The Beautiful White Sands and Turquoise Seas of a Scottish Island

We're back home now and I demonstrate painting a beach scene in an impressionistic way. This is from one of the sketches I drew on North Beach, Iona, Scotland.
Fabriano Artistico 140lb NOT paper 29" x 21"
Here is the video of me doing the sketch.
• My Favourite Island in...
Here is the video of my usual watercolour plein air equipment
• My Watercolour Brushes...
If you have enjoyed my channel and would like to support it, 'buy me a coffee' is the perfect way to do so! All money donated goes back into making new videos and adventures in our van. Many thanks.
www.buymeacoff...
I use Winsor and Newton artists quality watercolour paints.The colours are (L-R)
Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Ultra Marine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Veridian, Hooker's Green, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Violet, White, Ivory Black
Winsor and Newton Artists Quality Paints 14ml Tubes
Raw Umber amzn.to/3RbTsOp
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber amzn.to/4a80GeP
Ultra Marine Blue
Cobalt Blue amzn.to/47IwSEh
Cerulean Blue amzn.to/3RuYS8A
Cadmium Yellow Pale amzn.to/41d0IxW
Yellow Ochre amzn.to/4a22mqx
Raw Sienna amzn.to/47Z5Bh3
Cadmium Red amzn.to/4a5Gn1P
Viridean
Hooker's Green
Alizarin Crimson amzn.to/46Ny2x1
Cobalt Violet amzn.to/3Tkbfp8
Chinese White amzn.to/485cBZi
Mars Black amzn.to/4a81mAT
Prints of all my paintings done on my channel are available from my website
Contact me if you're interested in buying an original
www.jamespotte...
/ jamespotteraboutart
www.buymeacoff...

[@janicefound6831]

Very inspiring as I’m about to start a large watercolour painting for the first time. I visited Iona in 2013 so your painting was of particular interest.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Janice, It’s really great to be inspired, I’ve always thought that enthusiasm is one of the most important weapons you have in Watercolour painting. Good luck with the large painting you’re about to do. Let me know how it goes. Best wishes, James

[@robinleech3278]

James: I'm missing your wonderful videos and lessons! I hope you are on a wonderful holiday? looking forward to more of your travel adventures and paintings.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Robin, Sorry to be absent for so long! We’ve had lots going on and it’s made it a bit tricky to go on our trips, but don’t worry we will be back in our campervan soon. Best wishes, James

[@thepauljones]

Really enjoying this channel James. Would love to see some more watercolour portraiture!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Paul, I’m really pleased you’re enjoying my videos. I’m sure I will get going with some more Portraits. They are very intense things to do but also more rewarding because of that. Best wishes, James

[@lyswn7052]

It's so just enough James, it'll do!! These expressions are imprinted on my brain. If only! Lovely painting especially to watch it unveil itself and am always surprised to see how the few pencil marks 'make' it. Thank you.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Lyn I always enjoy your words that simplify the process and make it less complicated.! Glad you enjoyed the painting. Best wishes, James

[@stephenfoster1818]

Thanks James

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

My pleasure

[@garyleadmon5489]

James, thank you for another wonderful "simplified technique" painting. Your work shows the energy your experienced at the scene and the enjoyment of relating that experience.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Gary, Many thanks for your kind words. Painting is an amazing thing, there’s always something new to learn and experience. Thanks for watching, James😊

[@anamarie8]

Beautiful. Love your comments approach and colors. Thanks for sharing.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Anamarie, Glad you enjoyed the painting. Iona is a beautiful place and the colours there are so great. Thanks for watching. Best wishes, James

[@roberthoward3723]

James love the large textured painting that is something special. Yet again the translucency of your watercolour painting really has brought out the beauty of Iona. I tend to rush my paintings and don’t quite get the affect. You are showing me how to keep calm and take it steady!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Robert, I do enjoy a lot of texture in oil painting. It’s a very different approach from Watercolour, but the results are so fun. Staying calm is quite a big consideration with Watercolour, as it’s so easy to panic. I hope your painting is going well. Best wishes, James

[@DeborahEeles]

Just watched your latest video, James. Love the painting and really love the backdrop painting of St Andrews! You make everything look so simple. Well done. Deb xxx

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Ahh. Thanks Deb, I’m glad you enjoyed it. X

[@TheDabshear]

Beautiful painting! Love textures!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you enjoyed the painting. It’s always good to paint Iona. Best wishes, James

