Can I remember...?

Red boots
12" x 9"

Just wondered if I can even remember how to post to my blog, it's been so long. But of course you may not be on Instagram every day like I am so... hello again!

Since I spoke to you last in November I've been elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Oil painters - that's a VERY special achievement for me, and you can read more about the Royal Institute of Oil painters here :-)

That means that over here in the UK I shall now be known as Haidee-Jo Summers ROI, proudly sporting those letters at the end of my name. Now I'll just leave you wondering why the letters for membership of the Royal Institute of Oil painters are ROI and not RIO... meanwhile I need to order some new business cards...

Redwings at Looe

Redwings at Looe
14" x 18"

One of my favourite paintings of the year so far. I feel that the vigorous sketchy nature of the brush marks reflect my excitement and passion for the subject. I lay in wait for hours for the racing to finish and the boats to come ashore and then I ran around with my camera like a woman possessed, in and out of the water. Moments like this are so special and so fleeting that I didn't think I would achieve very much if I attempted a plein air piece. Instead I decided to gather as much information with my camera as I could which I could then use for a series of studio paintings. This is the first and it all came together so easily, I was right back there on the beach with wet legs and a silly grin on my face :-)

This painting is currently on show in the Barn gallery at Patchings Art Centre. I have six paintings in a group exhibition with other artists who won the exhibition prize at The Artist magazine exhibition there last year. It's a smashing exhibition and it's on until the 22nd November so do make a trip to see it if you can. You could even make a day of it if visiting from the 13th November because my solo show 'A lighter touch' will be open in Nottingham city centre a couple of miles away.

My 2014 review April to June

Early summer at Porthcurnick beach
Oils 14" x 18" £995

Welcome to the second part of my 2014 annual review. This blog post begins with lots of colour and sunshine, and ends in a flurry of prizes and exclamation marks! I'm going to be showing you some of my favourite paintings from this second quarter of the year. Now the weather was by and large spectacular throughout this whole time.

In April it was back to Cornwall and this time the weather was like summer, so plenty of plein air painting was achieved, and galleries re-stocked! Then it was a week in France with the family for Easter, where the sun continued to shine.

Here I am painting at St Mawes - what a place and what dazzling light on the water.

Sparkling light at St Mawes
Private Collection

On the slipway, Sennen
Oils 12" x 16" £850

St Michael's Mount
Private Collection

In May I discovered the gorgeous gardens at National Trust property Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire, and fell in love with the pond there. I must get back there this year in May, and perhaps take a model or two with me. (Would a parasol or a bonnet be out of order?)

This favourite below made it to the cover of my 2014 calendar. It was a new enterprise for me and I'm very pleased that the calendars have been so popular. I had 100 printed and I've sold every one apart from the one I kept for myself! So I'll be keeping my eye open for new images for my 2016 calendar next.

Carp pond at Gunby Hall
Oils 12" x 16" £850

Reverie
Private Collection

Crabbing at Brancaster Staithe

St Clements Studio
Private Collection

In June things became even busier because June always starts with the big Patchings Festival. Including the setting up day it's a pretty tiring but busy and fun five days! It's always great to see so many friends there, from all over the country. This year as well as exhibiting in the painters marquee where I painted a portrait demo and painting plein air demos in the courtyard I also did a still life demo in the big St Cuthbert's marquee. 

I went down to London for a day to see the Society of Women Artists exhibition in June, where I had two paintings selected and exhibited.

Flaming June
Private Collection

Demo at Patchings

At the end of June it was up to North Yorkshire to teach a long weekend at the Staithes art school, staying in beautiful cottages by the sea, painting in the day and feasting in the evening with fantastic like minded company. 

By the way we're back on for next year too so if you might like to join us have a look at Staithes Art Gallery and better be quick to book as it's a very popular weekend!

View from Cowbar
Private Collection

And now for a painting you will definitely recognise if you've been following my blog for a while or read The Artist magazine...

Sails up in harbour
24" x 30"
Collection of The Artist Publishing Company

ONE painting with a generously sized red sail and a dash of magic...

FOUR prizes in a matter of days!!!!

First this painting won the Pro Arte Award at The Artist magazine's annual selected exhibition, which was a generous £250 worth of Pro Arte brushes.

Secondly it was selected for The Artist exhibition award which means I am one of ten winning artists to take part in a group exhibition at Patchings art centre in 2015.

Thirdly... drum roll... Ken Howard RA OBE selected it as his favourite piece in the whole exhibition therefore I won The Artist Purchase Prize of £1800 and my painting now goes to hang in the offices at The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines alongside previous winners of this prestigious prize.

Fourthly it then won the 'best water' category in the summer Plein Air Salon, an online painting competition run by the brilliant US Plein Air magazine. Another big surprise!

Think I need to go and lie down in a darkened room after reliving all that excitement again... be back soon with the third instalment, July to September...

Poppies everywhere!

Flaming June
8" x 16"
Buy it now

They are here for only a short while and when you come across a field of poppies in June they are so magical. This seems to be a good year for poppies in Lincolnshire, and these ones are only about a mile from where I live so I simply couldn't resist. 

This was one of those that almost painted itself, tripping off the brush so fluently, and in under an hour and a half my work here was done.

By the way the sky looks a much more subtle blue in the real painting than it looks in this version on my screen, and possibly on your screen too. Looks better in the progress shots below.

I took a couple of photos as I went along, as I know that many of you like to see the stages.

Sketched in with the brush, then placing of greens

A touch of red so I could see it in situ, then blocked the sky in 

Great studio for the morning :-)

OH MY GOODNESS

With my prize winning painting!

Everything got more and more amazing today... my red sail painting really wanted to go out with a bang!

