All the colours of white

'White' still life
Watercolours 16" x 23"

Here's a watercolour from my sketchbook last week. I was playing around in the studio with objects that were mostly white or very light colours, to take photos for a workshop exercise that I was doing. The photos looked great, and then I introduced this vintage green bottle that I have and got the watercolours out for a frolic.

Although this example here has strayed away from the principle, a still life composed of various white objects is actually a brilliant exercise for helping you to see and find subtle colour nuances, and get past the simplified notion of local colours.

Detail

It started like this

Bit further on

 A great big hello to the lovely folks at the Retford Art Society, who did all this smashing work and more on our one day workshop together last week, called 'Finding and using more colour'. We had a great day :-)

Student work

Student work

A relaxed demo and the end of a great festival!

Relaxed at my demo!
Thanks to Bob Owen for the pic!

I loved everything about Patchings festival, and had a really nice last day to end on. I thoroughly enjoyed my demo in the Festival marquee in the morning, although I would have liked another half an hour (it was only one hour). It was so nice afterwards back on my stand as I continued with the still life painting and chatted to people who'd watched the demo. I must especially say hello to the lovely group of friends from Leeds!

This is how my set up looked up on the stage. My trusty cockerel looked rather lovely with the black of the marquee behind. Funny thing is I almost didn't paint him - thanks for reminding me Clare! :-)

And here's me relaxing in the afternoon with a well deserved glass of Pimms, and with me here is the fabulously talented Michele del Campo. 

Today I've been trying to unpack from the festival and catch up with emails and give my little dog some overdue attention and walks!

Painting pilchards in Cornwall

Fairmaids of Mousehole

Weather is a bit miserable at the moment down here in the south west of Cornwall! I got a small plein air piece painted yesterday in between showers but I wasn't very pleased with it. After lunch I had a drive around hoping to find a spot out of the wind and rain, but ended up buying these pilchards and painting a still life.

Lively still life article

The January issue of The Artist magazine should be out and about in shops in the UK anytime now. In it I have this article about painting vibrant still lifes using acrylics as an underpainting and oils to finish off. Both of these paintings will be framed up for my exhibition in Nottingham in January. 

It's going to be a busy and fun week this week, I have two days in London at the Mall Galleries for the Royal Institute of Oil painters exhibition. Tuesday is the private view and on Wednesday I'm taking part in a figure painting workshop there which will be fun!

I can't wait to see my three paintings hanging, I wonder if they will be next to each other. It's especially exciting that one of them has already sold so I shall see a red dot there! I will also meet up with so many artist friends and it will be great to see everyone. I'll have a better chance to see the paintings in the exhibition when I go back again next week, because on private view day the gallery will be packed.

Peonies and hen

French coffee and roses

French coffee and roses

Just before I left France at the end of August I was working on a magazine article about painting vibrant still lifes. As the weather was so lovely I painted this in the garden, using flowers from the garden. I built up the colour in a series of glazes firstly with acrylics, and then moving on to oils for the finishing touches and more opaque areas.

The picture below shows the progression of stages - the first three are in acrylics, and then the last three I was using oils. I tried really hard to stop before I'd crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's, so that viewers of the painting will be able to put their imaginations to work a little.

Still life with peonies, a hen and a little china cup

Still life with peonies, a hen and a little china cup

After my flower painting workshop on Friday I came home with some gorgeous flowers. Although I have painted many still life demos in the last year I haven't painted a still life for my own enjoyment for a long time. I couldn't resist these big blowsy peonies though.

You know how I love to paint over an existing painting given half the chance? Well I had this canvas with half completed demo from the workshop so I turned it on it's side like this and that's where I began...

I then began work in acrylics with thin glazes of colour, at which stage it looked like this...

Quite dark at this point but very exciting with it's transparent colour and splashy washes! 

When the acrylic underpainting was completely dry I started on the oils...

Then it was just a case of building things up until I was happy, keeping the bits I liked until I was satisfied overall.

Cupcake and roses

Cupcake and roses
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Oils on stretched canvas, 10" x 12"
I wanted to work again with the same subject that I was using for the thirty minute exercise, and this time get the teacup in! It's a teacup filled with candle, it's very pretty. I also wanted to use the same colour palette and even more importantly, I wanted the same boldness about the brushstrokes. And economy! I wanted to use the minimum of brushstrokes as necessary, place a mark and leave it alone.
I didn't have a time limit this time! I think I've achieved everything I set out to do, I like it very much! Would quite happily keep it but I'll put it up for auction in case one of you wants a chance!

Here's a detail, lovely smooth lusciousness...

Yum, I could eat those colours... or I could actually go and eat the cake I suppose...

Painting faster!

