Can I remember...?

Red boots
12" x 9"

Just wondered if I can even remember how to post to my blog, it's been so long. But of course you may not be on Instagram every day like I am so... hello again!

Since I spoke to you last in November I've been elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Oil painters - that's a VERY special achievement for me, and you can read more about the Royal Institute of Oil painters here :-)

That means that over here in the UK I shall now be known as Haidee-Jo Summers ROI, proudly sporting those letters at the end of my name. Now I'll just leave you wondering why the letters for membership of the Royal Institute of Oil painters are ROI and not RIO... meanwhile I need to order some new business cards...

Evening sailing

Evening sailing, St Mawes
14" x 18"

This is one of my favourite painting spots so you may well recognise this view. I was particularly keen to abstract and soften the buildings to focus attention on that dazzling light on the water. The action in the harbour is represented by a few strokes of light and dark and a couple of more intense spots of colour. 

I'm really busy getting ready for my new solo show in Nottingham, which opens in just a couple of weeks! There is so much 'last minute' preparation underway but it's all very exciting. I really hope you can make it!

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it!

Little girl in an armchair

Little girl in an armchair
8" x 10"

The little girl in the armchair is actually Irene, the daughter of talented artist Michele del Campo. Maybe she will grow up to be an artist too. 

It's so hard to stop a painting when you've said enough, but it's what I'm always striving to do. Recognise when I've said enough. I find it especially hard where faces are involved. The face factor, as C.W Mundy would call it. He is quite right in saying that as viewers we are naturally drawn to any part of a painting that represents a human face. I might play around with that idea in future a lot. 

I'm really happy with the freshness of this, the vigorous nature of the brush marks. The thin paint, the underpaint still showing and the thick opaque paint. I find a lot to be excited about here.

In other news...

I've rebuilt my whole website! Yes it took a great many hours that I'd rather have spent at the easel but I am really happy now that it's done. I've learnt so much and I feel like my website reflects my personality better now. (One day I will tackle this blog but that's another story!)

There are still improvements that I need to make but keeping up a website does require regular maintenance anyway so I'll just continue to do bits here and there when I can.

Please do take a look around!

www.haideejo.com

Mary Cassatt study and a poem

Study after Mary Cassatt

I am juggling rather a lot of balls and I'm afraid I've let the one marked 'blog' slip a bit. I'm going full pelt on Instagram though if that's any consolation. No?
Here's a study after Mary Cassatt and a poem about September, by way of apology x

September

The golden-rod is yellow

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

 

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

 

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.

 

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

 

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

 

But none of all this beauty

Which floods the earth and air

Is unto me the secret

Which makes September fair.

 

'T is a thing which I remember;

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Fisherman's shelter

Fisherman's shelter, Portscatho
8" x 10"

Just so that you can find me when you come by for a celebratory drink tomorrow evening (Tuesday 25th August) 6.30 - 8.00 pm, this is where I'll be - at the fisherman's shelter in Portscatho, Cornwall. Right by the harbour and the red telephone box, you can't miss it. 

I'll also be painting at this fab venue on Wednesday and Thursday from 11.00 am - 4.00 pm.

I have a poor mobile phone signal around here and no internet access in the daytime so if you need more information please contact Mark at the Harbour Gallery. We can't wait to see you in this idyllic place :-)

A new (P)interest

Study after Richard Emil Miller
1875 - 1943

I was telling you yesterday about my excitement in discovering Pinterest and being able to gather paintings that I find enormously inspiring together in one place. I am also discovering new artists at the same time, like Richard E Miller, an American impressionist. I had never heard of him until I came across this painting of his on Pinterest. He worked for some time at Giverny, and painted lots of 'ladies at leisure', a genre of paintings that I love.

The main thing I notice about my many 'pins' (small images clipped together on a 'board') is the great impact each one has on even a tiny thumbnail size, and the immediate statement that the colour palette makes.

I have long adored pinks and greens together and decided I had to have a play with this high key colour palette. I wasn't trying to achieve a careful copy or drawing but aiming to get the same sorts of colours working together.

 

Richard E Miller
Reading in the garden