East view interior

Red sail at East view

Well of course... it's the first thing I noticed when I walked in to this beautiful fishermens cottage in Staithes... a big red sail in the window. What a beautiful cottage and a beautiful subject. I painted this in situ with my small antique pochade box but I'm keen to also paint a version in the studio at a later date. I love love love coastal cottages :-)

Drying in a sea breeze

Drying in a sea breeze
Oils 12" x 16"

Here's a lovely calm painting for you from this summer in France. It's one of the many new paintings I'm framing up this week for my new exhibition! 

There are frames all over my studio and my lovely friend Imogen has been here all day painting them for me while I try to get a few paintings finished off and signed. 

I've managed to write a newsletter at last - I discovered that it's really easy to do through my website, although it has no frills and I can't add pictures so it's not a permanent solution. It is however a terrific way to give you a brief overview each month about what I'm busy with so if you'd like to be added to the list just send me your email address and I'll pop you on.

Another new discovery is how to add a 'store item' to my website so at the moment you can buy my lovely 2015 calendar direct from there using your Paypal account or credit card and this is just the start... I will be adding some paintings and cards but not yet... large show to get ready!

Take a look at my 'store item'!

Cottage with blue shutters

Cottage with blue shutters

This house stands at a corner two or three minutes walk away from my house. I've walked past it many times and considered painting it but haven't. This year the flowers in the garden look particularly spectacular, in fact it's almost hidden by the flowers! I took Lori there and we both painted it, from different viewpoints. It's a very busy corner in summer and we attracted a lot of attention. It's also a very popular corner for people getting lost and stopping to study their maps.

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 :-)

It's complicated!

It's complicated!

I had my first full day here in Cornwall and I produced three and a half paintings in beautiful Mousehole.
This one took the longest and had the most head scratching!
There were many times in the first hour when I thought I would give up and pack it away. The excuses went like this - 'it's getting too windy now' and 'it's a complicated subject. I've got the drawing sketched in. I should come back and finish it another day'.
Then my determination set in. I turned down my internal voices, turned up my podcast (Artists helping Artists) and carried on.
Three hours after starting, I was really glad I did it. The sense of achievement is even better when you have doubts to start with, when you get over hurdles. :-)