I’ve been fairly active with my art this month and though I would put together a mixed post bringing some of my work out in the open.

Its not all been plain sailing. I went to Pintar Rapido last weekend and managed to produce a really poor painting. It didn’t sell (not surprisingly) and it’s knocked me back a little in terms of my confidence. So this post helps me take a wider review of my work rather than concentrating on a failed attempt.

My paintings are now moving in three directions – oils, watercolours and line & wash sketches. This may be getting a little too much but I do like thinking about a subject and seeing which medium it’s best suited to.

I’m still looking at my Barcelona photos from last month and getting inspired from them again. Here are two pieces, I’m pleased with both and feel they will push me on to better work.

Above is a sketch of a dramatic fountain in one of the parks in Barcelona. The next painting is an oil of a tourist in Barcelona. I loved the contrast between the pink of the parasol and the solid black of the lions. I would really love to do more paintings like this.

I’ve discovered a local Plein Air group this month and painted with them for the first time last Friday. The group meets every week and last week met in a Surrey village called Great Bookham. I took my sketch book and produced this…

I’m hoping to join them again every Friday and will be moving on to watercolour or oils depending on the subject.

In the back of my mind I have been thinking about my watercolour work and am conscious that I don’t want to leave this medium cold for too long. So I’ve painted a couple of pictures of a local private school at the end of our road.

I’ve also been out with my local art club to some lovely locations close by. These are poor attempts at Plein Air but they are giving me great practice.

I went on to make a finished painting of Pyford Lock

Finally I had to paint Molly again, with her new summer hair cut

I really like the water based oil paints and started a small series of animal paintings on A4 MDF panels. I wanted the backgrounds to work as much as the subject matter but without overpowering the animals.

All these were done in the studio and therefore I was able to work in my own time and keep reviewing the work until I was happy.

The horses were taken from photos I took at my daughters riding stables.

The cows and pigs from photos taken on my walk around Norbury Park with Molly.

My next stage is to work on larger landscapes, using my photos of places close to me in the Surrey Hills.