Koi painting in oil.

I finally completed one koi painting in oil.

Although I'm happy that I stuck to it and completed at least one painting of the koi, I definitely plan to go to the koi farm in summer, where I can seat myself for a day and really get to work on some series. Studying the koi here in January/February, felt a bit like eating strawberries in the midst of winter.

..koi, oil on linen, 61x37cm

In step 1, using terpentine, I put down thin washes of burnt sienna for the fish shapes and a thin wash of paynes gray and french ultramarine for the background/water.

....step 1...

In step 2 I added some colour to the fish, cadmium red and yellow to the fish in the foreground and prussian blue to the back fish, to form the shadows. I started using liquin as a medium to have the oi dry quicker, but still have an oil shine.

...step 2...

In step 3 I darkened the water with a mixture of paynes gray and french ultramarine and softened the shadow marks I made on the yellow fish. this was my first mistake, because I made mud. I left it to dry completely, so I could rework it...the oil was still thin enough to redo without removing the paint.

...step 3...

the last stages was all about adding colour and depth to the fish bodies and depth to the water , while using the same colours I've used in the previous steps, with the addition of ochre, raw umber and white.

...koi completed...

When doing the studies for this koi project, I worked mostly from photographs, using about 20 different photos, building my own scenes. I really found it difficult to render the koi in an interesting way. I feel I can do better, which is why I will patiently wait for the koi season to open and I can go and study them in real life.

I also felt that they ask for something a little more abstract or expressive than mere realistic rendering. In the following studies I tried to present them on the page in a little more interesting way. I found it quite exciting and I think I can even push the envelope even further in the expressive domain, which makes me more excited about the series of koi than I was when I started out.

In the meantime, I have a lobster and crab and mussels and oysters and several other shellfish in my freezer, waiting to be sketched and painted and studied. Maybe a new series of sea creatures? So hang around if you're interested in seeing what will surface - it will be a surprise for me too.

...koi study in charcoal on paper, 22x15cm...

...koi study in graphite on paper, 22x15cm...

...koi study in oil pastel on paper, 22x15cm...

..à bientôt...

Ronelle

Africantapestry

La Loire in January

...fresh snow in Touraine...

Of the whole wonderful year we are affered year after year, January and February are the most difficult months for me...like for many others in the northern hemisphere. I am actually of opinion that the human was also meant to hybernate for the months of January and February, it will be an easy act for me! I have come to accept it now by, after fighting it for many years, and I know when March hits, it all changes; I wake up from my sleep, stretch out and move into the light. So you'll say I'm wasting two months? Probably. But then I do make up with gusto, the whole rest of the year!
In the meantime, life is still good, Beautiful. Especially the Loire.
This season we had exceptional snow and the Loire was spectacular, welcoming the opportunity to show off with swaggering flair.

...melting snow on a sunny day...

...footsteps...

...gentle winter flow...

...reflect...

...blanket of snow on ice...

Watermarks around Mont-Saint-Michel

Last week I had two posts about Mont-Saint-Michel which can be found just off the coast of Normandy:

• Le Mont St Michel
• From sketchbook to studio

Sketch and drawing studies of Mont-Saint-Michel
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Plus I've posted my photos of the coastline around Mont-Saint-Michel on Flickr (see a slideshow).

I know I preferred Mont-Saint-Michel at a distance but I'm also in love with the watermarks in the estuary which could be seen from the place itself - as you'll be able to tell from the slideshow on Flickr.

photos of Normandy coastline around Mont-Saint-Michel
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However I haven't yet worked out how to have a go at them - all suggestions are most welcome.

You can also expect to see my interpretations of them popping up on "Watermarks" at some point in the future.

Sketching and drawing the water garden at Giverny

I've finally got to Giverny in terms of blogging my trip round France

This is the sketch I did while sat on the seat at the end of the pool in the water garden. I never know what to call the water in the water garden. It's too small to be a lake, too big to be a pond (and besides it's artificially created!). I've decided I'm calling it 'a pool' but there must be a French word which says it better!

