My 2014 review April to June

Early summer at Porthcurnick beach
Oils 14" x 18" £995

Welcome to the second part of my 2014 annual review. This blog post begins with lots of colour and sunshine, and ends in a flurry of prizes and exclamation marks! I'm going to be showing you some of my favourite paintings from this second quarter of the year. Now the weather was by and large spectacular throughout this whole time.

In April it was back to Cornwall and this time the weather was like summer, so plenty of plein air painting was achieved, and galleries re-stocked! Then it was a week in France with the family for Easter, where the sun continued to shine.

Here I am painting at St Mawes - what a place and what dazzling light on the water.

Sparkling light at St Mawes
Private Collection

On the slipway, Sennen
Oils 12" x 16" £850

St Michael's Mount
Private Collection

In May I discovered the gorgeous gardens at National Trust property Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire, and fell in love with the pond there. I must get back there this year in May, and perhaps take a model or two with me. (Would a parasol or a bonnet be out of order?)

This favourite below made it to the cover of my 2014 calendar. It was a new enterprise for me and I'm very pleased that the calendars have been so popular. I had 100 printed and I've sold every one apart from the one I kept for myself! So I'll be keeping my eye open for new images for my 2016 calendar next.

Carp pond at Gunby Hall
Oils 12" x 16" £850

Reverie
Private Collection

Crabbing at Brancaster Staithe

St Clements Studio
Private Collection

In June things became even busier because June always starts with the big Patchings Festival. Including the setting up day it's a pretty tiring but busy and fun five days! It's always great to see so many friends there, from all over the country. This year as well as exhibiting in the painters marquee where I painted a portrait demo and painting plein air demos in the courtyard I also did a still life demo in the big St Cuthbert's marquee. 

I went down to London for a day to see the Society of Women Artists exhibition in June, where I had two paintings selected and exhibited.

Flaming June
Private Collection

Demo at Patchings

At the end of June it was up to North Yorkshire to teach a long weekend at the Staithes art school, staying in beautiful cottages by the sea, painting in the day and feasting in the evening with fantastic like minded company. 

By the way we're back on for next year too so if you might like to join us have a look at Staithes Art Gallery and better be quick to book as it's a very popular weekend!

View from Cowbar
Private Collection

And now for a painting you will definitely recognise if you've been following my blog for a while or read The Artist magazine...

Sails up in harbour
24" x 30"
Collection of The Artist Publishing Company

ONE painting with a generously sized red sail and a dash of magic...

FOUR prizes in a matter of days!!!!

First this painting won the Pro Arte Award at The Artist magazine's annual selected exhibition, which was a generous £250 worth of Pro Arte brushes.

Secondly it was selected for The Artist exhibition award which means I am one of ten winning artists to take part in a group exhibition at Patchings art centre in 2015.

Thirdly... drum roll... Ken Howard RA OBE selected it as his favourite piece in the whole exhibition therefore I won The Artist Purchase Prize of £1800 and my painting now goes to hang in the offices at The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines alongside previous winners of this prestigious prize.

Fourthly it then won the 'best water' category in the summer Plein Air Salon, an online painting competition run by the brilliant US Plein Air magazine. Another big surprise!

Think I need to go and lie down in a darkened room after reliving all that excitement again... be back soon with the third instalment, July to September...

My 2014 review January to March

Exhibition portraits January 2014

It's that special time again, time to look back over what I've been up to in 2014, take note of my achievements, remember fun times and travel, see what direction my paintings have grown and yes, pat myself on the back for a job well done before putting it all behind me and forging ahead with the exciting and new!

January 2014 got off to a cracking start with my solo exhibition in Nottingham and a whopping 30 paintings sold and off to new homes. I painted a different portrait in oils each day for ten days of the exhibition, while also handling sales and enquiries and putting the kettle on frequently! I was very grateful to my patient models!

Andrew

Jenny

Painting Ant who also painted me!

The large gallery with about 80 of my paintings hanging

February included a ten day holiday in France with the family, some plein air painting in Norfolk and some coastal studio paintings, plus an article I wrote about gouache painting was published in The Artist magazine.

Crab hut at Brancaster Staithe
Private Collection

Whelk sheds at Brancaster Staithe
Oils 11" x 14"
£650

By the boat sheds, Brancaster Staithe
Oils 16" x 20"
£1095

I was really starting to get somewhere with studio paintings and actually enjoy doing it. I found ways to keep much of the freshness of plein air paintings and yet on a larger scale. I realised I needed as much background information as possible, e.g. paintings and sketches made on site, to help me keep the excitement and inspiration alive. The more I do of studio work, the more possibilities present themselves to me. It could never replace plein air of course, but I feel they both feed off each other. 

Kevin Macpherson describes it so well in his book 'Landscape painting Inside and Out':

"Many outdoor attempts fall short of successful, yet possess qualities that can be improved on into a grander statement in the studio. Each truthful colour note on a plein air study is a priceless seed of information that can transform your studio work to higher levels. Also, in the studio you can practise picture-making principles and experiment in a controlled environment.

Indoor and outdoor painting are complementary experiences. As memories of nature breathe life into your studio work, the disciplined approaches and principles you practise indoors will enable you to attack the canvas outdoors in new ways."

End of a perfect day, Sennen beach
Private Collection

In March I had two trips - first to Cornwall and then to Essaouira in Morocco with a group of painter friends. In Cornwall the weather was a bit disappointing but I managed to get some plein air work done and also enjoyed a fishy still life when it was pouring with rain outside.

