Cherry blossom

Cherry blossom
8" x 12"

For me May is the finest time of the year to be outside painting in the UK, everything has burst into life and the greens are lush and fresh, there are stunning displays of blossom everywhere you look, all the trees and hedgerows are putting on their best show and when the sun is shining there is nothing more glorious.

And yet every May I seem to have a crazy busy schedule with travelling, teaching, studio painting for deadlines... you name it. I often get to the end of May and feel I've missed the best of the year and hardly managed any plein air time.

So around eight months ago I blocked out this May in my diary as far as possible as 'plein air painting' and it seems to have done the trick! Although I have had other commitments to manage I have also made sure to put everything aside when we have a beautiful day and get out somewhere with my paints.

And I didn't have to travel far for these little studies of cherry blossom, painted from my garden looking at my neighbours trees. 

With these I wasn't trying to make a composition of a usual 'finished painting' for me, I was trying really hard just to match spots of colour and value with what I was seeing. I felt that the blossom was worthy of serious attention in itself and worked really hard with the colours and values rather than 'making do'. 

And then as it turned out, they would make rather nice little paintings framed up after all!

Cherry trees
8" x 10"

Summer evening, Bréhat

Summer evening, Bréhat
8" x 12"

I am rather happy with this one, the delicate colour shifts in the sky from pink, through orange, gold, lavender and blue. The soft diaphanous rolling clouds that mark this summer evening. 

And I love, just love, that juicy green pebble shaped stroke.

  

End of day

End of day
8" x 12"

I made an attempt this week at capturing that elusive, fast changing time of day. Trying to catch those warm and cool colour shifts in the clouds. The sun going down in a final blaze of glory.

Last hour

Last hour on the beach
Oils 16" x 20" SOLD

I painted this en plein air on the French island of Bréhat this summer. It was fairly late afternoon when I got started, a very hot day, and the tide was going out. It was the usual race against the clock, and it was important to get a statement down quickly about the sea and where it reached to on the sand and pinky rocks. 

I was very grateful for the can of cold drink on my easel that Tim brought me. Some local and Parisian friends stopped to say hello. I didn't want to take my eyes from the subject!

So funny, the things you remember. Every plein air painting has a story like no other. This one takes me right back to lazy hot August days on the island.

I'm very happy to say that this painting will be exhibited in the forthcoming Royal Institute of Oil painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. The exhibition is open from the 10th to the 21st December, closing at 1pm on the final day.

Reverie

Reverie
Oils 28" x 20"
SOLD

A recently finished larger studio painting, finding inspiration in the Gunby Hall pond again. I was mesmerised by the deep dark reflection of the large tree, so I decided to call this painting 

reverie  noun  a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.

Sometimes when I worked on this one I turned it the other way round as though I was painting a landscape and sky instead of a reflection in water. I really really love painting still water and reflections, mind you it's the ever changing sea that keeps me on my toes.

 

At the start, all splish splash

A section of the work in progress,
a pleasing piece of abstract design

A sense of place

I love days when it's just me painting, whether outdoors or in my studio. However I couldn't do only that day after day after day. I find that teaching and writing about painting both give me much needed structure, the impetus of new ideas, the time to review what I'm doing and the chance to get out and see people. I like the balance and how I manage to fit it all in, although it does all take a lot of planning time which sometimes overwhelms me a little! I am protective of my painting time and very careful not to over commit on the teaching front which could be easily done. I know and expect that each workshop and demo takes an equal amount of planning and preparation time and so I make sure to space these events out in my diary with plenty of my own painting time in between. The jobs I would probably outsource if I could are my accounts, my photography and framing. Plus technical computer things that I don't understand and hurt my brain! Oh, and cleaning and... hang on, I'm getting quite carried away now.

It's great to be able to get to know a painting place by going back again and again. Here are two paintings from Sutton-on-sea in Lincolnshire which is my nearest stretch of coast, both from this year. The first one was painted on a sunny day last month, and the other on a wintry day in February. They are both the same size (10" x 20") so I think it would be lovely to frame and hang them together. 

I like to paint the sea in the context of where it fits into the landscape rather than painting just a section of the water or a slice of sea and sky which are generic and could be anywhere. To me painting seascapes is more about painting a portrait of a particular place at a particular time of day at a certain time of the year. 

Back to fish and chips!

Painting at Sutton-on-sea

Back to England and back to work, back to Sutton-on-sea and fish and chips, and back to health after a horrendous two day migraine!
So sorry for being absent from blog land, but in between travelling back from France and unpacking and being poorly what else have I been up to? Well I've had the trusty oil paints out both in a field and as you can see here on the beach. Today was a glorious day at Sutton-on-sea, weather like this in September can only be considered a gift after the wondrous long summer we've had. My goddaughter ran around in a swimsuit all day it was so warm.
I've also started a little September project because I do like a challenge don't I? My aim is to paint a watercolour portrait from life each day in September. I had to miss one day when I was really ill in bed but apart from that I'm managing to keep it up so far. It's difficult and taxing but also really fascinating to be painting in a different medium and subject, and all added to the discipline of doing it every day! I am posting each one daily on twitter so follow me there if you use twitter, I'm @HaideeJoSummers
I seem to have kicked off quite a large project with #PaintSeptember as lots and lots of fabulous people are on board showing their paintings, some daily and some whenever they get a chance. Feel free to join us!
I will get around to posting the portraits here on my blog, probably a few at a time, so don't worry you won't miss anything :-)

Whisby nature park

Had a good day today painting with some other members of Lincolnshire Artists Society at Whisby nature park. Chatting to people all day painting on the Boardwalk behind the cafe and visitor centre and I managed to get two done! This morning the one with the strange white things in the foreground (which seem to be two silver birch trees chopped in half), and then after lunch I looked down into the water more. I was very pleased with that duck! Sadly the blue shows up wrong on the photo! The blue at the bottom middle isn't how it looks on my photo - it's more of a subtle violet-blue but my phone can't pick up the violet hue at all!

Hook head, big surprise!

Hook Head, oil on canvas 12" x 16"

Incoming tide at Hook Head, oils on canvas 12" x 16"

I must admit, I had my doubts. This morning was the worst rain yet. I could hear it beating down outside as soon as I woke up, you know, the kind of rain that slaps the pavement!
We were heading out to the tip of a peninsula, to a lighthouse of all places, the most exposed painting location of the week.
We had a plan, me and Lori my new friend. Turn up, get canvasses stamped, turn heel and drive inland. Somewhere with shelter.
But what was this? As we drove towards Hook Head, spots and patches of blue started to appear in the clouds.
We arrived in glorious sunshine! We painted in sunshine all day, and it was my best painting day of the week, without doubt!
Now I'm off to the Festival BBQ! It's pouring with rain again now, but that doesn't matter at all!