Beetroot and pears

Pear blossom by the greenhouse

At last we are enjoying some gorgeous spring sunshine this week, and happily I was able to get out to my favourite local allotments. I didn't spend time looking around because this dilapidated greenhouse caught my eye immediately, and I especially liked the pear tree next to it with the sun glowing through its leaves. 

In situ, bright and breezy day

Afterwards I couldn't resist a little study of these beetroot plants nearby, with the gorgeous little glimpses of pink and red amongst the green leaves.

Beetroot going to seed

Fountain study, Seville

Fountain in Seville
Oils 8" x 10"

I've just got back from a wonderful painting trip to Seville with friends. The sunshine and laughter was such a tonic for me. I've had an email this morning from a blog subscriber who said 'Are you ok? I am missing seeing your paintings'. I had forgotten that not everybody sees my posts on Instagram (I put almost daily snaps on there) or on Facebook, which I update about once a week. So I will get to work sending you, my lovely blog subscribers, some recent images of paintings!

To start with this is a little plein air contre jour study of a beautiful fountain in Seville. There were lots of people around and I was hoping to catch a figure sitting on the wall of the fountain but I didn't get the right person in the right place. When I visit Seville again I most definitely need a model with me!

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

The flowering rock

Cottage with agapanthus flowers

At around 1950 an American modernist painter called Frank Kleinholz lived on the island of Bréhat for a while with his family. A book of his sketches was published sometime afterwards called île de Bréhat - the flowering rock. The book is long since out of print but I would love to get hold of one. Maybe one of my US friends can help? I can't find it anywhere in the UK!
The flowering rock is a really great description of the island, where there is pink granite and flowers almost everywhere you look! At this time of year the agapanthus and hydrangea flowers are the most obvious, gorgeous abundant blooms of pink and lilac, plus there are roses, lavender, geraniums and marguerites.
We've had a floral kind of day, Lori and I. After a lazy morning we first painted a beautiful cottage hidden amongst it's flowers, and then we came here to île nord to paint 'les agapanthes'. I knew this would be a difficult subject with the house in shadow, looking towards the sun, but it excited me so I had to give it a go. My biggest challenge was to try and get a feeling of translucency with the light glowing through the leaves and flowers. I have to say, I'm fairly satisfied that I did achieve it!
Just so you know, the strange marks in the sky are not on the painting. They are shadows from pieces of grass as I had the board laying on the ground when I took the photograph! Sorry about that!
This oil painting measures about 10" x 12" and is available for purchase as soon as it's dry so if you are interested please message me about it and it could very soon be in your home :-)

Oyster boats at sunrise

Oyster boats at sunrise, Eastpoint
Oils 9" x 12"

Here I am, back in the UK and unpacked. I spent a lot of today cleaning and tidying my studio and writing my new three page work 'to do' list - daunting!

When we stayed overnight in Carrabelle last week we wanted to get up very early to get to Eastpoint, and when we arrived we were greeted with this fabulous view. There was a whole line of boats with men standing, sitting and leaning on each one, talking to one another. They were obviously waiting for something but I didn't know how long they'd be there so I set up and got to work quickly.
Apart from the very real risk of the subject disappearing altogether, conditions were quite tricky as I was looking straight towards the sun and it was already hot by 8am. There was an unpleasant smell wafting over from the giant mound of oyster shells piled up behind us. I used the triple whammy of baseball cap, sunglasses and easel umbrella to enable me to see the subject without blinding myself!

As I say, I worked quickly and the boats stayed put for about half an hour before gradually leaving, one at a time. I was told the men were reseeding the oyster beds and they had to wait in line before accepting delivery of a bucket load of oyster shells from the big heap and then taking them out to sea. Sorry I can't share a more technical explanation!

The other tricky aspects to this were
a) getting the right tonal value for the water to fall into place with the silhouetted boats and show the sparkle of the sunlight
b) getting the colour right of the water, often tempting to go too blue with water, and there was obvious pinkness reflected from the sky but what I was really after was this subtle silvery grey.

That was all quite a lot to think about before breakfast but I was really pleased that I'd managed to capture an honest impression of those aspects of the scene that had excited me.

It sold almost as soon as it was on the wall in the wetroom, and it was one of those paintings that could have sold ten times over! Everybody wanted it!