Holiday drawings

My Dad now has a halo...

I always find the Christmas holidays such a great time to sketch... so many models around and so little need to do anything else... other than eat and drink... lovely :-)

Drinking red wine on the sofa

'Listening to football on the radio'

Mary in the school nativity play

Yes that is a dog/neck warmer

The three graces?

And a reindeer

Talking to his grandchildren

Carousel

Carousel
Oils 8" x 10"

Another in my Christmas market series. I'm really happy with the feel of light and movement, that time of day when the electric lights start to take over from the sun. I will probably seek out a fairground for further studies this year. And some of these will undoubtedly be a starting off point for larger studio paintings.

Magic and bubbles

Bubble stall, Christmas market no 6

Back to the Christmas market theme, which I can't get enough of at the moment, my favourite part was the bubble stall.  I will definitely be painting a studio version of this subject because it was a 'coup de coeur' moment, I knew it instantly. The red and white of the awnings against the dark stonework and dusking sky, the life and movement provided by the figures and the fun - oh the FUN - given by the vapour and bubbles moving upwards and out towards the sky!

So what I'm really enjoying at the moment is working these small (around 10" x 12") studies on Arches 'huile' paper. It's like a very lovely watercolour paper but it's oil primed and I love using it. The paintings can still be framed without glass, you just attach the paper to a board and varnish as usual.

Anyway, I will perhaps work on half a dozen small studies of this very subject, while exploring ideas about colour and composition for the larger painting. I find it very freeing, this way of working. The big challenge will be retaining the freshness on a larger scale. We'll worry about that later though :-)

My annual review 2014 - October to December

City fish

Finally here I am with part four of my annual review so you might want to make yourself a cup of tea before you settle down to read it, it's a long one. Pleased to say I'm feeling well again, hurrah!

After 'A brush with the broads' I was quite soon back down to Norfolk to take part in Paint Out Norwich, a selected plein air event involving around 30 artists chosen from an open entry. Again this was another brand new UK plein air event so I was very excited to be taking part. I also had a role to play helping my injured artist friend Mo Teeuw to get around as she was unable to drive at the time and painting from a wheelchair! Luckily the event organisers were fantastic - helpful, enthusiastic and fun. 

I hadn't been to Norwich since I was a child and I didn't remember anything, so I was happy to go to any spot allocated to me. We had four three hour painting sessions in different parts of Norwich over two intensive days. In between times we framed the wet paintings and grabbed a bite to eat, and enjoyed jolly get-togethers in the evening.

Pulls ferry, Norwich

The painting 'City fish' was painted in Norwich market on a very cold morning, and I had lots of interest and chat with passers-by. As soon as I saw the old man with the flat cap I had to draw him in quickly (with the brush). I think he makes the painting really!

Pulls ferry is a much painted local landmark and when I was on my way there somebody told me 'there's a choice of only two views (to paint) there'. Really? There are millions of views everywhere in my opinion, so I set off determined to choose a personal viewpoint for the painting. In the end I settled on this reflection, as I loved the glowing brightness of the distant trees through the archway, and all the leaves littered all over the water and pathway like confetti.

Work to be done,  Elm Hill
First prize winner, Paint Out Norwich
Private collection

Another picturesque corner of Norwich is Elm Hill. I had seen a photo beforehand and was really looking forward to painting there. When I arrived I was surprised and initially disappointed to see the scaffolding covering the left hand side building and crossing the narrow street in front of me. At times the sun broke through the clouds and the plane tree cast wonderful shadows on the yellow building, which I liked very much. Then I decided to paint the scene scaffolding and all, as I do enjoy a chance to show the signs of modern life and plus, can't resist the red (road signs).

The lady in the cafe opposite loved it. She said she'd seen many pretty paintings of it, but that mine captured Elm Hill as it really is - her everyday view. So that was encouraging!

Apparently the judges (the artists Trevor Chamberlain ROI RSMA and Colin Self, and curator Amanda Geitner) loved it too, as my painting of Elm Hill won the £1000 first prize in the first ever Paint Out Norwich!

No I really couldn't believe I was winning another prize - absolutely amazing. 

And I was so happy for my friend Roy Connelly too - see picture below!