[@kalaysia77]

That was really nicely done.....and very instructive.....you give us so many gems of painting wisdom along with the tutorials .....Thank you both for your efforts. 😊

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you’re enjoying the videos, Kalaysia . I enjoy giving the tips and hope it helps. Best wishes, James

[@alexandraseifert1282]

I enjoyed this so much!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Alexandra, Glad you enjoyed the video so much! I hope it helps your own painting. Best wishes, James

[@steveharris2206]

Wonderful!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Thanks, Steve😊

[@stellaball7289]

Lovely painting James. I enjoy watching your confident brush strokes. Good luck with your exhibition. Will you show us what you're doing? It would be a good video.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Stella, Glad you enjoyed watching the painting come together. I’m very busy with the exhibition at the moment . It always feels so last minute. I’ll try and do some video of it if I can find the time Best wishes, James

[@getrohanlobo]

Really waiting for the next video 😅

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Rohan, I’ve had a lot going on with my exhibition at the moment, so my KZbin has taken a backseat. Don’t worry, I will be back.😊

[@heatherblair2211]

Very inspirational, I personally love line and wash, I was born with an artistic talent, but I don't see that personally had a bad abusive life . For some reason Art takes me to peace again. Which I love. I have awards for other things. That I feel gelousy came in the way. Now I'm back to Art I feel like it's too hard but easy. If that makes sense lol. I appreciate your work and think your demonstration is amazing for beginners. ❤

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Heather, Glad you’re enjoying the videos. It’s an interesting point about finding art hard and easy. There is a lot of tension in painting and I think that it’s that that makes it hard. I hope you keep on going with your painting. Best wishes, James

[@heatherblair2211]

@JamesPotterAboutArt Thank-you very much James. Yes watercolour is a tricky medium, if you are just learning . I was always sketching, but I find the more I practice the better the results, although not always. I did a throw paint on wet in wet and let it run , and just guiding the paint etc for a forest scene amazing to do, and turned out I liked it. But your inspiration is so helping others. Thankyou 😃

[@silverleafmaple]

What a beautiful sky :)

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi, The sky is always an interesting challenge in a Watercolour . Glad you enjoyed that one. Best wishes, James

[@paulineshelley4421]

Thanks James! I enjoyed watching you paint the beautiful Iona. I look forward to your next adventure in the camper. 😊

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you enjoyed it, Pauline. Iona is so amazing. I’m looking forward to getting out again. Thanks, James

[@stephenfoster1818]

Just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed all your videos which have movitated me to try and start painting. Its been a struggle to get started but i will get there. Please keep sharing your paonting. Hope you and your family are well and enjoying the summer in Scotland. Cheeers

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Thanks, Steve Glad you’ve enjoyed the videos. Sometimes it is difficult to start, but I tend to think it’s because we put too much value in the painting and it makes it off putting. Try not to make it so important and just start. Best wishes, James

[@stephenfoster1818]

Thanks for your valuable advice, I will make a start. Cheers Steve

[@michaelcody3829]

Lovely painting thanks James, greetings from Australia 🇦🇺.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Michael, Iona is a lovely place and I’m glad you enjoyed the painting. Hope all is well with you down under. Best wishes, James

[@trevordavies9229]

Absolute magic James. Fascinating watching the final painting emerge. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you enjoyed it, Trevor, It’s amazing how a painting looks so bad for so long and then finally at the end it comes together. Best wishes, James

[@noelnicholls3622]

Beautiful Iona, beautiful painting. So enjoyed watching you paint and how you use your colours. Thankyou.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Noel, It is a beautiful place. The perfect place to paint Best wishes, James

[@philipshaw2875]

A very nice painting looking forward to the next one.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Philip, Glad you enjoyed the painting. Best wishes, James

[@carolwilliams3599]

Beautiful painting, again! You make it look much easier than it is. Thanks for taking the time to make these wonderful videos. Looking forward to the next one.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Carol, Glad you like the painting. Keeping it simple it’s probably the best way to make it look easy Hope your painting is going well. Best wishes, James

[@GrandmaMuggy]

Lovely painting again. So nice to watch your painting process. Good luck with your coming show! And looking forward to some more of your adventures!

