In the Bréhat garden

Milly and Maisie in the Bréhat garden

                                         

                                          

Combining my two loves of painting plein air and figure painting has been on the back of my mind for many years and gradually, softly, I'm encouraging the shy little idea to come forwards so that I can start to act on it. Artists reading this, you will probably know what I mean here. Sometimes it's the very thing we want to do most that is the thing we push away and don't get around to doing.
So this year I'm determined not to let the summer months pass without persuading/cajoling/paying models to come outside with me and spend a few hours while I paint. Maybe even humour me by wearing a funny hat once in a while.
Lots more quick studies like this may lead on to larger studio works in the winter.

For this painting I had a session of two hours in the garden on Tuesday, and then another hour or so in the garden yesterday without my models. Milly was only asked to pose for a total of one hour and five minutes. When I was mainly painting the grasses and foliage I didn't need her to be there.
As for Maisie, the dog, she wouldn't stay where I wanted for more than five minutes, so I had to paint in her head afterwards with the help of a photo taken on my ipad.

This is oils 14" x 14"

I'm afraid I couldn't take a very good photo of the painting what with the open weave of the canvas and the shiny nature of the wet darks but you get the gist of it.