The flowering rock

Cottage with agapanthus flowers

At around 1950 an American modernist painter called Frank Kleinholz lived on the island of Bréhat for a while with his family. A book of his sketches was published sometime afterwards called île de Bréhat - the flowering rock. The book is long since out of print but I would love to get hold of one. Maybe one of my US friends can help? I can't find it anywhere in the UK!
The flowering rock is a really great description of the island, where there is pink granite and flowers almost everywhere you look! At this time of year the agapanthus and hydrangea flowers are the most obvious, gorgeous abundant blooms of pink and lilac, plus there are roses, lavender, geraniums and marguerites.
We've had a floral kind of day, Lori and I. After a lazy morning we first painted a beautiful cottage hidden amongst it's flowers, and then we came here to île nord to paint 'les agapanthes'. I knew this would be a difficult subject with the house in shadow, looking towards the sun, but it excited me so I had to give it a go. My biggest challenge was to try and get a feeling of translucency with the light glowing through the leaves and flowers. I have to say, I'm fairly satisfied that I did achieve it!
Just so you know, the strange marks in the sky are not on the painting. They are shadows from pieces of grass as I had the board laying on the ground when I took the photograph! Sorry about that!
This oil painting measures about 10" x 12" and is available for purchase as soon as it's dry so if you are interested please message me about it and it could very soon be in your home :-)

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 :-)

August on the island

Busy beach today!

Have now settled into our house on the island and I got out to the beach yesterday for two little paintings. I knew this one would be a difficult scene to tackle but believe that you have to take these risks in order to grow.
As the tide came in the beach got smaller and smaller and so of course more crowded as all the sunbathers moved up and up! I really wanted to describe the mass of people on the beach and in the sea without attempting to paint the individual figures. For the closest people, this side of the row of rocks I have paid more attention to the shape of individuals. Those on the other side of the rocks are just dots and dabs using a few choice colours, particularly a sun bronzed skin colour as I judged that to be the majority colour!
I think that you only need to provide so much information and then if your viewer stands a few feet away from the painting their brain fills in the rest and they see not the individual paint marks but a lot of people on a beach.

Chasing Albert

Painting in situ Portscatho harbour

Another one from my Cornwall trip. This is Portscatho on the Roseland peninsular. I had to move halfway through the painting because I was roasting hot in the sun, even though it was evening and I had my umbrella set up! I kept thinking it would cool off and it didn't, so eventually I found a place in the shade lower down. Phew! It was a relief to get this spot and take my shoes off and finish the painting barefoot.
I don't have a very good photo of this one because I framed it and left it in the gallery within a few hours of painting it :-)

It's called 'Chasing Albert' because I could hear a child calling the name Albert over and over again. Eventually I discovered that Albert and his sister were swimming in the harbour, and it was little brother standing on the jetty doing all the shouting!
Albert and sister made it into the painting.

Chasing Albert

Available to buy from the Harbour Gallery :-)

Party boat!

Waiting for regatta day
Oils 10" x 12"

I forgot to show you this one also from my trip to Cornwall in July, and it's one of my favourites! You know that I have a soft spot for flags and bunting don't you? I thought this little boat looked so jaunty, showing off that colourful regalia against the dark of the harbour wall and the deep reflections in the water. I couldn't resist!
As a sort of bonus or side order, I also love the area looking out to sea in the gap between the harbour walls. There was a bit of a sparkle going on there and I spotted it!

If you would like to own this painting it is currently on show at the Scarlet hotel in Cornwall, contact Mark at the Harbour Gallery for info :-)

Sennen cove and new website

Evening light at Sennen Cove 8" x 10"
SOLD

This is another one painted on my July trip to Cornwall, and already sold at the Scarlet hotel thanks to Mark at the Harbour Gallery :-)

Sennen cove is magical in the evening light, I definitely need more visits there. It is of course a place where Ken Howard has painted a lot over the years.

I found out some great news yesterday. All six of the paintings I've entered for the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition this year have been pre-selected. This means they've passed the first round of selection and now have to make their way down to the Mall galleries in London for the final selection round. Now don't get too excited just yet, because last year I had four make it through pre-selection but none of them actually made it to the walls!
Still, I think you should celebrate all little successes and I'm glad my entry has got thus far. I shall keep you informed...

