30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *29 Cowboy and *30 Blackpool Rain

 So here we are, good people. It’s the 28^th June and yesterday afternoon I completed the 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge for 2026 with 3 days to spare. Once again I’ve surprised myself with some of the paintings I’ve made. Yes, I am a little disappointed with a couple, but not many, and it has been a hugely enjoyable experience. It’s more of an achievement for me than last year since I had all day every day of June to do it then. This year I’ve been working on every week day, so that makes this 7^th completion even a little bit more special.

I was eager to finish and so I decided to do something I’ve only rarely done – complete the last two paintings at the same time. Here’s just a couple of photographs.

I took this one after I’d painted in the main light colour blocks on both pictures. Neither painting is quite as complex a subject as some of the others I’ve painted during the challenge.

So my original plan was to paint in the details on the horse, then go back across and work on the Blackpool picture. As you can see from the next photograph, this didn’t happen. I found that I was enjoying the cowboy painting so much I just wanted to carry on with it.

I broke from lunch after getting to this stage. The cowboy is finished, and when I’d eaten I was ready to start the last painting session of the challenge

The paintings are done, and just waiting for the masking tape to be removed. Let’s have a look at the finished paintings

29) Cowboy

I enjoyed my rodeo painting so much that I decided to do this one as well. It’s not often that the finished painting looks like the vision I had in my head when I started the painting but this was one of those times.

30) Rainy Day In Blackpool

And the challenge is complete! It somehow seemed appropriate to go with the beach again, and since all of the other beach paintings have been in sunny weather, I though I’d best include a rainy scene. If you grow up in Britain you know all about rainy days at the seaside.

I will probably need a bit of time to really get my thoughts about this year's challenge together, so I'm going to leave it there for now.

#30x30DirectWatercolor