I'm also more and more convinced that the vegetation around still water is really important to capturing 'the essence' of the place.

The Water Garden, Giverny
11.5" x 17", coloured pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The sketch was done using coloured pencils across a double page spread of my Daler Rowney sketchbook - while hordes of chattering tourists led by tour guides making inane comments came past about six inches in front of me! It's not conducive to good sketching. I think I've got to investigate the arrangements for visiting the garden when it's not open to the public.

Back home, armed with my photos and video, I know that the colours should be deeper than the sketch and not as deep as in the photos!

This is the drawing I'm working on at the moment. The left hand side is more finished than the right.

(Work in Progress) The Water Garden at Giverny
9" x 12", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

You can read my blog posts here:

• Making A Mark - The garden behind the paintings - Giverny
• Travels with a Sketchbook - The Water Garden at Giverny

See my photos of the water garden here - Monet's water garden, Giverny

Plus this site provides information about visiting Giverny - Giverny - a great garden

....and one day soon You Tube might allow me to upload my 3 seconds short of 10 minute video of a complete circuit of the pool - with an emphasis on the reflections in the water!

[UPDATE: ....and here it is A walk around Giverny - #1 The Water Garden]

Brittany sketches

I spent more than three glorious weeks in Brittany and became completely enamored of its tranquil beauty and its intimate scale. It is less dramatic than I'd imagined, less rugged than coastal Scotland and Ireland, less vertiginous than some of the places in Cornwall I remember, more temperate (there are palm trees and camellias and fig trees in the Golfe du Morbihan!), more feminine somehow, more French than I'd expected. May I please have another lifetime? I'd live in Quimper or on the Morbihan coast, I'd rear my children, I'd dine on the freshest oysters imaginable, and I'd paint every spare moment I could steal or borrow.
I'd originally planned to take acrylic paints and gessoboards to make rock and water studies on location. Due to my mother's precarious health, I had to travel as lightly as possible, knowing I might have to return home at any moment. Thus, these sketches, from which later paintings will ensue:
I have more of these sketches and will post them here soon. I am in the process of sharing all my sketches from Brittany on my blog Laurelines, so please drop by and have a look!

Water in Le Pescher

We are having a lovely spring and summer at Coin perdu in Correze. I have been back home in Montlouis for a week or two, just to do washing and check on the garden. The restoration on the house is very demanding and leaves little time for painting. And with us not having internet, I feel cut off from the brush and pen! I do steal some time to do some photography in the early mornings which I enjoy as much! Good news is that we have received our high speed internet and can you believe the excitement in our barn about a thing like intenet connection! We coeed over it like like over a baby in a cradle! So I am back in the land of the living and now I have to get back in the habit of doing some art too.

I have some photos I took in "LE Pescher", a tiny village close to us, where we buy our baguette and cheese from the mobile stall at noon. The people are as spontaneous as country folk can be and assisted me with my tripods, showed me secret corners in the village with more water and even further on hikes in the hills. We were a carnival of people strolling through the village, me with my camera and tripod and all the rest, each one indicating with flying arms where and how. At some stage the spotlight on me dimmed as their chatter started turning towards town stuff. And then they remembered they were actually on their way somewhere, leaving me with my camera and all the water. I chuckled. I loved it.

So maybe the water scenes here aren't so spectacular, but it reminds me of a community in love with their little town and surroundings, where the mobile cheese and meat caravan is the chance to catch up on the latest news and where a stranger who wants to take a pretty picture is warmly welcomed with flying gestures.

...the beginning of the canal in Le Pescher...

...the water canal...

...the same spot as above, just from the top with a slow shutter...

...the canal passing under the road going through Le Pescher...

...moving to la place in the centre of the village ...

...and finally continuing its course as a ruisseau through nature...

...and lastly....yet more water in a petit chemin...

Expressionism versus impressionism

I'm always fascinated by these two terms and the use of it and it seems I always get it wrong even though I can give their definitions.

