Regency picnic

Regency picnic, Gunby Hall
12" x 16"

It's not every day you get a chance to dress up in a regency style dress and bonnet, to paint similarly attired people having a picnic in sunshine at a beautiful stately home in the countryside, is it? 

Painting the picnic

I count myself extremely lucky to have done exactly that at Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire, and I also made a short video of the day which you can see here!

Selfie in bonnet - I always wanted to be in a Jane Austen movie ;-)

Bees in the orchard

Bees in the orchard
Oils 10" x 14"

We've had some fantastic weather this week in Lincolnshire, so I had to get out painting and where better than the gorgeous gardens at Gunby Hall? I headed for my favourite spot but the pond was brown and left me uninspired. This turned out to be a good thing as I wandered into this gorgeous orchard, and I've always hankered after painting bee hives! How exciting! The setting could not have been more lovely, and I'm very glad I came.

Can you see the bees? ;-)

Not a cloud in the sky

Reverie

Reverie
Oils 28" x 20"
SOLD

A recently finished larger studio painting, finding inspiration in the Gunby Hall pond again. I was mesmerised by the deep dark reflection of the large tree, so I decided to call this painting 

reverie  noun  a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.

Sometimes when I worked on this one I turned it the other way round as though I was painting a landscape and sky instead of a reflection in water. I really really love painting still water and reflections, mind you it's the ever changing sea that keeps me on my toes.

 

At the start, all splish splash

A section of the work in progress,
a pleasing piece of abstract design

Carp pond at Gunby Hall

Carp pond at Gunby Hall
Oils 12" x 16"

On an absolutely beautiful day I had to drop everything else and get out with my paints. I actually went looking for some cows that I'd seen recently but they weren't in the field, so I continued in an easterly direction until I reached beautiful Gunby Hall again. Once there, I knew I would head for the carp pond. I couldn't believe how much it had changed in the last couple of weeks. This yellowy green weed that you can see on the right hand side of my painting had spread far and wide under the surface of the water. I'm sure it's nutritious for the fish but it does rather obliterate all reflections in that area. 

Still, I had a wonderful trip and there were sky reflections still to be had! I'm also looking forward to when the water lilies come into flower, and I'm going to get back here with a model first chance I get. 

Also, the team at Gunby Hall looked after me well and gave me a coffee and with the sun shining too, what could be better? :-)

Pond sketches

Pond sketches
Watercolour and pen

In a quieter moment in between either painting with oils or cleaning oil paint off brushes and palette, I worked on these preparatory sketches in watercolours and marker pens. I have a lovely huge and chunky watercolour paper sketchbook (two inches thick) which you can see here. 

These sketches are thoughts about possible large oil paintings of the pond at Lincolnshire's Gunby Hall.   My idea is to start a large painting in the studio with an underpainting, then take it out on site for the main painting session, then work on it again in the studio etc. Not sure when this will actually take place as I've got so much else on the go at the moment, but it's always good to have ideas stacking up!

Masking fluid in action on the lily pads

Gunby Hall gardens

Gracie in the gardens at Gunby Hall
Oils 10" x 12"

It's always exciting to find a great new painting location and I found one on Monday. It's a National Trust stately home and garden called Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire, and only a little over an hour's drive away from me. The gardens are absolutely beautiful and I could find so many subjects there. As a bonus on Monday it was 'regency day' and there were people walking around and dancing in regency costumes which was so exciting for me, like visiting a Jane Austen film set.

After a lovely picnic I looked for a spot to paint in the gardens. The sun was out a little bit but when I was painting it was mostly cloudy, so I chose a subject with a little inherent colour. 

I was hoping to get a passing figure or two into the painting, and when I was almost beyond the point of being able to add anybody my goddaughter Gracie came along and offered to pose for me. She stood there by the sundial for between twenty minutes and half an hour bless her. She didn't mind at all, and I kept asking her if she'd had enough and wanted to stop.

She really improved the painting by her presence I'm sure you'll agree. My absolutely favourite part is her right foot which was turned inwards for a moment and I managed to catch it!

Painting at Gunby Hall