I’ve been thinking about painting a still life in oils for a while. I’ve only tried them in watercolour until now and I wanted to see if I could get a decent representation of the subject in this medium.

Finding a subject that is emotive and balanced is hard. I should have set up the subject myself but my photography is awful and I wanted to paint something I liked. The image keeps to a range of  warm colours, is a classic composition and is fairly straight forward to paint.

Here is the painting. My next attempt will be from a composition of my own.

Below is a painting from our recent holiday to Vietnam. I’ve included the source photo for interest. Its of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, a very vibrant and fascinating part of the city. There should be more traffic but for some reason the street cleared when I took the photo, so I’ve added a couple of bikes. One of the features of Vietnamese towns are the power cables running everywhere, so this has become a main feature of the picture.

I’m working on an entry for a local watercolour competition which requires submissions based on the Dorking Deepdene trail.  http://www.molevalley.gov.uk/deepdene/index.cfm

Mole Valley has been working hard to make this new trail a success and has organised a painting competition. I’ve walked round the trail a couple of times with Molly and taken photos of the more paintable scenes. The views are great but making suitable pictures from them has proven to be really tricky.

The inspiration behind the competition is from an artist William Bartlett who painted the estate in 1825. The views back then were more open and dramatic. The trees have grown more dense now and this restricts the views to more distant hills.

Within the grounds there are a restored grotto, a folly and a mausoleum plus the remains of a temple and other garden features but the main house was demolished 1967.

I’ve selected the ‘Embattled Tower’ as it provides an interesting subject and plays to my strengths. (Unfortunately this photo makes the the balustrade look off center but its upright on the original.)

 

Chris Forsey entertained us at the Art Club last week. He showed us how he would paint a night time scene using mixed media (acrylics, inks and oil pastels). He is very engaging and a very talented local artist, who is always looking to add extra life to his work.

This week we spent the session trying to work on a painting using his techniques. I chose a scene from our Vietnam trip, Hoi An, a very picturesque town famous for its lantern festival and tailors. I’ve not used mixed media before but the effect is very striking.

 

August has been another month of Plein Air painting, which would be good if I could produce anything on the day. I find its so hard to get all the elements together, composition, colours, tone and drawing.

I’ve been a part of three Plein air groups and its great discussing art, looking at their work and feeling a part of the local art world. I’ve used oils, watercolours and line & wash at these events, depending on the time and location.

Plein Air attempts: Box Hill (watercolour), Mickleham (oil), Headley (line & wash) and Bushy Park (line & wash)

We took Molly to see the sea on the 5th and she had a wonderful time playing in the surf and racing across the sand. We had lunch at the Bluebird Cafe, Ferring and got drenched in a storm. Here are some paintings I’ve worked up from the trip

I’m keen to add interest and a story where I can find them to my paintings. Including animals and people are great ways to add life. On a dog walking trip to Headley we found some Belted Galloways under a tree. ..

On another walk we startled a deer in Norbury park…

Finally I really liked a painting submitted in Pintar Rapido and wanted to see if I could paint something similar. Its of a cafe on Sloane Square.

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.

I started this sketch in Barcelona but was unable to finish it at the time. So I spent today applying the washes, not technically an urban sketch – but close.

On a fantastic dancing break to Barcelona I made time to sketch. I’ve not been happy with my sketches earlier this year, they were rather bland and uninspired. Also I’ve not been drawing much as most of my time is spent with the new oil paints. So I set about practicing before the trip and searching for new ideas.

I’ve discovered Ian Sidaway, a wonderful watercolour artist and urban sketcher. His work is stunning and a huge inspiration. As with a lot of talented artists he has worked in design and commercial art plus his own work for a significant period of time. So I don’t have that experience but I can look closely at his work and I’ve already made an exploratory painting from one of his pieces.

I have tried sketching in his style but almost immediately returned to my old style when in the field (street). I’m going to have to be braver in the future and be prepared to fail.

My first sketch was while waiting for the others in the group to wake up. I went out on to the balcony of the AirBnB we had rented and sketched the street scene looking down Diagonal.

Sketch from rear balcony of the apartment looking over Carrer Paris, again waiting for others to rise from their siestas.

The next day I walked to Arc Del Triumf and found a comfortable place to sit and sketch. There was a man selling hats and plenty of people around to give interest and scale.

Then I found another seat in a Parc close to the Gothic Quarter and drew this in 34 degree heat.

Finally we visited the Sagrada and I managed to get this sketched and painted  in very quick time

 

I ventured out with Molly last week to Steer’s Field, Ranmore, one of my favorite places to walk and paint. I set up and started well but soon lost my way. I was quite clear about the how to approach the sky and distance but fell away when it came to middle and near distance. The vegetation is too complicated to work out when you are tired and Molly is saying hello to every dog and their owner.

Here is the scene:

And this is my attempt Plein Air:

As you can see its not got a very good tonal range and I’m having difficulty with the trees and fields.

So I set about working on the same picture from home with the idea that I can use any techniques learnt when I go out again.

Here are three stages in the picture’s construction:

The finished picture:

My colours have a wider cold-warm range, there is more tonal contrast and I’ve included detail but without going down the ‘every leaf and grass blade route’. There are problems with the foreground trees but hey I can’t fix it all on one go…

There is a blurred feel about the painting but when seen in the ‘flesh’ then I think it works.