Fairmaids of Mousehole
Private Collection

Towards St Michael's mount from Mousehole
Private Collection

Silver light, Mousehole
Private Collection

In contrast the weather in Morocco was dry, warm and idyllic for plein air painting, and I had a fabulous time. The locals were on the whole very interested and kind, and several remembered me from the year before. We even got invited to the private view of an art exhibition with an artist friend who I'd met while painting the year before and kept in contact with via Facebook, and I made some lovely new friends too. Plus of course the enormous benefit of having artist friends painting at the same time there from the UK, USA and Spain. What a great trip! 

One of my Essaouira friends, Monsieur Bouabid

Butchers shop Essaouira - poultry
Oils 10" x 12" £550

Butchers shop Essaouira - mutton and veal
Oils 11" x 14" £595

Boys diving into harbour
Private Collection

I'll finish this first quarter of the year with this bobby dazzler, companion painting to the one you know well that you'll be seeing again in the next instalment, when I take a walk back through April, May and June. I warn you now it might be a long blog post with a lot of excitement and exclamation marks!

Heading out of harbour
Private collection

More work on boat sheds

Work in progress

I continued with various thin coloured glazes such as greens on the grasses and trees and blues on the boat and sheds. Each time the painting would be left alone for a few days afterwards to let the glaze dry. Again this is a luxury of studio painting. The whole course of a painting is making a series of changes, and if you have time on your side then one of the options open to you is using a glaze to subtly alter the colour tint of an area. 

I then mixed up thicker, more opaque paint for the bright light greens of the sunlit areas of grass.

I also mixed up an opaque lavender grey for the shed doors. Later I decided this was too light in value and so (when really dry) a glaze was applied to darken it down at which point it 'sat' better in it's surroundings.

The painting was left like this for all of January as I was fully occupied with my Nottingham exhibition. So near and yet still so far!

A return visit to Brancaster Staithe last week gave me the chance to look again at the subject and gain some fresh ideas, and also the impetus needed to press ahead and get it completed.

The plein air study perches on top of the easel

The first change I made was to alter the whole sky area to a sort of light valued warm grey, but I left areas of peachiness breaking through. 

I had also seen the light coming down through the gap in between the sheds this time and thought that would definitely be beneficial to add. Also the roof on the left had sustained further damage and I happily let more sky show through with the new gaps. I had a firmer idea about the shape of the trees in the background too.

Tomorrow I'll show you the end result of all these layers and adjustments...

Whelk sheds, Brancaster Staithe

Whelk sheds, Brancaster Staithe

Yesterday was just what I needed after a couple of frustrating days in the studio. I drove over to Brancaster Staithe and met with my hardy fellow painters who hail from Lincolnshire, Rutland and East Anglia. We have formed a group and try to meet to paint here once a month, and there can be anything up to about 20 artists present which is not bad considering it's been all the 'worst' months so far throughout winter. If you are in this area and are thinking you would like to come along just drop me a line. You can either reply to this email (if you receive my blog posts by email) or head to my website and contact me from there www.haideejo.com

Anyway, as I was saying I was starting to go a bit crazy after two days working in the studio on my own and things not going that well... you know?! 

So getting outside to paint in the bracing fresh air and then enjoying a rollicking good lunch at the Jolly Sailors with my jolly painter friends was just the tonic! (and would you believe it today the studio work went well - yay!)

Near the start of painting

So it was a mostly overcast day with occasional sunshine and high tide when we arrived. I love the mud and rivulets of water there when it's low tide, such as in this painting which was sold in my exhibition last month -

Wet mud and reflections at Brancaster Staithe
SOLD

But yesterday was high tide and the water surface was rippling due to the wind so although I love the boats I didn't find the reflections particularly inspiring. I love the view I did find of the sheds, as there was great structure and shape and colour and the subject wasn't overly reliant on the light.

I was very grateful to the fisherman for letting me stand outside his shed. He was telling me how flooded they were in the storms in December, and about all the debris washed up outside including a caravan!

Mind you, I think he was getting fed up of me in the end when he started to hose his car down right behind me and I had to pack away in the middle of the swirling water!

I've STILL got my exhibition online on my website with prices, but only for a couple more days so if you haven't had a chance to look yet please go there now before it's too late! www.haideejo.com

Smooth, creamy and delicious

The Artist March 2014

Smooth, creamy and delicious but not chocolate, whatever could it be? Oh yes, it's my thoughts on painting with gouache paints, gathered together in this month's The Artist magazine which is available to buy in shops in the UK now. Apparently you can also find it in the USA in Barnes book stores, that's groovy!

There are so many reasons to love gouache and here's a few -

No using solvents or mediums, just good old water.

You can re-use dried up paint on the palette, by wetting it again.

You can add highlights later, no need to plan ahead in the same way you have to with watercolours.

You can easily combine with other media, for example watercolours and drawing media.

They dry with that soft matt finish.

They make ideal, forgiving, paints for beginners.

You don't need much in the way of equipment.

They don't kill your brushes.*

Here's another gouache painting exploiting the gouache at a fluid creamy consistency and laying down adjacent areas of flat colour. This one sold at my exhibition last month. It was one of only two glazed (framed under glass) pieces in the whole exhibition!

Crab hut at Brancaster Staithe
SOLD

* Never killed any of mine with gouache anyway, you may know different!