St-Just-in-Roseland

The creek at St-Just-in-Roseland
Oils 16" x 26"

I had a great five days in Cornwall last week plein air painting while filming for my DVD with APV films. The weather was variable but we didn't get rained off and one of the days was an absolute scorcher. I found some cracking subjects and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are going to have a day filming in my studio this winter and then the final editing will take place.

I'm gathering together a list of people who'd like to be the first to know when the DVD is available, and those people will be able to order a signed copy direct from my studio. One lucky person on the list will be sent a free copy of the DVD!

If you'd like to be added simply send me a message or reply to this email and I'll pop you on there :-)

Explaining my absence...

Tall ships at Falmouth docks
Oils 12" x 16" unframed 16" x 20" framed
£950

I should have sent you a postcard, I know... but I've been a busy girl dashing about all over the place again. I've had the pleasure of five days of painting in Cornwall, mostly at Falmouth where tall ships from around the world were moored for the first time since 2008, for the Falmouth to Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta. 

What a fantastic carnival atmosphere there was! There were thousands and thousands of people there and it was pretty hard to find a spot to paint at times. It can be pretty overwhelming in such a crowded place, but once you've staked your spot by setting up your easel and start working you can pretty well block the rest out and you become sort of a part of the scenery.

For the last month or so I've been taking advantage of the fine weather and taking canvasses out with me to paint, rather than panels or boards. I've absolutely loved painting on the soft yielding surface of canvas. It's always been my preferred choice for the studio but takes a little bit more effort to carry outside and isn't ideal on a windy day.

My favourite size to use outside has been 12" x 16" and sometimes 14" x 18" and I will be exhibiting my latest paintings from France and Cornwall at Patchings art centre near Nottingham, where my very 

next solo exhibition will open on October 4th.

Yes it's very soon and yes I'm very busy finishing and framing, signing and varnishing right now!

Click here for details :-)

Detail 

If you can't wait til then to get your hands on one of my tall ships paintings and claim it for yourself then you might like to take a look at the Harbour Gallery as Mark already has three hanging up on the walls, all framed up and looking beautiful, including this one.

Squeezing in wherever I could get a view!

View from the top

View from the top
Oils 24 x 30 cms (unframed size)
£550

Here's another from my Staithes weekend, started as a demo painting and finished off in the studio this week. For this view you need to walk up to the top of Cowbar rise, and then you get this wonderful scene whereby the horizon line rises so high up against the cliff side. When the sun was shining the sea became that beautiful deep rich blue against the warm sunlit rock. When the sky was grey and full of rain the sea became a light grey too.

My main point of interest in this painting was the sunlit side of the nearest white house, and the dark of the shadowy green foliage adjacent to it. As a secondary point of interest the boat in the beck, with a rope leading your eye down to it in a pleasing arc. The grassy foreground provides a useful rest area within the painting. 

This is one of the paintings I'll be taking to the Studio Eleven gallery in Hull at the weekend.

Silver light at Mousehole

Silver light at Mousehole
8" x 10"

On the one day that it didn't rain for me in Mousehole this is the other painting I achieved, and I'm really pleased with it. You get such blinding sunlight on the water in Mousehole when the sun is shining. Although this looks a lot like a sunset it was actually painted in the morning. In the foreground of the painting you can see that it's high tide in the harbour. The other noticeable feature is the one boat. In winter the vast majority of boats are taken out of the harbour and onto dry land to decrease the risk of damage. A very good thing too when you consider the awful storms we've had this winter.

When I next visit Mousehole in April there will be a lot of boats back in the water, which is good for me for painting. Although, I do very much like this simple uncluttered scene too.

The colours in the dark area of the harbour wall have subtle differences of hue and value which are not apparent on the photo really.

All three of these paintings were delivered on Friday and available to buy now at the Harbour Gallery.

Today I am travelling to a hotel at Gatwick airport ready to fly to Marrakech in the early hours of tomorrow. I may not have any access to wifi while I'm over there so if you don't hear from me that's why. I'll show you all the paintings when I get back.

