Limpid progression

I've been painting this piece over on my blog for the last week or so and I'm finally calling it done.  I thought I'd show the progression shots of the painting here, as I did with my previous wave painting, Landwash.

This piece is called Limpid, the soft, gentle, clear water seemed to warrant an equally relaxed name.  The painting is oils and 12 x 24" on stretched canvas.

 

 

 

Finding the swan

Landwash

12 x 36"  acrylics

Sometimes it is difficult to move past the ugly stage of a painting.  Often it takes some time to pass before the mood and inspiration comes to help ease it along to where it should be.  Most pieces have their swan in them, it just takes a bit of coaxing sometimes to get it out into the open.

I thought I'd share the final images of a couple of pieces that I showed here in varying stages which are now complete.

The first, Landwash, is in acrylics on a 12" x 36" gallery canvas.  From the last piece I had shown here I added some glazes of colour to the sea and shore to give it interest and break up the expanse of silvery water.  The sun hitting high points of the water and glittering across the surface completed it.

Earth's Eye

6 x 12 oils

The second piece was a study of a the water surface from an image taken at Gallow's Cove Pond late last summer.  I had put down the values and hadn't done much more with it, posting it here with another reflective water surface painting.   I hauled the canvas out again and added some detail to it.  The painting was done in oils on a reclaimed canvas 6 x 12" and the surface was a little uneven, so this will likely remain a study.

54 paintings later

February 2nd  7.30am

My project carries on, dragging me with it.  I am into the third month already with 54 paintings under my belt.  I have discovered gouache, or body colour, which is a medium that I haven't used for years and one that offers many possibilities for the plein air painter. 


March 2nd.  Gouache.

I have also discovered patience, enduring day after day of grey mist and very wet Cornish drizzle, then finding out that I actually love the grey misty rain.  I am patiently waiting for the Spring and in the process, I suppose because of a heightened awareness of my environment, noticing the tiniest stirrings of fresh green shoots in the woods and fields as I walk to my vantage point.


21 February  Watercolour and Gouache.

 I am trying out different techniques, finding confidence in and a familiarity with the media that I am using that I havent felt before.  I am also becoming bolder and minding not a fig what passers by think, in other words, happily inhabiting the role of "that mad artist woman"  (painting at night often brings that remark!)



February 8th.  Starry Starry Sky.

Apart from local interest I have had some from further afield and a venue for exhibiting the finished collection.  So this project, a few short months into it, has already begun to acheive much of what I had hoped it would.  As a direct result from all this painting activity, I am holding plein air painting workshops here in Cornwall throughout the summer, my blog will have the links,  if anyone is down my way, give me a shout, we can go painting together.  I shall also be at the Bristol Affordable Art Fair in May with Beside The Wave Gallery  (I link you to their blog as I am the official blog reporter!) as their token artist, if you are in the Bristol area why not visit, seek me out, I shall be there, in my best bib and tucker with a label on me for identification purposes.  Very soon I shall be making another little film, this time of the actual painting process, on location, as I am testing QR codes for use with the gallery.  I shall post the film here and, hopefully, explain the QR code properly.
As a final note though, I must say just how afferming and valuable is the interest from other bloggers, artists and non artists.  Never underestimate the value of commenting, it helps to keep me going and I know it does for other artists too.

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

A Saturday in January

Just got in from "road testing" my new prochade box.  I did the coast path from Sennen to Mill Bay and back, about 5 miles in total with lots of painting stops to thoroughly test the kit.

This is the first sketch, it was a very cold day but absolutely beautiful, clear sky and blue sea.  The cliffs round Lands End are high and very rocky with dramatic views of the sea below.  I could spend days painting there.

The prochade box was ordered on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday and I am most impressed with it.  It looks great and holds just the right amount of kit.  I have my old rucksack with another little kit for watercolours, gloves and waterproof trousers, flask etc.  All in all a great way to spend a Saturday in January, well it beats shopping!

Whats so good about Plein Air?

