Sun lounger

Sun lounger
8" x 10"

Me and Maisie have spent many gorgeous hours on these sun loungers side by side. I'm reading or writing or surfing Pinterest, and every now and then Maisie asks me to throw an apple that's fallen from the tree. We can hear the odd call from a cockerel, and distant murmur of children playing on the sports field and not a great deal else. 

So enticing are our candy striped loungers here on the island, it was about time I painted them.

Summer studio

Garden studio!

 It's a big one! I've been battling on with some studio paintings recently. I'll be honest with you I feel I'm on a huge learning curve!
Here are my main aims with studio paintings -

• To paint on a much larger scale
• To carry to a further point ideas I have gathered from plein air painting sessions
• To keep the same simplicity and lively brushwork in the studio paintings that I have in my plein air work

My main difficulties with this presently are -

• First and foremost to keep the excitement and inspiration going when one step removed from the beloved subject
• Related to the above point and also due to working on a much larger scale, the awkward middle period when you really don't know if the thing is going to work or not goes on much longer and so...
• It's harder to break through the pain barrier!

We're still roasting hot here so I have to leave my studio by 11 am at the latest as it's an oven by then, and move kit and caboodle outside.
The only drawback with painting in the garden is really that I have to keep kicking the football for Maisie. And sometimes I have to sit down with an ice cream or a glass of ginger beer. Ho hum.

Maisie on the sofa

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Maisie on the sofa

Maisie says "This isn't what I had in mind when you promised me lots of walks today, to make up for yesterday when you left me on my own for three hours...  sigh....  you think I'm going to pose for you now? ... Well I'm not, I'm going to get up right now and turn around so that my head's pointing in the other direction - ha! ... see what she makes of that after she's already sketched in my outline - sigh - this will probably take ages... when will I get my walk...  yawn, quite comfy actually... did someone say beach? No? Oh...  that painting of Charlie with a pain au chocolat finishes it's auction tonight .... why is he allowed to sit on the table anyway? Can you imagine the trouble I'd be in if I sat on the table? Grrrr ..... who would want a painting of HIM?! Ridiculous! Cats are not worthy of being painted...  cats are not worthy at all....  snooze..."