Perfect summer's day

A perfect summer's day, Portscatho

After four mostly rainy days in Cornwall when I had to leave on Friday the weather had transformed into a mini heatwave with sunshine and blue skies as far as the eye could see. It goes like that sometimes. Hopefully my week in Morocco will be dry. 

Although I didn't get very much plein air painting achieved last week I did at least have time to finish this studio painting of Portscatho harbour. I'm afraid the photo above doesn't really do it justice.

It's now available for purchase at the Harbour Gallery in Portscatho along with many others. Take a better look here.

And... I remembered to take some photos of the work in progress as I know you like to see that :-)

Boat sheds at Brancaster

Boat sheds at Brancaster
16" x 20"

I think the addition of a couple of figures in the background not only lends a sense of scale to the proceedings but also a sort of 'story' which I seem to consider more when studio painting, rightly or wrongly.

With additional work on the trees and grasses I was pleased to decide the painting was finished. (Rather feels like a boat launch but without the bottle of champagne being broken against it!)

Although I've spent lots of time and thought and paint layers on this one I'm hopeful that it still looks fresh and not laboured, and glad I've managed a decent variety of marks too with some areas of the paint being left thin and bare and others more impasto.  The photo above is just an iPad shot as it's a little too dark for trying a decent photo but it gives you the idea, and here are a few 'closer-ups'.

Mud and wind in Norfolk

Reflections at low tide, Brancaster Staithe
SOLD

At low tide at Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk the colours and reflections in the wet mud are stunning. We were blessed again with a bright but cold day, it was extremely windy though! To counteract the effects of the wind I positioned myself in front of a wall, had my tripod legs spread wide and my bag of paints hanging from the tripod as a weight. Still, it was very tricky to attempt straight lines!

I deliberately pushed the boat up and out of the top of the painting because I wanted to focus attention on the reflections beneath and the weight and bulk of the boat. The buoys provided a nice couple of bright spots amongst all the gorgeous greys.

Work in progress at Brancaster Staithe

Backlighting at Brancaster Staithe

Boat sheds at Brancaster Staithe
SOLD

Here's a better look at the two paintings from my day in Norfolk last week. I could have done with a little bit more time on the oil sketch above, but I spent long enough absorbed in it and have a pretty good memory of the scene. This is my new 'red sail', meaning that this subject got me hugely excited and gave me goose bumps just like the moment in Paimpol harbour in August when the red sail went up on the boat.

These days I take that as a sure sign that I can develop the motif further with a studio painting.

It's amazing how our art practice evolves and develops. A year ago I would have told you I had no interest in studio painting whatsoever. That in my eyes all of the excitement and vitality was to be found outdoors. Now I realise what I was missing then. I can get that excitement in the studio but here's the secret - I have to have been immersed in the subject first. I have to have been there, experienced the sights and sounds, and painted there on location. I have to absorb, study, capture the subject from life first.

As I've always said to my students I'm not big on imagination. Working directly from the subject feeds my ideas.

The bonus of my new method of working is that I have the plein air study with me to work from in the studio as an aide-memoire.

This is definitely my new 'red sail' so watch this space, as they say.

My afternoon painting from the day was this quiet one, painted on watercolour paper with a limited palette of gouache colours - burnt sienna, ultramarine, cerulean blue, yellow ochre and white.

Reflections at Brancaster Staithe
Gouache

Big red in the studio

Stage 1

I'm hoping you're still willing to see the sailing boats in Paimpol harbour because as I said a little while ago I've been working on a large studio version. I'm happy to say it's finally finished and I've been taking photos all the way through at various stages to show you how it progressed!

So, right back to the beginning which was some weeks ago now... I started work on a large canvas panel (large compared to all my plein air paintings) sized 24" x 30" and I primed it all over with a tinted gesso mix consisting of white gesso and pale umber acrylic paint.

I then painted the large area that would become the red sail again with white gesso, because I imagined that the red of the sail would work better with a white ground showing through the red rather than the warm grey underneath.

When this was all dry I started with the oil paints. Using a turpsy mix of a greenish-brown grey I plotted in the main dark areas and this is what you can see in Stage 1 above.

Everything is full of promise and no angst at this stage!