And here's something worth celebrating! I've got a new website! Ok it's not brand new but it's as good as new after having spent a great many hours giving it a revamp! There's not a page on there that has been spared the overhaul, and lots of new pages too, so please go along and have a good old rummage through :-)

www.haideejo.com

There'll be an online store to follow so I'll let you know when that all happens, and my blog has also had a freshen up so if you receive this by email you might like to go and take a look at blog base camp too, at www.haideejo.blogspot.com

After the water spout, Eastpoint

After the water spout, Eastpoint
Oils 24" x 30"

This is a recently finished studio painting, based on sketches and photos from the plein air event in Florida. The early morning light was glorious and I had just finished painting the oyster boats facing towards the sun when I turned around and saw this subject right behind me! I wasn't able to paint it at the time but I thought it would make a perfect subject for my venture into studio paintings.

I started off with thin turpsy glazes of colour. I do enjoy doing more of this thinner work in a studio painting, because you have the luxury of being able to walk away and let it dry in between layers. 

The beginnings

Soon after establishing the mid tones and darks I wanted to put the sky colour in to get a better idea of how it would all be working together. The sky had to be dark enough to eventually show off that white side of the building that was lit by the rising sun.

Moving on

Nearly there

From then on it was a case of building up the darks and the lights, until the painting said what I wanted to say. I did at the last minute decide to add a figure and a car, but tried not to make them stand out in an obvious way. If you didn't even notice them, that's great!

Detail

It was important to me not to go too far and add all kinds of extra details that I wouldn't be bothered with if I was painting the subject 'en plein air'. The sketchy treatment of this foreground feature probably sums it up.

'Say what you need to say in the painting then get out. There is no use chattering on after you have made your point'

I never remember who said that, but I always remember those words!

Still standing, just!

Business Design Centre, Islington 25th - 27th July 2013

All clean and ready at 9.15am on Thursday

Guess what my friends? I've nothing much to show you from the "it's all about art' event as these are the only two photos I had a chance to take!
I can tell you though that I had more than 300 people take my mini workshops over the course of the three days and everyone seemed to be having a great time in spite of the heat.
It was especially lovely to meet some of you there, thank you for coming to introduce yourself! If any of you have any photos of the workshop I'd really appreciate seeing them.

Now I'm back home, the weather has cooled a little and I've a list of to-do's to get through before heading to the île de Bréhat on Saturday to kick back and paint on the beach :-)

It's All About Art London 2013

I'm sending this from the train on the way to London, everything got a bit hectic in the run up to leaving home!
I'm on my way to the Business Design Centre in Islington for the SAA's 'Its all about art event'. It will be a massive affair with loads to see and do, and I'll be running seven workshops a day throughout, that's Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the brilliant Winsor & Newton Artists acrylics.
So come and see me if you can! All workshops are free to participate in, just pay £10 to enter the show and then fill your day however you wish.

http://www.saa.co.uk/info/its-all-about-art/its-all-about-art-london-2013

Summer studio

Garden studio!

 It's a big one! I've been battling on with some studio paintings recently. I'll be honest with you I feel I'm on a huge learning curve!
Here are my main aims with studio paintings -

• To paint on a much larger scale
• To carry to a further point ideas I have gathered from plein air painting sessions
• To keep the same simplicity and lively brushwork in the studio paintings that I have in my plein air work

My main difficulties with this presently are -

• First and foremost to keep the excitement and inspiration going when one step removed from the beloved subject
• Related to the above point and also due to working on a much larger scale, the awkward middle period when you really don't know if the thing is going to work or not goes on much longer and so...
• It's harder to break through the pain barrier!

We're still roasting hot here so I have to leave my studio by 11 am at the latest as it's an oven by then, and move kit and caboodle outside.
The only drawback with painting in the garden is really that I have to keep kicking the football for Maisie. And sometimes I have to sit down with an ice cream or a glass of ginger beer. Ho hum.