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you enjoyed that one. Hopefully will be going away soon. There’s a lot of Frames to do still for the exhibition, so my time is limited for actual painting. Best wishes, James

[@jennetbowdridge]

Lovely painting! Beautiful impression capturing such a spectacular place ❤

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Jennet, It’s such an amazing place that is hard not to produce a good painting from it . Glad you like it! James

[@baileythompson7040]

First, I want to say that the oil painting you show at the start is absolutely stunning! I find it really beautiful. Also, of course I love your watercolors as well. It's always a treat to have the opportunity to watch you paint the large ones from start to finish. I am interested in how you handle your brush. Your demonstrations have been very helpful in teaching me how I can improve my paintings. I've been working on techniques that I've seen you use. Thank you for your demonstrations and Thank you Tanya, for your excellent video work. It's all most helpful.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Glad you like the oil painting Bailey. I do enjoy them as well, but they are a lot messier to paint. Watercolour is such a clean medium. It’s great that you getting a few tips from my videos and I hope they are making a difference in your watercolour painting. Best wishes, James

[@maryrichinick7287]

Hi, James, I love this painting! I'm working on your advice to keep it simple.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Mary, Glad you like the painting. Over complicating Watercolour does tend to deaden the freshness of the paint so keep going with the simplicity. Best wishes, James

[@alisonwickett3156]

You've captured the light and the distant mountains perfectly The white paint st the end lifts the whole picture. Thank you James and Tanya

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Alison, Glad you like the painting. I was most pleased with the mountains in the distance, they were very simply painted but still effective. Thanks for watching. Best wishes, James

[@paulperry8614]

Very enjoyable watch you have captured the light on the island one can imagine a shaft of sunlight breaking through the clouds giving the green an almost luminous look. Looking forward to more paintings from your travels.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Paul, Glad you enjoyed that one. Iona is a beautiful place! Lots more travels to come, hopefully the weather will be kind. Hope your painting is going well. James

[@paulperry8614]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt thanks James I am looking forward to seeing more from your adventures. I watched again your watercolour portrait demos and it is amazing how the likeness emerges. I am working up to having a go, just need to get the ‘brush miles’ under my belt.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

@@paulperry8614 Hi Paul, Glad you enjoyed the adventures. Painting the landscape there’s so much about travel. I really look forward to hearing how your Portrait painting goes! Best wishes, James

[@awatercolourist]

Ah, yes! The good ol’ KISS. First heard about it in uni.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

It’s always a good one. It refers to so many things not just painting.

[@awatercolourist]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt Indeed!

[@stephenfoster1818]

Hope you are well, thanks for your video... it's been a while since your last video. Looking forward to your next one. Steve

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Steve All well here, thanks. Hope you are too. I’ll be starting up again soon, so lots of regular videos coming! Hope you’re managing to do some painting now. James

[@stephenfoster1818]

That's great news looking forward to them, painting here slow at the moment.

[@catherinecarlson6164]

Your painting reminds me of myctime in IoNA 19 years ago. I didxa coloredo pencil drawing of the beach from my photo. I8t turned out fairly good. Im going to look for it.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Catherine, It’s always good to go back to Iona. Maybe you can turn the drawing into a watercolour painting. Best wishes, James

[@catherinecarlson6164]

@JamesPotterAboutArt thats my thought,too. I'll have toget it ut of a box. I've been recovering from a stroke since last year. I haven't the energy and strength ti go through my craft room. I'm getting better,

[@catherinecarlson6164]

@JamesPotterAboutArt thanks. I enjoy your paintings and the process you show.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

@@catherinecarlson6164 Hi Catherine, I look forward to hearing how the painting comes along. Sorry to hear about your stroke. Painting is such a wonderful thing to do and hopefully it can take your mind off your health. I wish you a speedy recovery! Best wishes, James

[@catherinecarlson6164]

@JamesPotterAboutArt okay. I'll dig outvthe draeingcand hope to be inv t h e moodcto paint. Thank you for the encouragement.

[@jemmirza2721]

Very nice. Perhaps could have added some specks of seagulls to give that bit extra life to the painting but otherwise very nice 👍

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Thank you. That might help the picture a bit, although it’s something I tend not to do, but I should give it a go. Thanks for watching. James.