Stage 2

While that was still wet I also added a slightly darker version of the same colour to differentiate between two tonal values in the dark area. Then when this stage was dry I used another turpsy mix, cooler in colour this time to deepen some of those darks and add further shape to the buildings behind. 

(Stage 2)

Stage 3

I took the painting along to a workshop then and stage 3 was completed as a little demo. With the tonal values in place I really needed to start thinking about colour, and in particular it was time to get cracking with that red! I also worked on the colour of the 'white' sails and their reflections, and completed the shadowy buildings on the right hand side. I wasn't particularly concerned with the accuracy of the roofline, as I knew I could confirm the drawing there when painting the sky.

The touches of blue in the sky and water and the blue banners on the quayside added a lot of liveliness.

Stage 4

On returning to the studio after it's trip out I realised that I needed much more of the sky colour reflected in the water and worked on this area with thicker paint.

To be honest I thought it was very nearly finished at this stage but apparently not!

I'll show you how things proceeded tomorrow...

Detail at stage 4

Whitby

I've come away for a few days painting, to the north east of Yorkshire. I arrived in Whitby early evening after travelling on three trains to get here, and I have already set to work. I feel very rusty as it's been a couple of weeks since I last painted plein air, and that's no good at all! I have been teaching a lot, including a great watercolour workshop this week. Also lots of planning and bookings going on right now for next year. The diary is looking really full for 2014.
Tomorrow I'm going to be painting in Staithes all day. I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time.
I may not be able to post pics until next week though.
I feel quite at home in this part of the world, as I spent half my childhood living in North Yorkshire and my art studies began in York.

Sailing dinghy at Paimpol

Sailing dinghy at Paimpol

Another small work (oils on paper), from sketches made this summer at the harbour in Paimpol. Paimpol is the nearest town to the island of Bréhat on the mainland. It's a very pretty town with a fabulous weekly market and cafes, art galleries and the harbour. My daughter went to school here when we lived on the island in 2011, and her 'college' was a big stone building overlooking the harbour.
The white sails are the white of the paper which I've reserved as you usually would with watercolours. I've simplified the busy harbour and boats in the background to one fairly dark shape with a few coloured spots and light patches. I'm all about the simplification, you've probably noticed by now!

Rock study

Preparations to leave the island and return to England are now under way. It's been a wonderful month, gloriously relaxing and a chance to recharge my batteries. Next week it's back to writing and teaching and planning, back to school for the children and a time to get freshly organised for the upcoming autumn and winter events for me.
I will leave you for now with a little study of the pink rocks at Guerzido beach, and the gateway to the hidden garden. I am really glad I ran out of time on this one because I love it as it is in it's half painted, sketched and bare toned canvas state. I've learnt that it's best to leave a gem like this alone and if I still hanker after the subject I can start a new studio painting based on it.

Hidden garden by the sea

Hidden garden by the sea

I think this must be my favourite from the trip! A magical place, with magical light.. this is a hidden garden by the sea. And that little building above the rocks may well be my studio one day... well a girl can dream can't she? And when it is you must join me there for a petit café or a refreshing glass of Brittany cider :-)

Deuxieme câle

Deuxieme cale

This is the deuxieme câle, where the ferry leaves or arrives on the island when it's medium tide. We always check the tide timetable before catching a ferry because it may be a ten minute walk to the boat or a twenty-five minute walk if the tide is low.
I found painting this really tricky with the reflective qualities of the wet mud making it so light in value and it's bumpy textured qualities adding extra complexity! I really didn't think it was working and then I stood back a few feet and suddenly I could see it and it all clicked into place.
We are quickly racing through our last week of summer on the island.

Party boat!

Waiting for regatta day
Oils 10" x 12"

I forgot to show you this one also from my trip to Cornwall in July, and it's one of my favourites! You know that I have a soft spot for flags and bunting don't you? I thought this little boat looked so jaunty, showing off that colourful regalia against the dark of the harbour wall and the deep reflections in the water. I couldn't resist!
As a sort of bonus or side order, I also love the area looking out to sea in the gap between the harbour walls. There was a bit of a sparkle going on there and I spotted it!

If you would like to own this painting it is currently on show at the Scarlet hotel in Cornwall, contact Mark at the Harbour Gallery for info :-)