30x30 Grand Prix Cars 2021-2026

Switching from beach scenes to transport for the 30x30 means that I‘ve returned to some subjects I’ve done before. I thought it might be fun to compare them. So let’s look at Grand Prix Cars

I painted my first formula 1 Grand Prix car in 2021 – it just didn’t occur to me to paint them in 2018 or 2019

2021

For what it is, it’s okay. Proportions aren’t too bad and if it was done as some kind of speed challenge – paint an F1 car as quickly as you can then I would have no complaints. But this approach, quick application of blocks of colour with little or no attempt to show the background never produced paintings I really liked

2022

This is still one of my favourite paintings I’ve ever made for any 30x30 challenge. Car, figures, background, it all pretty much works. Together with the first tram painting I made in 2022, this pointed the way forward for me.

2023

What a disappointment. Sometimes you produce a painting that isn’t as good as a similar one you made the year before, but rarely one that is so much worse. Harsh? Well, if you want to make progress, it helps to be honest with yourself. Not the best choice of subject, but I really think that the car is not brilliantly modelled and generally the colours are too drab.

I did not paint a grand prix car in 2024.

2025

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s maybe quite as good as the 2022 picture. But it’s miles better than 2023. I really like the stand with the flags on the far left.

2026

One thing I’ve noticed about 2026 is that I’m loosening up a little bit from last year, and I’m liking the results. This is a good demonstration of this.

30x30 Trams 2018-26

Switching from beach scenes to transport for the 30x30 means that I‘ve returned to some subjects I’ve done before. I thought it might be fun to compare them. Let’s start with trams:-

2018

Yes, I was painting trams even as far back 12 2018. I like the composition, but the execution, not so much. But at that time I didn’t know how to do it any better.

2019

This is Lisbon painted in 2019 and I’m sorry but it’s poor. I’m not embarrassed because I know that I was doing the best that I could at the time but I think it’s fair to say that I had yet a long way to go to find my way.

2022

I mean, this is an improvement on 2019, but it’s still very basic. This is a Swansea-Mumbles tram.

2022

With the benefit of hindsight, this 2022 painting was a watershed for me. To me there’s been a huge leap forward since the tram painting the previous year. This painting, more than any other, showed me the way forward and showed me that I was capable ot painting direct watercolour as well as my normal watercolours and acrylics where I sketched the design first. It didn’t mean I would always paint this well, but it did mean that I could strive to get there. This isn’t a perfect painting, I know. The perspective in the tram body is wrong, unfortunately.

2022

I don’t think that this is as good as the one I’d already done in 2022, but it’s still showing the kind of improvement I had made since 2021.

I did not paint another tram in 2023 or 2024

2025

Okay, so it’s a tram that has been parked for good and converted into a café, but it’s one of the very best paintings I did in 2025.

2026

Maybe not as good as the 2025 vintage, but then the subject did invite taking a more impressionistic approach.

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *16 The Seaton Tramway

 As well as the 30x30 Challenge, my birthday is in June. I love trams and so my youngest daughter and my son in law took me to the Seaton Tramway as a pre birthday treat. 

The Seaton tramway opened in 1970, a narrow gauge tramway which is run by 14 tramcars based on classic British tram designs, all built to either 1/2 or 2/3 scale. My daughter Jess sent me all of the photos she had taken on her phone, and this was my painting based on the one I thought I could make the best job of. I painted it yesterday as soon as we got back from the trip. 

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30x30 Watercolour Challenge *14 Old Grand Prix Pit Stop ( finished) and *15 Mel's Safari

 

This is the finished grand priz car painting. You know I don't usually do looseness very well, but I think I may have just about pulled it off with this one.

My friend Mel has just come back from a once in a lifetime safari trip to celebrate her 60th birthday. This next painting - Mel's Safari - saw me use a photo she took as a reference. I loved the photo as soon as I saw it and she graciously sent me an electronic copy to use.

So we're halfway there - fifteen painted, fifteen more to make. It's been harder going this week - purely in terms of time if nothing else. But there we are, Iim still two days ahead of schedule, so fingers crossed. 

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *14 - Old Grand Prix Pit Stop (unfinished)

Back in 2022, there were two paintings I made during the challenge which made me step back and (I say it as shouldn’t) think – blimey – that’s actually good! -. One of them was an old grand prix car at Goodwood. Ever since then, whenever I’ve completed the challenge I’ve made a painting of an old grand prix car as part of the set. The painting in 2023 was very disappointing. Last year’s wasn’t bad at all. Here’s this year’s.

 It’s not finished yet – these transport paintings just refuse to be done quickly. I hopefully will finish it tonight.

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30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *13 Eenee Stanit Van

 So this is the 13^th painting of this year’s challenge.

 

It’s a London newspaper delivery van from, I would guess, the 1950s. Strictly speaking it’s an Evening Standard van. Why does it say Eenee Stanit? Hey, if you know, you know. Before I moved away from London in the mid 80s, the London Evening Standard was my favourite newspaper.

These transport subjects are tending to be more complex than the beach paintings of last week. Consequently it’s taken me three evenings to do the last two. But the thing will be not to panic and keep plodding on. Two more and I will at least be halfway. I’m not going to have a huge amount of time tonight because I’m hosting the quiz at the rugby club but if I can at least make a start then it’s all good.

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30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge * Old London Bus (finished)

 12 paintings into the 30x30 Watercolour challenge and my elementary maths tells me that I’m 2/5 of the way through. So far it has been going pretty well in terms of quality, but my 12^th picture did prove to be a bit of a hurdle. It’s a complicated picture of an old London bus, which I wrote about in my previous post. Well, I just didn’t have enough time on Monday to finish it. Here’s the finished painting:-

 

Some people who do the challenge talk and write about getting over a hump, by which they mean reaching the point in the challenge where you have pushed yourself and come so far that there is no doubt that you will complete it. For me personally it comes down to managing the resources that you have. The most important of which are, to my mind:-

Inspiration

Time

Mindset

Nothing there about paint, paper or brushes, you understand. Well, those are easy enough to get hold of. If we deal with each then, let’s start with inspiration. After all – it’s all very well saying that you are going to make 30 paintings, but what are you going to paint? In the past I’ve always taken a pretty relaxed approach. I think what sort of thing I’d like to paint on the day, then try to narrow it down to a specific idea. But this year I’ve tried to be a bit more disciplined and think in terms of themes. 9 out of my first 11 paintings had some element of beach or seaside about them. My last 2 paintings and the one I’m working on for number 13 are all methods of transport. I have another couple of themes up my sleeve for later on. It makes such a difference not having to think about WHAT you are going to paint, only about HOW you are going to paint it.

With regards to time, well, you have the time that you have. So it is all about making the most of the time that you have got. For me this means being pretty disciplined about sitting down to start painting after I get in from work at about 5pm. It also means being prepared to say – I’m not going to finish this today – and going to bed at a reasonable hour so that I’m fresh for work the next day. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. In 2024 and 2025 I was off work both years and had the luxury of having all the time I could ask for. I still didn’t complete in 2024.

I just mentioned that I didn’t complete in 2024. My mindset was not right. Party this happened because my first few paintings were poor, so, thinking that the way I was painting I had little or no chance of making a better set than I’d made in 2023 I started to think of it as a chore. I wanted to get through each painting as quickly as I could, merely as a ticking them off exercise rather than something I enjoyed that was worth doing for its own sake. No wonder I gave up.

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