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! :-)

London painting

Apologies for blurred photography!

I had a great visit to London today! I was lucky to be able to paint with the supremely talented Adebanji Alade, and it was so much fun painting side by side and chatting! Makes a lovely change from painting alone singing along to the limited number of songs on my iPhone!

When we started the sky was clear and blue, the shadows crisp. As usual I thought I would get a few done but didn't! I worked on this little 8" x 10" for maybe three hours. Adebanji was working at the same size, but he was taking a further view than me and looking all the way up the road to Pall Mall at the top. (That was going to be my second painting!)

By the time we finished I was looking at a totally different scene! The sky was black, the front of the big building was darker than the side - you name it! All change!

Here's Adebanji hard at work with his ever-appreciative audience! 

I had my back to an enormous column so people had to be fairly cheeky to come and see mine!

I will get a better photo of my painting to show you, and I feel I'd like to do a studio piece based on it. I also have a sketch and a couple of photos to support it.

Hope you have a good weekend :-)