Having been a devoted "painting a day" practitioner for over a year when I started blogging in 2006 and learning, through that, the benefits of regular "training" I have continued to paint on a very regular basis.  At the beginning of the year I made the decision that I wanted to shake my inner artist up a bit.
I like to keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone, for me it helps me to learn more and more about how and why I paint.  I want to be fluent and fearless, I want to improve my language of looking.  I really wanted to paint for the sake of painting.  So I settled on a challenge of painting one view as often as I could for this coming year.  I wasn't sure how much I would get out of painting the same view every day.  I wasn't sure how I felt about painting in all weathers, rain and cold included.  I wasn't even sure if I would be able to fit it into my working day.  But just over two weeks into the project I am already finding huge benefits.

This is the place that I am painting the series from.  A friend was walking and took this when she saw me working away, and this is the painting that I was doing.

I have managed to get here every day, usually on the walk with my dog, often after a long session of illustration work.  It is a glorious bit of time out, a quiet stopping off point, a little bit of stillness in the day.
I have found that even when it is pouring with rain I can paint, I put the actual painting inside my bag and make a tiny tent out of it, I get wet but the painting stays mostly dry.

This was the most rainiest one so far, you can just see the rain drops on the paint.  It is fascinating to see how much variety there is in light and weather.  It is good practice to try to distill shifting elements, to focus and work fast.  I have started looking at maps and weather forecasts, star charts and moon phases, watching how the wind plays on the water and trying, very hard, to translate that into paint.  I think I have a long way to go, I need more confidence, I need to feel happier with sunshine and blue sky ( I am not right now, more comfortable with rain and mist!) 
I have a small home made prochade box that I have used for years but am considering buying a proper wooden one. You see, it has been so good that I have fallen back in love with plein air painting, I want to do more.

I am planning a 24 hour marathon, painting the another view every two hours, I have my tent or my van and I am scouting the area for a good spot.

This is the location for the years worth of paintings.  Last night I got up at 3am, by design!  It was a full moon, the ice moon .  I wanted to try and paint the night.  It was wonderful to be out and about when no one else was.  The painting turned out well, it looks a bit dark here but in reality it is..well, a night painting!

So far there is nothing I wouldn't recommend about the practice of a small painting every day and even better one done out side, in the open air, it is proving to be a real tonic, my key to happiness!
When I have completed a month I shall post up a slide show, for now, if you are interested you can see them all on my blog. The Red Shoes

Plein air by the Loire...January

I wish you all a wonderful year with all the low points of last year turned into highlights this year!

Happy 2011

I wanted to start this new year off with a plein air painting, no matter what the weather circumstances were. And I did. I took off this morning with my painting stuff and a new pochade I haven't used before, to the Loire. The temperature read 2 degrees C. I only had running shoes to wear, because my daughter has my hiking boots in the mountains.

It was very difficult...it took me ages to set up my things, I kept on slipping in the mud, my fingers were numb before I even started painting and I struggled to open the caps and squeeze out the oils. I found the little pochade extremely uncomfortable and clumsy and missed my French easel all the time. I couldn't open the Liquin bottle and had to run back home to fetch another. I found it comlicated to paint with the muffins and the scarf was choking me and I felt thick and uncomfortable with my sleeves in the way of the paint, constantly knocking over the mediums. I chose a difficult scene and had an uncomfortable spot in the mud and slighty up a hill. My eyes and nose were constant watery from the cold and I had to fiddle with tissues all the time, resulting in me arriving home with a face looking like my painting. After 2 hours I couldn't stand on my numb feet any more and I started doing nonsense on the canvas, getting so frustrated that I slung my brush way into the distance, in the mud! And then I decided that I should pack it in.

BUT!! I completed the study. Although I don't like the painting/study, and although it was an enormous struggle, I am very satisfied that I did it. It is one of my plans for the new year - to get out and paint even if the circumstances are challenging - and I WANTED to start today, on January 1st. Now I only need to get out there often to get used to these difficult winter plein air painting. In the end it is really gratifying and I now know I can do it. I can probably save this study in my atelier if I want to but it serves no purpose. I didn't get out there today to produce a masterpiece, although I would've liked it to be a bit better than it turned out...

..winter loire corner study 1..

..oil on linen, 34x23cm..

Also posted on Africantapestry...

Until next time... paint away!