[@jemmirza2721]

@JamesPotterAboutArt Your most welcome, I enjoy watching you paint watercolours :)

[@featherfluent1109]

Mr Potter, could you please do a video showing your process for a portrait of a dog? my blue heeler mix is getting very old and I want to do a watercolour painting of her but in an expressive way

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi, I’m sure I can have a go at painting a dog, hopefully in the not too distant future.. It will be an interesting challenge. Best wishes, James

[@featherfluent1109]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt That would be amazing! Thank you for your consideration :)

[@kathyleveck267]

Beautiful, James! I tried a 14x 10 version on Arches. Wish I could show you, but I don’t know how to add a photo to the comments.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Kathy Glad you liked the painting. And really good that you gave it a go! You can email me my address is in about me, I think. I know it’s there somewhere. Looking forward to seeing it. Best wishes, James

[@awatercolourist]

👋🏼 😊

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

❤😊

[@tinasloan172]

Very enjoyable to watch! May i ask what gsm paper you're using? I use 300gsm but it means i need to stick with a3 or less, because of buckling. Do you stretch the paper? I'd like to try working big like this! 😊

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Tina, Glad you enjoyed watching the video. I used 300 gsm paper for this and I didn’t stretch it. It was held in the wooden frame. There was some buckling but nothing too bad and once the painting is framed under glass and a mount it flattens out more. I hope you can give a big painting a try . Let me know how it goes. Best wishes, James

[@martyncozens5654]

Super painting, I like your large scale paintings, looking at a large piece of paper must be quite daunting, guess that's why need a plan. What happens to all the water colours you do on You Tube?

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Martyn, It’s always fun to paint a big picture and I’m glad you liked it. It’s always a little bit daunting but once you start to get into it, you can relax a bit. All the paintings I do on KZbin are for sale. Sometimes people contact me through KZbin or I sell them through galleries. James

[@kalaysia77]

James, is your paper hot press or cold press grain fin?

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Kalaysia, It’s a cold pressed paper 140lb. It’s called NOT paper here. Best wishes, James

[@Anna_Amoroso]

Sometimes when you say there is some blue, for example in the sand , I wonder where does he see that?? I just can't see it!!😅😅 How do you do that? I really enjoyed watching you paint very lovely painting. That oil painting it's beautiful!!❤

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Anna, Mixing colour is an interesting thing and very subtle. A lot of my blue that I see is because of shadow as I see shadow as a blue colour. Glad you like the oil painting. I must get back to do more. Thanks for watching Best wishes, James

[@Anna_Amoroso]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt thank you for your clarification,I think I understand a bit better now maybe. It would be interesting if you could explain this concept of how you see the colours when they are not obvious, well at least to my eyes which are very inexperienced! 😅 Thank you again James, enjoy your evening 🤗

[@lesleyfox6934]

Thanks James lovely painting, why do you sign in pencil?

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Lesley , Glad you like the painting. I used to sign in pen, but I did notice after a few years that the pen was fading so I now use pencil as it doesn’t fade. Best wishes, James

[@RandalMitchell-s4l]

Great video but it’s been a while. When are we going to see the next one?

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Randal Glad you enjoyed the video. It has been awhile since I posted. So many things going on, I just haven’t had the time to do one. Don’t worry, I will be back Best wishes, James

[@juliegriffiths4272]

I enjoyed watching this James. How damp was your paper when you put down the first layer of the sky, including when you added the darks to give them shape? Maybe my question should have been, Do you start with a damp paper? Which white paint do you use at the end of the painting? Mine never seem to be white enough. Thank you.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi Julie, Glad you enjoyed the video. I don’t damp the paper before I paint. I enjoy painting on dry paper initially. The paint goes down very differently after the paint is wet. I use white gouache paint. It does need to be squeezed out the tube only when you need to use it, as it does dry very quickly. I hope that helps. Best wishes, James

[@juliegriffiths4272]

Thank you James.

[@awatercolourist]

“Too little paint is a terrible curse.” I take it that you’ve experienced several curses and decided that too little paint is the worst 😂.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

I’m not fond of two little paint. In any medium is a bad idea😊

[@awatercolourist]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt Several artists have expressed the same sentiment.

[@johnmulligan5479]

Will you be posting another demo video soon? I am starting to worry about you! I hope all is well.

[@JamesPotterAboutArt]

Hi John, All’s well here, don’t worry. I’ve a lot going to on and haven’t had the time for making videos. I will be back!! 😊 Thanks for your concern. Best wishes James

[@johnmulligan5479]

@@JamesPotterAboutArt Thanks for you reply! See you on here soon, hopefully! All the best.