With prizewinners Roy Connelly and Chris Daynes ROI
Paint Out Norwich

I drove home in the middle of the night on a complete high and in a bit of a daze! I got home and crawled into bed at 3am. When I got up that morning I had to empty the car and unpack, and then pack for France and reload the car, as we were leaving for a week in France just a few hours later. There are sometimes drawbacks to fitting it all in the way I do!

Another fantastic trip was my time in Venice with artist friends Penny German, Felicity House and Wyllis Heaton. We also met with Ann Justin, Kelly Medford and Louisa Calder. So much fun to have company to paint with and spend the evening with. The extra good news is I don't have to wait too long for my next Venice trip, as I've decided to go again this year. 

The weather was absolutely ideal for painting, no fog or cold for me this time! We did have one day of rain, but there are plenty of places to shelter and continue painting in Venice.

Shadows in Campo S Giovanni e Paolo

The artist Felicity House

I love this one of Felicity working on the steps to a bridge. You can feel the heat in the sunshine, just look at that clear blue sky! People were most amused to see that I was painting the artist painting. I love the wonky shopping trolley too. This could translate well into a studio painting couldn't it?

Painting in Venice

Rising shadows at the Ospedale
Private collection

Some of my paintings from Venice are available to buy direct from my studio. If you'd like to take a look you can find them here.

Washing day, Venice

In usual style I arrived home from Venice in the early hours of the morning for a few hours of sleep before attending my own exhibition preview!
While I'd been away the brilliant folk at Patchings Art Centre had hung the exhibition and it all looked beautiful. I liked to see the title of my exhibition here at the bottom of the stairs, doesn't that look nice?

Opening day of my exhibition

A breath of fresh air exhibition
Patchings art centre

During the exhibition I went in to the gallery for some painting days, a couple of which were portraits from life. Here I am painting my mum for one of the demos. She has her feet raised on a box because she's only little, like me!

Painting my mum in the middle of my exhibition at Patchings

Portrait of my mum

In December I had several trips to London to see the Royal Institute of Oil painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. I was exhibiting this painting there, which was painted en plein air in August on the island of Bréhat. 

Evening at the beach, Bréhat
Private collection

Another event in December was the ROI painting event evening at the gallery. My friend the artist Adebanji Alade was one of the sitters. I had a couple of hours on this and am very pleased with it. It was a really fun evening too.

Portrait of the artist
Adebanji Alade

Lastly in December I got really excited about a local subject, the Christmas market in Lincoln. I painted only one piece while there, but I've been working on a series of paintings in the studio. I'm really enjoying making painterly marks and as always, striving to say more with less.

Mulled wine, hot chocolate

Christmas market, mulled wine stall
Private collection

Christmas market at dusk

Christmas market, snow

I hope you've enjoyed the recap of my year. And now it's almost February, amazing! I have got an absolutely packed year happening, and so much to tell you about! Did you have any new year's resolutions? And how's that going? Mine was to draw every day and so far so good! I've kept that up for the whole of January and am feeling very good about it. I can already see how that regular sketch work is impacting on my painting and providing painting inspiration. I'm focussing on figure and portrait drawing because I want to include more people in my paintings, and possibly also because it's a challenge and a good practice, and endlessly fascinating. I will show you some more on the blog soon, but if you're on Twitter or Instagram check out my account as you can see nearly all the January sketches there. All the best ones anyway, there are a few I won't be sharing! ;-)

Christmas market at dusk

Christmas market series no 3 - market at dusk

I love this one, it's got such mood and expression and again that economy of strokes which is what I'm always striving for - how to say more with less.

This is such a good time of year to reflect on where your work has been and where it might be heading in the year ahead. I'll certainly be giving some thought in the next few days to personal objectives and projects in the year ahead.

My biggest project in 2015, which I'm very excited to tell you about, is that I'm going to be writing a book about oil painting and I'm going to be starting on that very soon. I'm so excited! I'd love your help with that, if there is anything you struggle with or think should be included in the book then now is a great time to let me know as I'm only just beginning with ideas of topics to cover. Although the book will be written specifically about oil painting I want it to be full of painting advice that you can take to any subject and other mediums also. 

