On board!

Well we're on board a ferry but it's not the one we booked onto, which couldn't sail due to a technical fault.
Now we'll be arriving in Caen instead of Cherbourg three hours later, which means it's extremely unlikely we'll make it to the island tonight.
It's unfortunate, but I'd rather not be on a boat with a technical fault! Hey-ho!
Here's a sketch I've just done in the bar.

Paint magazine!

May's Paint magazine

The article inside

I've received today the latest edition of the SAA's Paint magazine with my painting 'Fin du jour' on the cover, and a nice little article inside about my work!
In between phone calls and emails and social media and dog walking I did get some painting hours today but what I'm working on is so far from finished I thought I'd just show you the magazine today! I am a busy girl at the moment, my head is spinning!
I won't be able to post for a couple of days because tomorrow and Friday we'll be travelling to Bréhat for the painting holiday of the year! On Saturday we'll be buying supplies from the mainland and making sure we're ready for the lovely ladies' arrival on Sunday!
I'm sure I'll be able to keep you up to date with everything we get up to next week!
A big warm welcome to you if you are visiting my blog for the first time because of seeing the article in the magazine! Please become an email subscriber and feel free to have a good rummage through my old posts - there are nearly 160 out there, floating in cyber space! I hope you enjoy them! :-)

Artist of the year!!!!

Much giddy excitement!!

                                             

 Oh my word, I'm so excited!!!
 I don't know how to say this but I really wanted you to be the first to know.... I've only just found out myself this morning and I've been in a state of giddy excitement ever since!

 The SAA have awarded me their Artist of the Year award 2012!!!!

 I'm so so thrilled about it all!!
 The results won't actually be published for a while but I'm sure they won't mind me telling you, I really can't keep it to myself!
 Apart from the sheer thrill and honour I have also won fabulous prizes... £1000 plus £1000's worth of art materials, an engraved crystal goblet (which I will show you when I receive it!) and £500's worth of art materials to give to a school or art club of my choice, which I think I've already decided about!
 It hasn't really sunk in yet!
 Thank you so much for your ongoing support and encouragement, it means a great deal to me!

 Big smiles all round! And now I'm going out with my friends to celebrate!

Plage privée

It's not really a 'plage privée', as far as I know! I just always feel as though it is when I come here. At the top of the stone jetty is a cottage which has a garden behind and fronts onto the beach. I painted it once, see 'fisherman's cottage' on my blog on the 14th November last year if you are interested! Sunny today but still very windy! Tomorrow is our last day and I must take Maisie to the vets under the UK pet passport terms. Then on Thursday I have to drive to Le Havre (about four or so hours) to catch the ferry back to England.
Oils on linen canvas, 30 x 30cms

Poule chocolat

Oh the beautiful hen made of chocolate! I've always wanted one of these French delights at Easter time (Pâques) but never bought one. This week we had the extreme good fortune to win, not one, but two poules! I've been on an overnight trip to Antrain and Saint Malo and came back to a rainy afternoon on Brehat island. What better way to spend the time than painting this little beauty.

Oils on canvas, 20 x 20cms.

Oh, and the chocolate didn't disappoint, taste-wise, either. Miam miam!

Cupcake and roses

Cupcake and roses
Click to bid

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...

Ten min prim

Ten minute primula
Click to bid

I'm still thinking about my faster painting workshop and decided to challenge myself with a ten minute time restriction today! Simple enough subject, small board (18 x 13 cms) and paints ready to go.... it was achievable I think!
It's such a good exercise as it forces you to consider what are the most important things about the subject that you need to get down!
Here's a close up so you can see how lush and thick the paint application was...

Still euphoric over the success of yesterday's thirty minute painting I find myself asking why isn't it possible for me to do ten such paintings in a single day? It's a great theory isn't it? So why doesn't it actually WORK like that?! Answers on a postcard please...


Hmm... sounds like a challenge though...

Painting faster!

Cupcake, rose and hyacinth
Click to bid

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

Epicerie avec les agapanthes, Bréhat

Click to bid
Epicerie avec les agapanthes

I haven't been painting all weekend (apart from 20 minutes today!) but here's a plein air oil painting of the Ile de Brehat from last August. The building is the island's epicerie, at the far end of the market place behind the huge stunning bed of agapanthus flowers. I varnished this painting today, and thought you may like to see it! It measures 30 x 20 centimetres, please click the link above to see auction info.
Jo mentioned she liked to see the painting in the context of my studio in the last post, and could she see more of my house?! Well I thought you may like to see how I display the little paintings on my kitchen dresser, along with all the other clutter (!)

Perhaps I should have tidied it for you! I think the paintings look very nice on there though! ;)

Much excitement and a deadline!

I've been in rather a state of excitement and nervous tension today! I found out that this painting of Camille using her iPod touch has been accepted through to the next stage of the selection process for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition! I am so hugely excited that I may have a painting hanging in the exhibition that I haven't been able to think of anything else all day!
The only slight snag .... which I will sort out, don't worry! .... is that the painting is currently in France, so I need to go and collect it, frame it and get it down to London by the 15th March!
Now, where's my passport...