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

Oasis in Chelsea

Oasis in Chelsea
26" x 28"

This is a recent studio painting, the inspiration for which came from my visit to Chelsea in July for Pintar Rapido. This is the market place that I painted but the day before the event there were no market stalls and instead children played in these water jets. I was absolutely captivated by the subject with the bright sparkling water seen against the dark buildings in shadow. 

I really enjoyed building up glazes of colour for the darks, something that is only really possible in studio paintings with the benefit of drying time. The wet and dry, sunlit and shaded pavement area was a challenge! I tried to give the children's figures a loose treatment, to add an element of confusion, movement and splashing water.

I'm not altogether decided if it's finished, but it is hanging on my studio wall so I can glance at it occasionally and maybe I'll dip back in.

I'm taking a little holiday from Facebook so I am sorry if you are used to seeing me on there. My blog posts will still automatically update to it because frankly I can't be doing with figuring out how to stop that right now! I will be popping back on from time to time. And if you miss me you can still find me on twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Why? Well I find those easy to dip in and out of, they just don't take up my time in the same way. 

Today (Wednesday 12th November) I will be painting a portrait demo at Patchings art centre. Still a few days left if you haven't seen my big exhibition there yet - it finishes on the 23rd.

Thank you Paul for coming all the way from Canada - you should really get a prize! :-)

Fountain in the Cantina square

Fountain in the square

Just a quiet little painting this one and a memory of a really enjoyable afternoon. Believe it or not the white wall on the right really was that curved, or so it seemed to me anyway!  I could probably check that with photo reference. I really loved the simple tiled water fountain and the intrigue of the dark doorway contrasted with the brightness outside in the square. 

That blob to the left of the door is supposed to be a dog but that doesn't come across! There was also a cat or two milling around.

The moped on the right hand side was actually yellow but before I got any of the yellow bits painted it left the courtyard.

And isn't this the cutest photo? It's me and painter Mo Teeuw with a few local children who entertained us with antics while we were painting in this square! Many thanks for the great photo Eric Davis.

Me and Mo Teeuw with some of the locals