Water studies

While I have several projects on the go at once, there are several water-related ones that keep jumping into my head and insisting that I make some inroads on them.

Reflections on water is the predominant image that calls me and I've done a couple of studies in preparation of larger pieces.  I'm a firm believer in doing studies that let me work out most of my mistakes before I translate them onto a large canvas.

The first is a simple water pattern in late evening on a local pond.  Its not complete in terms of light but enough information is there to make it recognizable for what it is.  This is done on in oils on a 6 x 12 gallery canvas that I reclaimed from another start that didn't go as planned.

The second piece is strong reflections on the surface of slowly moving water. The distorted shapes create an abstract pattern and lots of negative shapes to work from.  Its a bit of a puzzle to paint but a little concentration helps as well as the small size of just 6 x 6 in acrylics.  I wanted to ensure that I would like to do this before I went larger with this one.   I drew this up on a 20 x 20 canvas and will work on it as and when I can.

Rennies Mill River

I'm still working on my little series of hidden rivers, albeit slowly and sporadically.  I have a number of rivers or perhaps better called streams and they mostly haven't got a lot of 'oomph' to them, acting more like cuts through the land than fast moving water.

I had created a rough pastel on Rennies Mill River which crosses the city and through the Waterford Valley, heading to the sea. My viewpoint here is flanked by a ball field on one side and a supermarket car park on the other.  It leads under the road and empties into Quidi Vidi Lake which is a popular spot for joggers and ducks.

When I look up this river, it transports me to another place entirely. I decided to see how the same view would translate into oil paints.  The painting at the beginning of the post is a 5 x 7 piece, started last night and completed today.

I still have quite a number of rivers to document and between fish and printing, it could take some time.  However, it will be a good project to keep me going during the winter.

Ferryland

I have a continuing interest in islands and while I don't often manage to explore them, there are enough within reasonable travel distance that I can view them when I want.

I was in Ferryland last week and wandering around the Colony of Avalon, an archaeological site there.  The colony was founded by George Calvert, later Lord Baltimore, in 1621. Most people have no idea that permanent European settlement in North America dates so far back, and that Newfoundland played such an important role. The Ferryland settlement was "forgotten", and its remains lay undisturbed for centuries.

Map of Ferryland, 1693.
From D.W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and Foreign Records, 2nd edition (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1896) 111. Caption beneath image reads, "Ferryland, showing Baltimore's House. From Fitzburgh's map, 1693." Image modified by Duleepa Wijayawardhana, 1999. 
 
I stopped to look at the islands just offshore. I don't know if these islands have names or not.  Nothing seems to be listed for them that I can find.  This map from 1693 of 'Ferreyland' indicates some of the smaller islands just offshore.

However, the weather was grey and warm and the sea and sky looked similar in value. The Atlantic ocean was so calm, such a rarity!  The islands are not large enough to sustain human or animal life aside from a few sea birds perhaps.  Some are no more than rocks above the sea line, others had a lovely green/yellow coloration from the vegetation on them.

I took some photos as rain was imminent and painted a view of the islands in oils on a 6 x 12" gallery canvas.  I quite liked these islands and hope to paint and draw more of them, hopefully on a better day weatherwise.

The Studio Boat #3 and Monet painting poplars on the Epte

The Studio Boat (1875) by Claude Monet

oil on canvas / private collection

Claude Monet made a number of paintings of his studio boat.  This is the second painting - with one more to come.  In 1875 Monet was painting on the River Seine near Argenteuil.

I used to spend ages trying to work out how Monet painted some of his paintings - until I went to see the Manet to Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery in 2007, got the audio guide and heard how his habit was to use a studio boat on the River Epte - which is how I got interested in paintings of his studio boat.  (Click the link to see the location of the River Epte near Monet's house at Giverny)

Below is a sketch I did (see Sketching at the National Gallery: "Manet to Picasso") plus an extract from what I noted at the time.