I have done a few paintings on which many people give many different opinions and the scale weighs in equally at expressionism andt impressionism. I think there is a grey area today, boundaries overlap with marriages between all the different styles of painting. Is it a good thing or a bad thing, or nothing at all? Does it perhaps make it bad art? Or doesn't bad art exist? Is all art good? Is good painting all about a solid knowledge of technique, or can a strong ambiance and emotion save a poorly executed painting?

...la Loire scintillante...
oil on canvas, 22x33cm

For quick explanation I used wikipedia to define:

Expressionism "...It sought to express the meaning of "being alive"^[2] and emotional experience rather than physical reality.^[2][3] It is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form.......generally the term refers to art that expresses intense emotion. It is arguable that all artists are expressive but there is a long line of art production in which heavy emphasis is placed on communication through emotion...."

Impressionism "....Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles...... Painting realistic scenes of modern life, they emphasized vivid overall effects rather than details. They used short, "broken" brush strokes of pure and unmixed colour, not smoothly blended, as was customary, in order to achieve the effect of intense colour vibration...."

Looking on different art sites, there are categories of styles: expressionism, abstract, impressionis,, contemporary, modern.... does it give more worth to a painting if it can clearly be classified as Impressionism, or Modern contemporary, or Classical... I have also been asked before..: what style of painting do you do?" to which I start blabbering, because I have no clue. I sometimes paint something SO distorted that it can be nothing else BUT maybe surrealism and other times I'm thinking Impressionism when in fact it is plain and simple realism. It sounds confusing just writing it all down here, reading it must be even worse and as all artists will know, doing it, is the challenge.

Not that it bothers me in any way not to have a particular style. I don't search for a certain style. I dont think anyone can, really. You are what you are. And your art reflects who you are. but I certainly feel flattered when a style is recognized in my work!
I recently saw paintings from someone who attended a Charles Reid workshop and his paintings speak of CR influence. This artist's paintings project his effort and hard work at trying to incorporate this free style of CR. I somewhat feel uncomfortable looking at this work. It makes me feel fatigued, as if he had worked very hard at getting this effortless look. I feel as if there is a wordless desire behind his work, asking for the real him to be released and I wish this artist would give in to that desire. I would love to see the work of the real him.

Any opinions?

Plein air

Coin Perdu
Corréze
France

Dear Watermarkers,

I am still in Corréze and wanted to say a quick hi to you all!

I miss you and think of you when I'm putting down a stroke on my canvas. The weather is beautiful and sunny, the rivers are flowing undisturbed and I am already golden skinned from all my plain air painting!

I'm sending you some images of how it looks here where I am and what I'm painting at our hide away Coin Perdu in Puy d'Arnac, Corréze. You can see some more images here.

...in search of corners to paint...

Some proof that I am indeed "working":

...by the brook...

...see, something on the canvas...

...even on a rainy day...

...even putting my life in danger...

... and attacked by Billy the kid...

...safer ground...

In two weeks I hope to show some finished plein air work, which I am thoroughly enjoying doing, even though I mess up most of the time.
Browsing through all your latest work, has me once again in admiration of your talents and stunned at what you've all done these last few weeks; needless to say the inspiration has me itching to clean up my palette immediately and get out there again.

Well, that's it for now. I wish you all well and keep the pastels and paints flying wild wherever you are!
See you in two weeks, Watermarks...!

All my best and bises!
Ronell

Shadow and light.

An oil painting of a shady corner of the Loire on a sunny day.

I love oil work, but have always found it such an effort to do plein air with; the carrying around of the oils and the wet painting afterwards, the cloths(of which I use a lot), the containers, and the cleaning stuff for the brushes, the easel...it isn't a medium I can just hop onto my bicycle with. But in the end it is actually worth it. With only one stroke you can catch the fleeting light and it stays, whereas with watercolour I'm always panicking that I don't have enough pigment to really catch the contrast in colour quick enough. And the oils give me an immense satisfaction - seeing a stroke that just works with the first lay down...or maybe I just feel more confident with oil. I'm inspired again by painters like Michel Jouenne and Stéphane Ruais (peintres officiels de la Marine en 1991)

We are going to Coin Perdu in Correze for the next three weeks. It is a sort of solitude break I'm taking. I am packing ALL my oil stuff and my goal is to do as much plein air as the days allow. There are nooks and corners and pathways by the streams, in the forest, the fields and hills. There are fountains and springs, wild flowers and animals galore, so no reason not to come back with a gallery full of paintings. I'm also going to try my hand at gouache, a medium I still feel very stupid with. Pens and inks and of course the old trusted graphite to oil the drawing skills.

