Cupcake and roses

Cupcake and roses
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Oils on stretched canvas, 10" x 12"
I wanted to work again with the same subject that I was using for the thirty minute exercise, and this time get the teacup in! It's a teacup filled with candle, it's very pretty. I also wanted to use the same colour palette and even more importantly, I wanted the same boldness about the brushstrokes. And economy! I wanted to use the minimum of brushstrokes as necessary, place a mark and leave it alone.
I didn't have a time limit this time! I think I've achieved everything I set out to do, I like it very much! Would quite happily keep it but I'll put it up for auction in case one of you wants a chance!

Here's a detail, lovely smooth lusciousness...

Yum, I could eat those colours... or I could actually go and eat the cake I suppose...

Ten min prim

Ten minute primula
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I'm still thinking about my faster painting workshop and decided to challenge myself with a ten minute time restriction today! Simple enough subject, small board (18 x 13 cms) and paints ready to go.... it was achievable I think!
It's such a good exercise as it forces you to consider what are the most important things about the subject that you need to get down!
Here's a close up so you can see how lush and thick the paint application was...

Still euphoric over the success of yesterday's thirty minute painting I find myself asking why isn't it possible for me to do ten such paintings in a single day? It's a great theory isn't it? So why doesn't it actually WORK like that?! Answers on a postcard please...


Hmm... sounds like a challenge though...

Painting faster!

Cupcake, rose and hyacinth
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I've been preparing for my next workshop which is all about painting faster! It throws up some very interesting questions about what exactly you would call fast, and what the benefits are of painting faster. What would you consider fast in the completion of a painting? For me it's anything up to an hour and a half. Back in the day, at university, we painted in full colour from the life model with only five minutes each pose. That's what I call a good education!

So today I set my timer for this painting and gave myself thirty minutes. Not a second more! I started getting anxious when I had ten minutes left mind you!
Although reluctant to stop when the timer finished I did and am actually really thrilled with it! I think I captured the essential info with an expressive, direct feeling to the marks and bold colour. If I had unlimited time I'm sure I would have lost that with 'fiddling' and 'neatening up'! Sound familiar?
I used a fairly small board (10" x 8") and fairly large brush and laid out my paint on the palette before I started the clock.
I thought you might be interested to see the objects I was working from...

There are still places available on the workshop on Monday... you know you love a challenge! Find out all about it on my website www.haideejo.com

Epicerie avec les agapanthes, Bréhat

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Epicerie avec les agapanthes

I haven't been painting all weekend (apart from 20 minutes today!) but here's a plein air oil painting of the Ile de Brehat from last August. The building is the island's epicerie, at the far end of the market place behind the huge stunning bed of agapanthus flowers. I varnished this painting today, and thought you may like to see it! It measures 30 x 20 centimetres, please click the link above to see auction info.
Jo mentioned she liked to see the painting in the context of my studio in the last post, and could she see more of my house?! Well I thought you may like to see how I display the little paintings on my kitchen dresser, along with all the other clutter (!)

Perhaps I should have tidied it for you! I think the paintings look very nice on there though! ;)

Much excitement and a deadline!

I've been in rather a state of excitement and nervous tension today! I found out that this painting of Camille using her iPod touch has been accepted through to the next stage of the selection process for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition! I am so hugely excited that I may have a painting hanging in the exhibition that I haven't been able to think of anything else all day!
The only slight snag .... which I will sort out, don't worry! .... is that the painting is currently in France, so I need to go and collect it, frame it and get it down to London by the 15th March!
Now, where's my passport...