Tuesday, December 27, 2011

O Christmas tree!

O beautiful Christmas tree! I've always adored Christmas trees for drawing and painting purposes. This is a black artificial tree that we brought over from England with us. Although it is described as black, I didn't use any black watercolour in the painting of it, but mixes of indigo blue, crimson and viridian. I did use lots of masking fluid! This painting took a long time as I built it up in lots of layers. My first step was to apply masking fluid 'spots' to represent the little lightbulbs, and then to apply a pale blue wash over the entire piece of paper so that the only truly white bits would be the lights. When that was dry I applied masking fluid in a ring around the lightbulbs. After putting colours down for the various baubles I masked them all out. I also painted the violet shadows cast by the tree onto the wall. I built up the dark colour of the tree in several stages, taking my brush in the direction of the tree branches, and not having to worry about saving the decorations or lights as they were all masked. It was really important for me to mix a deep intense colour, as the watercolours always dry lighter and I was after a strong contrast between the dark of the 'black' tree and the lights and ornaments.
It always makes me sad to take the decorations down in January. I miss the extra lights, but continue to light candles every evening ;)

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas everyone! I haven't painted today (yet anyway!), but I painted these pretty Christmas fruits just before our trip to England last week. We think they're made of polystyrene, and are covered in tiny glass balls. I love bringing them out at Christmas! We have them in the centre of the kitchen table this year. It's the first Christmas any of us have spent outside of the UK! We are at home though! ;)
I hope you are all having a really lovely day with your family and friends! XX

Friday, December 23, 2011

Ho ho ho!

Again, we find ourselves travelling! It doesn't seem as though we have
been in England five minutes! We're driving back to the south now and
will be spending the night on the ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre,
arriving back on the island mid afternoon on Christmas Eve. I will be
picking a winner out of the hat for the Christmas bauble painting. All
blog followers and email subscribers are included in the draw!
I did try to finish another festive still life painting while visiting
relatives in Yorkshire this week but didn't quite manage it, so here's
Maisie looking serene in front of the Christmas tree! At the time of
writing this she's actually in her crate in the back of the car, being
very good and quiet. Thank goodness she travels well, we spend so much
time on the move!

Monday, December 19, 2011

The King of Christmas

Click to bid

Our journey over to England was an eventful one. We arrived on the mainland amidst enormous waves and drove through rain, sleet and hail storms on the way to Le Havre. The ferry crossing to Portsmouth was rough - luckily I don't get sea sick although many people were suffering on the six hour journey!
Since arriving back in the UK late Friday night we have already enjoyed spending lots of time with friends, we've been to a lovely Christmas party and Fred's fabulous carol concert in his barn which is the village highlight of the year, got absolutely soaked walking Maisie in the rain AND I have made time to paint this festive still life. These are some little Christmas presents for my friends, and my rather regal lion was a fabulous find at a house clearance sale several years ago. I bought him with his unicorn companion whom I have painted many times but lion has been a little underused so far in the still life department!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bon depart!

Oh it's a little sad today as it was Milly and Oscar's last day at French school! Oscar has been inundated with beautiful drawings and homemade cards from his little friends at the island school. This gorgeous one by our friend and neighbour Hugo aged 8 is a really accurate depiction of our house, with the sunflowers growing outside. I love it! I must point out that we don't actually have a huge Union Jack flag attached to our chimney! It also shows Oscar playing with his friend and neighbour Mathis, and 'le petit train' -the island's 'taxi' should you need it, a tractor which pulls a little carriage! Milly's friends have been crying as did her friends in England this time last year!
I have been to the vets with Maisie today for the necessary (pre-entering the UK) tick and worm treatments. I am SO glad the rules are changing from January 1st and the vets' visit 24 hours prior to travelling won't be compulsory! Today it took me almost three and a half hours to make this simple trip because a)there isn't a vets on the island and b) we are on the winter ferry timetable which means at least two hours between crossings and also it was low tide both going and returning which is a good walk!
Tomorrow we are travelling to England for a pre-Christmas week catching up with family and friends and coming back to the island on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again, I did paint some bejewelled Christmas fruits today so if I can get a good photo of that tomorrow I will send it out! Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...