If the electricity and internet are kind to us, I may be able to post some work from there, but if not: see you in three weeks with hopefully a lot to show and tell.

...ombre et lumiére...

oil on linen, 36x36cm

Water on "earth day" - a clear brook

With today being earth day, how can we not contribute a special post to water on this day, seeing that it plays such an important role in the survival of our world.

My contribution is two paintings in watercolour of the ruisseau(brook) at our mountain house, Coin Perdu, in Correze. We are restoring it as natural as possible with natural building materials using the stone, wood, mud and clay from the area, solar heating, an ecological[partly self maintaining swimming pool(much later!) and of course a self maintaining garden with its wild herbs and insects and animals along with a bio vinyeard. So I felt it fitting to show the brook that runs down at the foot of our hill.

And today I'll plant some colour in my window boxes and revel in my frog by the fountain, the swallows who are back to nest in our cave, the owl who keeps me awake at night, the pair of red Robins who bounce around on the side of the cliff and I'll take a long stroll along the river - the sun a delightful gift in the sky!

...ruisseau en printemps.. (brook in spring)

Pen and watercolour on Fabriano artistico, 30x23cm.

...ruisseau en automne... (..in autumn)

Watercolour on Fabriano artistico, 30x23cm.

**Be sure to see the Water on "earth day" - posts of the rest of the Watermarks-group today.

The Studio Boat #1 - Monet's bateau atelier

Le bateau-atelier (1874) by Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)
19-5/8 x 25-1/4 inches, oil on canvas

Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

The studio boat has an honourable history. It's been responsible for an awful lot of art which now commands very high values.

Claude Monet is renowned for painting plein air. He even took his studio outdoors and on to the water for some of his paintings. In 1873 Monet had a 'fruitful sale' which enabled him to have a studio boat built. He may well have decided to get one after an association with Daubigny (a member of the Barbizon School) who had a studio boat which he used a lot to paint along the Seine and the Oise. Monet seems to have moored his boat close to home at Argenteuil and later Vertheuil and only used it within a short radius of both homes situated on the north bank of the River Seine west of Paris.

Monet created three paintings of his studio boat and this is the first - painted in 1874.

This is the start of a series of posts about paintings of studio boats and about paintings done from studio boats - and of artists painting other artists in their studio boats.

Now - who wants a studio boat?

Swaying grass in the Loire

I'm wishing you all a wonderful Christmas with this post. As from today, I'll be spending some time with my family and I'll see you back after Christmas.
A while back I took some photo's and earlier last week I played around with it in front of the fireplace. First started off with watercolours and then an oil. It is some swaying grass in the water, in case you don't recognize it!

I painted study 1 from a few photos and wasn't happy, so I did study 2 , using only the first watercolour as reference. And then I did quite a few trying over and over to get to something that made that "click". The first two were the best efforts. I completed the oil painting using all of the first. I would love to redo this again some time.
What was I trying to achieve? I don't really know. Sometimes I start working without knowing exactly what I'm after, but I can recognize it immediately when I see it. When I saw the grass in the water, I was struck by the colours and the gentle swaying as well as the graceful up en down waving, like a dolphin. I felt like touching it.

I find I always tighten up when I use a photograph as reference. It is something I'll need to work on, especially doing waterscenes, since it isn't always possible to be out. Or maybe I shouldn't be choose the cosyness of the fireplace to do waterscenes.

I would love to know what your opinion is on doing waterscenes from photos?

...swaying grass, watercolour study 1...

...swaying grass, watercolour study 2...

...swaying grass, oil on linen, 40X40cm(15.7x15.7")...