August 26, 2024

Painting in England and Ireland

Shop Assistant Lena Valentine shares sketches she made while on holiday.

By The Art Toolkit Team

A vibrant watercolor painting featuring a gradient sky with shades of purple, pink, and orange, arching into a gentle rainbow. The dark silhouette of a treeline forms the foreground.

This summer, Shop Assistant Lena Valentine traveled to England and Ireland with her partner Ian for vacation. They took their Art Toolkit palettes, a Folio and Demi respectively, and found lots of opportunities to stop and sketch their surroundings.

A dramatic sky painted in vibrant shades of red, orange, and blue, with a dark silhouette of a wing extending into the scene. The ocean is visible below, blending with the dark colors of the sky.
The view from the plane, watercolor by Lena.
A watercolor painting featuring a bare tree in the foreground with a brick building in the background. The scene includes gray clouds, green grass, and scattered stones in the grass.
A cemetery, watercolor by Lena.
A quaint, two-story house with a red-tiled roof and prominent chimneys, featuring a small turret on one side. The facade includes multiple windows and a decorative element above the door, all set against a soft, colorful background.
A little cottage, watercolor by Lena.
A painted butterfly with black and orange wings rests against a warm, textured yellow background.
A moth, watercolor by Lena.
Lush green hills under a cloudy sky with a distant blue mountain and a calm waterbody in the foreground. Soft watercolor textures create a serene landscape.
The view from the shore, watercolor by Lena.
A hand holds an open sketchbook showcasing a landscape drawing of mountains and a church, alongside a watercolor palette. In the background, dark clouds loom over a rural setting.
Cottage hillside sketch by Ian.
Two people sit at a green table outdoors, with mountains in the background. One person, wearing a floral jacket, smiles while holding art supplies. The other person, in a red jacket, poses with a sketchbook and drawing tools. The sky is overcast, suggesting a breezy day.
Ian and Lena sketch on a blustery day.
A selection of watercolor paints arranged beside sketchbooks on a green table. In the background, a rocky landscape and mountains are visible under a cloudy sky.
Lena’s Folio Palette.
A hand holds a small watercolor painting of a green landscape, resting on a sketchbook with a black cover. Colorful swatches and another sheet of paper are nearby on a green wooden surface.
Lena sketches at a picnic table.

When we asked Lena for a list of her paints, she smiled cheekily and said she couldn’t tell us because she didn’t know! Many of the paints in Lena’s Folio Palette are custom mixes she made by stirring together wet watercolor paints directly in her pans. One thing’s for sure: she loves Mini Pans! We still wanted to share photos of her palettes, because we love how beautifully she has organized them.

A watercolor palette with various squares of paint in a wide range of colors, neatly arranged in a metal case. Some colors are vibrant and bright, while others are muted or have marbled patterns.
Lena’s Folio Palette.
A paint palette featuring 24 vivid watercolors arranged in squares, with a swatch sheet above displaying various colors in a grid pattern.
Lena’s Pocket Palette.

Thank you Lena and Ian for sharing your art with us! It looked like such a colorful trip!
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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