot ziens van Toby en mij, en een fijne week. Ik zie jullie allemaal snel weer, maar in de tussentijd, veel schilderplezier!

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