And very soon on my blog I'll be doing my annual review, as I find it really helpful to look back over the year past before making plans for the new year ahead. So in the meantime I can only say that I wish you a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2015 :-)

Mulled wine and hot chocolate

Mulled wine - hot chocolate
Christmas market no 2
24 x 30 cms

Continuing on with the Christmas market theme, this one concentrates on the action within the mulled wine stall. I particularly was after the warmth, the bright lights and the distorting effects of the steam. Again I tried very much to stick to big shapes apart from the odd bits of interest. I loved it in it's fairly abstract stages, shown below. I was very tempted to leave it at stage two but I do like people to be able to recognise the figurative subject matter and so I felt it didn't say enough about it yet. I don't know, maybe there's an abstract artist within me trying to burst through!

The mostly warm colour palette offset by those lavender/grey blues, and small touches of hot red, pleased me no end. I think when a painting speaks to you in this way, you just know that something about it will affect something you work on in the future at some point, like having a new arrow in your quiver. You don't need to be conscious about it, or try too hard, it will just infuse and develop within your repertoire. 

Stage 1 - darks

Stage 2 - large shapes - could have stopped here

Lovely blog readers, I need to ask your help with something. I've decided to rename this blog in the new year. At the moment it's called 'ma vie en couleurs' which seemed appropriate when I started as I was living in France at the time. Well I've been back in England three years and I need a new title. Don't worry, everything else about the blog stays the same.

But here's where I need you... can you think of a couple of words or a short phrase that describes me and my work and my usual blog content? Please drop me a line or even better leave a comment on this blog post so that others can see your ideas too. If you are reading this in your email inbox, you can redirect to my blog here. Thanks so much for taking the time :-)

Christmas market

Christmas market no 1 - mulled wine stall
10" x 12"

I loved the lights, colour and busyness of the Lincoln Christmas market that I visited a couple of weeks ago. I did find a place to set up and paint but it was away from where I wanted to be and I got very cold! After a couple of hours of painting followed by a warm up in a cafe I decided to walk around taking photos on my phone if anything caught my eye. It was very busy by then and day was turning into dusk which was the very best time for me.  I find it magical when the artificial lights start to take over from the light from the sky.

Since that day I've been developing the theme in the studio, and trying some new approaches. In many ways this is easier to do in the studio than en plein air, when it's best to get the job done as quickly as you can (especially in this weather!).

With this one I really wanted to keep the drawing quite fluid, so I started with painting large shapes and masses rather than a linear or drawn approach. If you imagine screwing your eyes up so that you can only see a blurred vision of the subject, that's how I began. 

I carried on with large shapes and then assessed which places needed more definition and which didn't.

I wanted to describe a little more the two central figures and the lights and decoration of the stall, but to leave the background group of figures as loose marks and large shapes. I think it's best this way as the figures look as though they are moving and populate the scene without dominating it.

You can probably tell I really enjoyed the whole process, I think it shows in the juicy paintwork!

Detail

Detail showing broad treatment of figures

Christmas cards

Chicken huts in the snow
SOLD

I have been so busy with Christmas things as I like to really leave it until December to get started. Hence a few weeks of present buying, house decorating, food ordering, socialising... I haven't started to write any Christmas cards yet. And as for wrapping, well... 

I've also been working on my website developing the store items so that books and greetings cards can now be purchased easily online direct from my studio, including this new winter card 'Chicken huts in the snow'. I've added about a dozen paintings to the site also, it's worth checking back from time to time to see new ones which become available. My calendars have been so popular that I only have two left as well as one for me out of the 100 I had printed. Be quick if you want one!

I've also been out painting and taking photos at the Christmas market in Lincoln so I hope to show you a few of those paintings very soon! 

Tomorrow I'm off to London for the Royal Institute of Oil painters exhibition, so it will be great to catch up with many friends there, and that will be my first visit of three to the exhibition which ends on Sunday 21st December at 1pm. You can see many of the paintings in the exhibition online if you can't make it to the Mall Galleries. Click here to see the works.

