Rose Desire - black feathers

Rose Desire - black feathers
Oil on canvas 18" x 14"

I've had a happy, happy day today. Firstly, my Artist of the Year prizes and certificate all arrived in the post - unexpected! Here's a photo of my beautiful crystal goblet!

Secondly, I had this gorgeous burlesque performer to pose for me! It was fantastic, and I can't wait until she can come back again!
This is the second of two paintings that I managed to complete during our sitting! In case you are wondering, her arm has a tattoo 'sleeve', which is much more intricate than I have painted it - all pinks and turquoise.

I didn't blog yesterday because I was out shopping for a special outfit for the Jubilee Pageant - red, white and blue!
The weather doesn't seem to be playing ball though... latest reports are predicting 12 degrees, rain, and lots of wind on the bridge! I may have to rethink the dress....

Only three more sleeps...

Very grand news!

Houses of Parliament at sunset
Claude Monet

Here's my new exciting news!!

I can finally tell you that I've been selected by the BBC as one of a small group of artists who are going to be filmed on the 3rd June standing on the Millennium bridge over the river Thames painting the Queen's diamond jubilee pageant as the boats sail beneath us!

There will be one thousand boats sailing in the flotilla with the Queen and other members of the Royal family on the Royal barge. It is going to be the largest collection of historic vessels ever assembled on the Thames. The lead vessel is a floating belfry with eight church bells on board ringing! One of the boats taking part, the Amazon, also took part in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, in 1897. Two million people are expected to gather in London to watch the procession, and I am so, so excited that I will be there to paint the events as they unfold!

It's really happening and it's happening next weekend!

Click here if you'd like to see more information about the Royal Pageant :-)

Final day and sunshine at last!

We've had a great last day of the painting holiday here on Bréhat... sunshine! All day!
Breakfast outside, lunch outside... and going out to a restaurant for our final dinner together.
What an amazing bunch of paintings everyone will be taking home as souvenirs!
This quick sketch is of flowers we picked from the garden to place on the table, when we painted the remains of our petit dejeuner.
Here's a photo of Pearl painting the moulin du birlot - in the sunshine!
And a photo of us painters before we head out to dinner...
Bon appetit everyone!

The pink rocks of Ile Nord

We walked up to the Phare du Paon at the north of the island today, with paints and picnic!
Everyone did great work and enjoyed themselves. We bought some apple juice, radishes and basil from François' vegetable stall on the way past. We even benefitted from times of sunshine and some of us have burnt our cheeks and foreheads!
I did this quick watercolour and used a little candle wax on the sea.
After a leisurely walk back we had aperitifs in the garden before dinner. Very civilised!

Aprés le petit dejeuner

We had wind and storms during the night and several hours of rain this morning so we stayed at the house to paint a still life.
Rather than setting something up specially I declared the remains of breakfast to be a fit subject!
It kept everyone absorbed for hours!
I wanted to capture the effect of the light spilling across the table from the open door behind in this fairly speedy watercolour.
Beforehand I did this sketch of Brenda silhouetted in the doorway.
Later we went out to sketch in the port area and even had a little sunshine!

Shipwreck before downpour!

After a lovely sunny morning seeing the local sights and drinking coffee in the bourg we went out to paint this afternoon.
The sky had clouded over in gloomy fashion, which seemed a good setting for painting the shipwreck it has to be said!
I was trialling my new Jullian easel (which I have christened Jubilee, in honour of the Queen's diamond jubilee) and patriotic umbrella. Thank goodness I had the umbrella is all I can say!
Luckily the others had left the beach and made it safely back to the house when the real downpour happened...

They've arrived!

My intrepid painting ladies have arrived - and so has the sun!
Here we are on the way over to the island! We didn't expect to be having aperitifs in the garden after all this rain so it was especially marvellous!
Fingers crossed for some fine weather for painting tomorrow!

On board!

Well we're on board a ferry but it's not the one we booked onto, which couldn't sail due to a technical fault.
Now we'll be arriving in Caen instead of Cherbourg three hours later, which means it's extremely unlikely we'll make it to the island tonight.
It's unfortunate, but I'd rather not be on a boat with a technical fault! Hey-ho!
Here's a sketch I've just done in the bar.

Paint magazine!

May's Paint magazine

The article inside

I've received today the latest edition of the SAA's Paint magazine with my painting 'Fin du jour' on the cover, and a nice little article inside about my work!
In between phone calls and emails and social media and dog walking I did get some painting hours today but what I'm working on is so far from finished I thought I'd just show you the magazine today! I am a busy girl at the moment, my head is spinning!
I won't be able to post for a couple of days because tomorrow and Friday we'll be travelling to Bréhat for the painting holiday of the year! On Saturday we'll be buying supplies from the mainland and making sure we're ready for the lovely ladies' arrival on Sunday!
I'm sure I'll be able to keep you up to date with everything we get up to next week!
A big warm welcome to you if you are visiting my blog for the first time because of seeing the article in the magazine! Please become an email subscriber and feel free to have a good rummage through my old posts - there are nearly 160 out there, floating in cyber space! I hope you enjoy them! :-)