Hunters yard

Hunters yard
14" x 18"
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One of my favourite paintings from this year, actually one of my very best yet I think! You probably know that I like to bite off a bit more than I can chew when choosing a subject, I think it's how to keep growing my painting skills. Always strive towards something that you think is a little beyond you, that's my advice.

A subject like this is fraught with difficulties. What are the focal points? How to deal with the background (exterior scene) without it coming forward? How best to describe the value relationships between the dark interior and sunlit goings on outside? How to simplify all the busy objects and shapes within the boat yard? How to capture some of the figures that pass through and even.... can I get the dog in? What about the shine on the floor? The electric strip lights? And all these decisions to make while answering questions from onlookers.

But I was truly gripped! As soon as I saw it I knew it was my subject. Wild horses wouldn't have dragged me away from Hunters yard that afternoon.

Detail from Hunters yard

Hunters boatyard demo

Hunters boatyard
9" x 12"

On a busy Saturday at the boatyard I painted a demo for a lovely group of artists in the sunshine. A very nice chap positioned this boat for me as all the others were to be taken out that day, and a lovely lady called Joan stood for a few minutes so that I could have a figure in the painting. Her jacket tied around her waist made for a lovely bright colour accent. 

The main focal point for me was the sail against the dark interior of the boatyard.

In the afternoon, I went inside the boatyard and painted from the inside looking out.

For more information on Hunters heritage fleet of beautiful wooden sailing boats see here.

Blue sail

Blue sail
8" x 10"

Here's another new and exciting small work that features in my exhibition, one of my favourites. I love the dynamic shadows and the lines of the ropes that appear and disappear, like a dance of sunlight. It's got all the ingredients that keep me on my toes with painting - shape and suggestion, lost and found edges. 

If you'd like to enquire about any of these paintings before the exhibition opens next week please get in touch and I can happily reserve them for you.

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

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.

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

Moving on

The work carried on in the studio, I would do a little bit one day and then leave it alone for a fortnight. Then go in for another attack... and so on.

Here you see me stating the majority colour in the water area quite early on. I find that it's helpful to get strong colours in early so that you can see how well they will work together. I don't just mean strong in saturation, but also strong as in they will make up a large part of the painting. The blue in the water for example, which is pretty dull in hue but covers a large area and therefore is important.

Getting the lightest values

This was an obvious next step - getting in the highlights and lightest values. I also found I needed to lighten in value the red areas. 

I used a Rembrandt cadmium red light which is a gorgeous colour.

Darkening up the background also brought that red forward, let it have it's limelight!

The figures and background all had further work, and I made those white sails really sharp and opaque.

This is the finished painting...

Heading out of harbour
16" x 20"

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 :-)

Sails up in harbour, Paimpol

Sails up in harbour, Paimpol
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Here you go, the completed painting! Hope you like it. I really do, it was so worth me being a little more patient than usual. I can't wait to give it a coat of retouching varnish because it will really bring out the deep dark colours and provide a pleasing all over sheen. Next job is the framing!

And here's a close-up...

Big red onwards and upwards

Stage 5

So as I said yesterday at the end of stage 4 I thought I wasn't far off finished, but still I continued. I next wanted to get those cream coloured sails really clean and bright in places, and for that I used a mix of naples yellow light and white. I had made those reflections of the sails (both the red and 'white') much darker too. Pow! The light was really starting to show now.

Detail at stage 5

Stage 6

I began to think about placing figures, although got off to a faltering start at first and scraped them off. At least I had a better idea of where I was going to place them then. I also defined the sky area. And I had fun putting those little Breton flags in!

Stage 7

You can see that in stage 7 it was the turn of the background buildings to get a little attention. From the general wishy-washy darkness I started to pick out structure and details. I continued with that in the Stage 8 pic shown below.

Stage 8

Detail at stage 9

Figures started to go in and by now I was really near to being happy it was finished. Hope you've enjoyed watching the build up. Next time I'll show you the completed painting!

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)

Sailing dinghy at Paimpol

Sailing dinghy at Paimpol

Another small work (oils on paper), from sketches made this summer at the harbour in Paimpol. Paimpol is the nearest town to the island of Bréhat on the mainland. It's a very pretty town with a fabulous weekly market and cafes, art galleries and the harbour. My daughter went to school here when we lived on the island in 2011, and her 'college' was a big stone building overlooking the harbour.
The white sails are the white of the paper which I've reserved as you usually would with watercolours. I've simplified the busy harbour and boats in the background to one fairly dark shape with a few coloured spots and light patches. I'm all about the simplification, you've probably noticed by now!

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 :-)