Cupcake, rose and hyacinth
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I've been preparing for my next workshop which is all about painting faster! It throws up some very interesting questions about what exactly you would call fast, and what the benefits are of painting faster. What would you consider fast in the completion of a painting? For me it's anything up to an hour and a half. Back in the day, at university, we painted in full colour from the life model with only five minutes each pose. That's what I call a good education!

So today I set my timer for this painting and gave myself thirty minutes. Not a second more! I started getting anxious when I had ten minutes left mind you!
Although reluctant to stop when the timer finished I did and am actually really thrilled with it! I think I captured the essential info with an expressive, direct feeling to the marks and bold colour. If I had unlimited time I'm sure I would have lost that with 'fiddling' and 'neatening up'! Sound familiar?
I used a fairly small board (10" x 8") and fairly large brush and laid out my paint on the palette before I started the clock.
I thought you might be interested to see the objects I was working from...

There are still places available on the workshop on Monday... you know you love a challenge! Find out all about it on my website www.haideejo.com

The King of Christmas

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Our journey over to England was an eventful one. We arrived on the mainland amidst enormous waves and drove through rain, sleet and hail storms on the way to Le Havre. The ferry crossing to Portsmouth was rough - luckily I don't get sea sick although many people were suffering on the six hour journey!
Since arriving back in the UK late Friday night we have already enjoyed spending lots of time with friends, we've been to a lovely Christmas party and Fred's fabulous carol concert in his barn which is the village highlight of the year, got absolutely soaked walking Maisie in the rain AND I have made time to paint this festive still life. These are some little Christmas presents for my friends, and my rather regal lion was a fabulous find at a house clearance sale several years ago. I bought him with his unicorn companion whom I have painted many times but lion has been a little underused so far in the still life department!

Cupcake with parasol

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Cupcake with parasol

Here's a Waitrose cupcake painting with a cute paper parasol added for that real party feel! This painting is oil on linen canvas, sized 12" x 12", and at the top and bottom and in gaps you can see the natural colour of the linen left showing. I always think it's too nice to cover completely!
I started this painting with an underpainting of the major complimentary colours, for example the lemon coloured cupcake was first painted in violet and the rose coloured parasol is green underneath. You can see the colours peeking through, giving a special vibrancy.
It would make a lovely birthday gift I think!
Today I've been very busy working on printing the pages of my little journal, drawings from Brehat! Apologies if you are still waiting for one, it's all starting to come together now! ;)

Cow creamer with the last pears

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Cow creamer with the last pears

These three items I brought back with me from England last week. The pears from our garden were absolutely delicious and these are amongst the last few, a bit past their best now. The cow cream jug is adorable, I used to have it in my little cottage studio, Toad Hall, but I don't remember ever painting it before. I enjoyed spending time on this painting, putting in the details of writing and pattern. As I said yesterday, some things just won't be rushed! I think the resulting painting is quite mellow. I love the chance to include typography in a painting! Having said all that though, I would like to try another painting of the cow creamer but really simplify it this time.
This painting is oil on canvas board 18 x 24cms, and is available to buy now via online auction. To take a look at all my current auctions, click on the link above. Prices are in dollars but there is a currency converter so you can easily see the price in pounds sterling or euros, and if you purchase through paypal they will convert the price for you. This particular painting is on at $120 which is £74.84!
Here's a closer look....

Pizza slice

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Pizza slice

I had a lot of fun painting this today! I was intending to paint eggs in their cardboard tray, but when I went to the fridge to get them this bit of leftover pizza jumped out at me and said 'paint me!' - it was something like that anyway! I find that often happens, and I always choose the idea that shouts loudest! Anyway, I really enjoyed this, it's surprising how many gorgeous colours there are in a slice of pizza!
This oil painting on board is 15 x 20cms and is available to buy at auction now. The starting price of this auction is only $60 which is £38.99, an absolute snip for an everlasting slice of pizza! Click on the link above to take a further look!

Pink sparkly shoes

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Pink sparkly shoes

These are my lovely pink sequinned plimsolls! I had intended to paint outdoors today but it was strangely foggy all morning! Although it turned out to be glorious sunshine all afternoon I had already embarked on this painting after the light catching the sequins had caught my eye! There were all these beautiful pink reflections on the surface behind also. I'm really pleased with the colours and the thick squidgy creaminess of the paint! Another great one for touching... when it's dry!
I bought these shoes from a charity shop for £2 and they had never been worn, certainly not outside. I have always loved them and wearing them never fails to lift my spirits! Sadly they're deteriorating a little here and there so I don't know how much longer we'll be together, which makes me even happier that they've been portrayed on canvas today.
This painting is oils on a deep sided box canvas, 25 x 25cms and is ready to hang straight on the wall without a frame. Please click on the 'click to bid' link above to enter the online auction to win this painting. Bidding will start at $120 which is the equivalent of £76.71!