It's now received three prizes in as many days... I know! You're thinking 'how'?! Well today Ken Howard RA came to Patchings to help choose ten exhibitors in The Artist exhibition for the 'exhibitors award' which means they will have a group exhibition at Patchings at some point next year... and I'm one of them!

Then Ken has to choose his favourite piece in the exhibition for The Artist purchase award and... yes!! Indeed I was as surprised as you are believe me! This means that The Artist magazine will purchase my painting and it will hang in their gallery with all the previous winners of this award. For ever. :-)

So yes, I have been a bit giddy and excited today!

Heading out of harbour - the start

Very beginning, a simple painted line to work out the composition

Ok, while I'm packing for Cornwall I thought I could show you this recent studio painting in stages. 

You know how much I loved that red sail don't you? I couldn't resist another go at it. I'm still not sure I'm over it!

In fact I'm seeking out sails this summer... watch this space as they say.

I began with a fine linen canvas panel which I had already tinted with a diluted umber. 

Adding diluted paint to create tonal areas

After a rough linear sketch I began working on tonal values, again with paint thinned with turps. 

Initial turpsy washes of paint drying flat

Then I couldn't wait to add a bit of red! This photo shows the painting drying flat because the washes were so runny and I wanted them to pretty much stay put! By the way, everything hadn't suddenly turned green! My camera picked it up as green at this point, must have been dazzled by the red.

Incidentally, is it just me or is it too soon to be March? Apologies to those awaiting workshop news I just haven't had the time yet. On the plus side though it's great to be so busy :-)

Big red in the studio

Stage 1

I'm hoping you're still willing to see the sailing boats in Paimpol harbour because as I said a little while ago I've been working on a large studio version. I'm happy to say it's finally finished and I've been taking photos all the way through at various stages to show you how it progressed!

So, right back to the beginning which was some weeks ago now... I started work on a large canvas panel (large compared to all my plein air paintings) sized 24" x 30" and I primed it all over with a tinted gesso mix consisting of white gesso and pale umber acrylic paint.

I then painted the large area that would become the red sail again with white gesso, because I imagined that the red of the sail would work better with a white ground showing through the red rather than the warm grey underneath.

When this was all dry I started with the oil paints. Using a turpsy mix of a greenish-brown grey I plotted in the main dark areas and this is what you can see in Stage 1 above.

Everything is full of promise and no angst at this stage!

Stage 2

While that was still wet I also added a slightly darker version of the same colour to differentiate between two tonal values in the dark area. Then when this stage was dry I used another turpsy mix, cooler in colour this time to deepen some of those darks and add further shape to the buildings behind. 

(Stage 2)

Stage 3

I took the painting along to a workshop then and stage 3 was completed as a little demo. With the tonal values in place I really needed to start thinking about colour, and in particular it was time to get cracking with that red! I also worked on the colour of the 'white' sails and their reflections, and completed the shadowy buildings on the right hand side. I wasn't particularly concerned with the accuracy of the roofline, as I knew I could confirm the drawing there when painting the sky.

The touches of blue in the sky and water and the blue banners on the quayside added a lot of liveliness.

Stage 4

On returning to the studio after it's trip out I realised that I needed much more of the sky colour reflected in the water and worked on this area with thicker paint.

To be honest I thought it was very nearly finished at this stage but apparently not!

I'll show you how things proceeded tomorrow...

Detail at stage 4

Red red sail

Red sail in Paimpol harbour

At the risk of boring you I'm sorry but I'm not done with this subject yet. This is a small oil painting on Arches huile paper distilling the subject down to it's basic elements. It's based on a sketching trip one afternoon in August to Paimpol harbour which I did tell you about at the time. I was waiting to meet my friend Lori Putnam off the train and couldn't believe my luck to see a few boats with their sails up in the harbour.

Here's my first drawing of the day, I was struggling to make sense of the lighting conditions and I think you can see my confusion in the sketch...

As I was finishing this one the red sail went up! I was SO excited, but I got to work quickly because I didn't think it would stick around....

But it was still there, and I thought I could do a better job so...

Yes! I was happy with that one. By this time the front of the buildings were in darker shadow which was making my life MUCH easier, and I veered towards green-blue in the shadow colour to help that red to sing out :-)

But as I was leaving I saw a better view, with the red sail on the right of the white sails so I had to sit right in the middle of the pavement there... it was awkward but it had to be done and the people who stepped over and around me seemed to enjoy the spectacle too...

Now please don't be getting sick of the red sail just yet because I'm working on a BIG one now in the studio, and I'm just hoping I can keep the same vitality.

I find if I'm working 'en studio air' it's best to tackle up to half a dozen at the same time and flit between them. This helps ward off the possibility of an unhealthy fixation forming with a rising pressure level, tense shoulders and a disposition towards tightening up. I also chant 'Just because it's big, doesn't mean it's got to be special...' (repeat to fade)

Sails up in harbour

Sails up in harbour

Glorious weather again today, and a day away from the oil paints. I had the luxury of three hours 'waiting time' in Paimpol which I was happy to turn into sketching time at the harbour.
This is my fourth and final drawing of the same scene, and by this one I felt I was getting somewhere!
I was elated when the red sail was raised on that boat, do you know that? Just elated!
I would have completely missed that if I hadn't been sat there sketching. Stopped and watching and waiting. Absorbing the sights and sounds. Every time you snap a quick photo of a scene and move on you miss so much.
Also it was a lesson in perseverance. I struggled throughout the series of sketches and each one got better and closer.
And I feel a studio painting coming on!

If you are on twitter, you can find me there as @HaideeJoSummers
I am posting a drawing every day in August, along with many other people who are #drawingaugust. Today I posted all four!

And after all that sketching and two boules of ice cream I picked up my good friend Lori Putnam from the train station, and I'm very excited to show her the island and be able to paint together over the coming few days :-)