I’ve continued to produce sketches from Google Street view as they provide a huge source of images, great locations, opportunities to compose from 360 degrees photos, from viewpoints a plein air artist would never be able to reach and I can do them quickly.

Virtualsketching closed its site on the 15th July but VirtualTravelSketch has replaced it with weekly destinations. I’m still painting plein air and there will be another post to cover these paintings.

Mary Beard and Prof. Green for Sky Portrait of the week challenge

Local views of summer days

A study of a tree in Norbury Park

Bartons Bookshop, Leatherhead

Norbury Park Farm

I’ve continued with the urban sketching events in June, travelling virtually to cities around the world for a community sketch.

Angkor Wat, Angers, Berlin, Maastricht, Calgary

Ronda, Budapest, Dakar, Gothenburg, Ironbridge

Malaga, Prague, Jakata

I took part in the Sky Portrait of the Week challenge. This was set up on Facebook every Sunday . I really enjoyed the weekly paint and gave me the opportunity to try painting portraits in watercolour whilst listening to an interesting conversation between artist and celebrity sitter.

 

Other work in May

I participated in a global sketch in May and June 2020 as a way of travelling the world from my studio. These are sketches produced over three weeks of Lockdown.

I’ve been using my sketchbook to continue with my free’er watercolour style. I’ve also entered a challenge with the Mall Galleries to paint from a live camera stream of Newlyn Harbour.

More detailed work from photos I’ve taken on walks with Molly and from the Mall Galleries feed.

With the lockdown in full force all my plein air work has been concentrated around the house and garden. I’ve been using a watercolour block with smooth paper and this has helped with more detailed work.

 

I’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time on my art this month. The work has been split into groups. Sketchbook work, Mornings in the Mole Valley and Spring sunshine.

Sketchbook

Mornings in the Mole Valley

Spring Sunshine

With the close down of everything this month the opportunities to paint plein air have been limited.

Winkworth Arboretum.  a beautiful day and lovely location

Leatherhead . It was so nice to be able to just walk from home, paint , have a pint and walk back.

With the weather being so wet I’ve been working at home on commissions, local scenes, catching up and trying out new techniques.

I was very chuffed to be selected by a group of friends to paint their mate’s boat. It was a challenging commission but I felt I achieved the brief, keeping the boat accurate but enhancing the backdrop.

Walking Molly everyday about Leatherhead I’ve forced myself to really look at scenes that represent the town/area. I’ve painted three local scenes.

Molly was sunning herself on my bed and I was interested in getting this image in the style of Carl Larsson but only adding colour to the core subject.

The art group hosted a talk on ancient Roman art and we all had a go at reproducing our own portrait. The main criteria for Roman art seems to be enlarged eyes, mascara, jewellery, simple hair technique and grey background