Winter collection of ten cards, two designs

Collectors pack, assorted designs

A peek inside Volume 2 Paintings of light and colour

Take a look at my cards and calendars here :-)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you are having a wonderful time whether busy and chaotic or peaceful and calm! Our day has been action packed so far but just now every adult in the house except me is sleeping, which leaves me free to send some seasons greetings to you. I must have been on Santa's 'nice' list and as you can see I just can't wait to use this swish New Wave palette and extra long brushes from Rosemary & Co.

Have a very very happy day my friends xx

Your turn to win!!

Festive prize draw!!

I have just put your names in the hat for the big festive giveaway and pulled out five winners!
I really wanted a way of thanking you for all your support throughout the year. It's a shame I can't give prizes to all of you, but it's all of you that I thank. It means so much to me that you follow my painting adventures through my blog/diary. It's so nice having you there to tell about everything and to show you everything that I'm working on.
It's so super to hear your kind comments, read your supportive messages, meet you in person and make new friends in you all over the world.
I hope I can offer you plenty more paintings and fun and inspiration in 2013!

And now without further ado, the winners are....

'Sheep in melting snow' goes to.... Julie Mackinder!!! Well done Julie!

'King of Christmas' goes to..... Valerie Rath!!! Congratulations Valerie!

Third prize of my new book 'Paintings of light and colour' goes to... Pipa Hall!! 

And the final two prizes, of a small bundle of greetings cards, go to....

Sarah Knott and Barbara Limb!!

Well done everybody!

I shall be popping them all in the post very soon! :-)

BIG Festive giveaway!

King of Christmas
Oils on canvas panel 30 x 24 cms

Sheep in melting snow
Oils on canvas panel 18 x 24 cms

I don't know about you but I am starting to feel a bit festive (I think it's all the birthday excitement yesterday to be honest with you!), and I am thinking it would be nice to share some joy with my very special blog subscribers.
Therefore, this year's December festive giveaway is going to be bigger and better than last year's!

There will be not one but five prizes! (gasp!)

Two winners will receive an original painting - the paintings up for grabs are shown here. There's 'King of Christmas', a festive still life, and 'Sheep in melting snow' which was painted plein air at Belmont tower near Grantham.

There will be a third prize of my new little book full of 2012 paintings and inspirational quotes.

Then, there will be two runners up prizes. Each of those will win a small bundle of greetings cards.

The grand draw will take place on the 19th December, and entering the draw is so easy to do!

First, you must be an email subscriber to my blog. If you receive my blog updates via email, you already are. *

Second, you must send me an email saying something along the lines of 'hello. My name is.... and I would like to win the festive giveaway! My favourite painting of the two is.... '

And that's it! It's so easy to put yourself in the draw!

You can email me directly when you receive this blog post just by clicking 'reply'. Or, send an email to thedrawingroomgallery@gmail.com

GOOD LUCK!!

* If you are not yet a subscriber the process is simple.
 Go to www.haideejo.blogspot.com on your computer.
Type your email address into the box which says 'Enter your email address here for my paintings in your inbox'. 
A pop up will appear with strange looking letters, you need to type those into the little box given to prove that you're not a robot but an intelligent human being.
You will almost immediately receive an email so check your inbox.
To confirm your subscription you must click on the link in that email, and then you're all set!
(If you don't receive an email, have a look in your spam or trash folder because sometime it mistakenly finds itself in there!)

Christmas cards and great news!

Sunset over snowy paddock

I'm just having some Christmas cards printed with this one on, blank inside for your own message, it's a bit last minute really! If you'd like any just let me know and I can post some out to you :-)

I had some fantastic news yesterday, I've had a painting accepted into the Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition! I'm so extra happy about it as it's the first time I've had a painting accepted there since I was a young artist (under the age of 35!). The exhibition runs from the 12th December to the 23rd December at the Mall galleries, London.

It was my painting 'Incoming tide, Hook head' that I painted in July in Ireland, that was accepted. I can't wait for the Private view :-)

Incoming tide, Hook Head
Oils on canvas 12" x 16"

Do you remember I told you recently that I'd designed a little book of my 2012 paintings? It's only small, 7" x 7", but it is rather sweet. I've matched up my paintings with my favourite inspirational quotes. 

Click here if you'd like to see a preview of the book :-)