Copies of National Gallery paintings from Claud Monet's "Poplars on the Epte" series
oil on canvas
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I started with two of my favourite paintings from Monet's Poplars on the Epte series. This time I got the audio guide and learned that:

• there are 24 paintings in the series depicting the poplars at different times of the day and in different weath
• Monet painted them from a flat bottomed boat borrowed from his friend Caillebotte which had been specially adapted so that it could take canvases of different sizes. ( The painting from a boat habit reminded me of John Singer Sargent who used to sketch in Venice while sat in a gondola - I'm beginning to think about devising a boating expedition!)
• He had to buy the land that the poplars stood on to avoid them being cut down before he had completed the series!

The one on the left does not compare well to the original due to lack of the right colours in my tiny pencil case. The one on the right worked rather better - but I could have done with my big sketchbook!

Given the dates of the paintings I'm guessing Monet's habit of using a studio boat must have started much earlier when he first started living next to rivers.

For earlier posts about Monet and studio boats see:

• The Studio Boat #1 - Monet's bateau atelier
• The Studio Boat #2 - "Monet Painting on His Studio Boat" (painted by Manet)

For more about Monet see Claude Monet - Resources for Art Lovers

Painting With a Story in Mind

This is the collection of paintings that have now headed off ready for the Summer 2010 exhibition at Beside The Wave.  With this set of paintings I have tried to let them tell a story.  It is not complicated, it is the walk down to the sea.  It is a walk that I do often, through every season and every kind of weather but here it is early summer.  To me, a walk to the sea, through rich deep green lanes and paths, past billows of wild flowers and beneath towering beech trees, is an essence of Cornwall and hopefully it will say similar things to other people, wanting to buy a little bit of that to hang up at home.
Putting the collection together as I have done here is a very useful excercise.  It lets me see what my painting habits are, what colours I rely on, what strengths and weaknesses are in my painting style, where I need to concentrate more, where I need to loosen up.  It also lets me enjoy my own work, after all this might be the last time I see these paintings, I am always sad to see them go but also very happy that they have sold.  There is nothing quite like the buzz of selling your work, (someone else likes it enough to want to live with it!)  I suppose it is a bit like children, you bring them up as well as you can, hoping that they will be lovely rounded people who want to leave home and who are nice enough to find someone else to share their lives with and be happy... but you still miss them, and you miss their littleness.  So it is with a painting, that excitement when you start, the descisions that you make that make it work, that make it stand on its own as a thing, an entity, a little window into a slightly more magical world.  Gosh!  What responsibility!
Anyway, if you dont do it already, try it, put a little collection together and see what it tells you about yourself as an artist.  It is interesting!

Anatomy of Winter

Or... "Why I love winter"
It is very simple really, winter is the time to see the bones of the landscape.  Shape and form simplify, the way the hill tucks into its self, how the woods run along the ridge, blurring edges.  Sometimes the gift is even greater, the world goes black and white! (almost!)  The usual colours are leached from the landscape leaving a very limited pallet and highlighting some very unexpected splashes of colour.

I find that I go for many walks in the wind and rain, usually, the snow and ice when I am lucky.  Just recently we were blessed with snow, a rare event down in Cornwall.  So I was out armed with camera and sketchbook, little bits of watercolour paper and small gessoed cards.  I have mini versions of almost everything I might need, including a tiny flask of hot coffee.  I have a terrible old coat that smells but is made of waxed cotton and is long enough to provide instant protection from a wet bottom on most occasions.  The good dog Coco comes along as well.

One of the best features of these winter art forays is the lack of people.  Not having to explain what I am doing, or having someone looking over my sketchbook while I try to draw is bliss!

What I tend to do is scribble a lot, in different mediums.  Small watercolours to use as they are or to turn into larger ones back in the studio.  Little oils, which look like rubbish but provide essential colour refrence and are worked into later.  Here is one such oil, sitting in the studio awaiting its "makeover"!  Look at it tho, I dont think those greens in the water would be there any other way.

I often make the same walk, I like to see a place in different weathers, times of day, seasons.  To really know trees and places, like talking to your subject while making their portrait.

Watercolour sketches provide something different again, it seems to me that they are like poems where oils are like stories,the poems are smaller in length, often more consice and more about a feeling or one thought?

And then it snows again, it is irristible so out I go again and paint some more.Making the most of this stripped down landscape, trying to learn my winter anatomy.
Back at home, in the warm, long evenings, good things on TV provide yet another oppertunity...snoozing models!