I’ve embarked on a burst of framing activity. I’ve bought plain wood mouldings from a local framing supplier and been busy cutting, gluing and painting.

I’m preparing for the Leatherhead Club Exhibition in May and excitingly my first Surrey Artists Open Studio in June. More info and dates in future posts.

 

 

I’ve been painting outdoors with the Surrey Hills PA Group. Here are the paintings this year so far…

West End

The Lock at Ripley

Butchers Shop , Bramley

Bobble hats at Hatchlands

The Wey at Farncombe

I’m really enjoying my Friday Plein Air outings to various parts of Surrey. I’ve made a new travelling palette from a plastic document case and an old glass frame, which is working well. I try to get to the agreed spot as soon as I can in order to recce the area.

Its always interesting to see what the other artists select and see how they get on. I’ve got into a pattern for painting now and so its a matter of ensuring I keep looking at the subject and checking the painting.

Here are the previous five weeks in date order.

I went to view an artists’ show late in the summer and his work inspired me to introduce more colours into my work. With the wonderful autumn we had I’ve been inspired to really push the colours and see what happens.

The first two painting are of Yew Tree farm in the Polesden Estate. The first is a watercolour.

The second is a smaller oil painting, opening out to a wider view incorporating the trees and wall.

The third subject is of Headley Heath and the Belted Galloways grazing in rough. I used oils on watercolour paper and this produced a really nice soft edge effect. Almost like pastels.

On a walk to the Common Meadow, by the River Mole, I loved the way the water was streaming through the trees and reflecting on the water. The low sun, autumn colours and reflections all produced a magical effect. I used the palette knife to make more abstract marks and ramped up the colours.

Finally, on another walk with Molly in the Polesden Estate I took a photo of the Italianate Bridge. I’ve painted this before but in watercolour so I thought I would try the bold approach in oils.

I’ve been looking at other ways of painting  in oils and found an artist I admire, Karen Schmidt. Based in Louisiana Karen is a Fauve Impressionist, which I had to look up. She starts with a heavy base layer, which provides strong, deep colours and then defines edges by painting both positive and negative shapes. This method allows the dark values to be set very early and its then up to the artist to bring light & colour into the painting.

Fauvism seems to draw on primary and secondary colours being used in the purest forms, in blocks of solid colour and strong outlines. Complementary colours are constantly placed against each other but not mixed to produce the overall effect of another colour. Brush strokes are fierce. Matisse was a Fauvist.

I thought Molly would be a great subject to produce a painting based on this method. Karen produces wonderful Dog and Cat paintings so it was a natural subject to begin with. I’m going to continue developing this style for a while and see where it takes me.

I’ve had a pretty active summer painting outdoors and I’d like to review my paintings and remind myself of the locations and people I’ve met along the way. My last overview was in July, so this takes me up to November.

Molly on her favourite step, waiting for a game of tug with ‘Georgia’ her toy Alligator.

With the Autumn exhibition starting on Saturday I’ve put together a post on my paintings in the show. If you are interested in seeing them live then the exhibition is being held at the St Johns School Chapel, Leatherhead, Saturday to following Sunday. Plenty of free parking in the school car parks.

 

I’ve just returned from a wonderful holiday to Australia, travelling to Melbourne and Sydney. I managed to produce a few sketches as we journeyed round…

Melbourne

A fantastic city, with free travel in the CBD. We stayed in a modern flat on the 26th floor. So the view had to be sketched. Unfortunately the window frame was at eye level so there was a lot of hopping around to get the detail in.

The river flowing through the city is the Yarra. Melbourne is known for its sports and the ARF final was on when we were there, so loads of added atmosphere. Lots of building work in the city so the view had to include another skyscraper being built.

The iconic view of the city is Flinders St Station. I had 45 mins sketching the entrance from the main square – Federation Sq.

I met up with a work colleague, Brett and he took us on a tour of the South Bank and Botanic Gardens. Thanks for the tour Brett! I drew this at an Aussie restaurant called Pure South. Great burgers and views of the South Banks

Sydney

We flew to Sydney and stayed in a small house in the suburbs. Staying there gave a very different vibe to Melbourne. The iconic view of Sydney Harbour was the highlight.

We visited the maritime museum and found a replica of the Endeavour that Cook sailed on his first journey round the world. This jarred with the modern city and other boats in the museum. By this time I had a streaming cold and sat and sketched this whilst the others toured the sailing boat James Craig.

Hyde Park is right in the center of Sydney and I found a moment to sketch the Cathedral, St Mary’s , whilst the others went round the Australian Museum. It felt a little odd to see this Gothic style building in such a modern setting, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Out from the city we walked the famous coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee beaches. This was the first really sunny weekend of the spring and the beaches and coastal walk were very busy.

The next day we hired a car and drove to the Blue Mountains. There is a massive canyon with several scenic points in the center and we walked to half a dozen. There was time to sketch from Echo Point, just as the sun was setting. Really tricky to get the colours and scale but I did get the Three Sisters in the picture.

On the final day I managed to return to the Botanic Gardens and that view while the others went shopping. We had fantastic weather when we were in Australia but it did rain on the final evening and I drew this sketch under a tree as the sun was going down.

 

This is my third fountain painting, using similar techniques to the previous ones that included birds. I visited Firle Place one rainy afternoon and went round their country and horse show. We had tea in the gardens, which was very good and I saw this fountain and thought it would make a picture.