JOAN SANDFORD-COOK

THREE BUTTERFLIES in WATERCOLOUR

2012-01-22T17:26:00.002Z

I am due to become a great grandmother this week!

So with the approval of my lovely grand daughter, chose some of the butterfly motifs from her lovely cot quilt and bedding to create this trio of watercolours for her room.

Believe it or not, the frame and specially cut mount used to hold the trio I did of Gemima puddleduck, the frog on a lilypad and mice in a blue shoe, which I did for Channais twenty years ago when she was born!! I put two coast of acrylic white onto the dusky pink mount, as it clashed with the pinks of baby's bedding colours.

Trusting all goes well.

SUNFLOWER FIELDS FOR EVER

2012-01-16T16:51:00.004Z

Some years ago used to spend summer holidays in SW France and painted a field of sunflowers with the mist rolling in on an early morning. Don't know if I ever posted the original piece.... but

Decided to use the idea for a new brighter acrylic painting full of light and colour on 16" square canvas. So had fun finishing my new version today in my warm little study watching the sky turn orange and apricot as the sun went down over the trees so early this time of the year.

LITTLE CYCLAMEN FROM FRONT GARDEN

2012-01-12T18:14:00.005Z

Thursday Ladies Art group restarted today after the Christmas break. I got out my garden sketch book and sketched a double spread of some little cyclamen by bringing in the hanging basket from the front garden.

Here is the double spread in my sketchbook. Problem since I purchased my EPSON printer is that the scanner screen is not as wide as my previous HP to take both pages in full, but it gives you an idea of how it looks. Made a mistake in putting a shadow below the pot, as it was supposed to be a hanging basket although it stood on the table for the afternoon.

Good to be back to sketching and painting after what seems a long break.

CHRISTMAS GARLAND 2011

2011-12-23T14:59:00.002Z

Created this little watercolour of a garland of winter leaves and berries with some Christmas tree baubles to

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

AND HAPPY PAINTING THROUGHOUT THE NEW YEAR

and thank you for your interest and support throughout 2011

RUIN FROM COAST ROAD NORTH NORFOLK

2011-12-17T13:31:00.003Z

My monthly painting day with Sandra in her lovely studio creating a piece of work from start to finish in one day. Using photographs I had taken back in the summer on the way to Salthouse along the coast road. Using only palette knife and soft palette of acrylic paints on 20" x 16" box canvas, with just a little adjusting when I got home.

Having gone back to painting with a palette knife as I used to with my magic and secret garden series before I moved to Coltishall, I am so pleased that I propose creating a series of North Norfolk scenes in the same style for exhibiting next year. I have plenty of photo references I have taken over the past few years.

MOORED BOAT NORTH NORFOLK COAST

2011-12-13T17:46:00.003Z

This watercolour was painted a few years back and hung in my permanent show at The Rising Sun Coltishall. As you may remember, it is currently closed for refurbishment and Sally and Richard the landlords have moved on, so all my paintings came out.

Don't think I ever posted this piece on my blog. So, as I have not worked on anything new of late, thought it would be one way of getting a new post.

Off to Sandra's in the morning for our monthly all day painting session together in her lovely comfortable roomy studio. Have plans to create work from photos I took at Salthouse (North Norfolk coast) earlier in the year. Want to tackle it or them in a less literal way although using acrylic on canvas.

COLTISHALL COMMON NEW FOOTBRIDGE

2011-12-03T16:56:00.006Z

Last summer a new footbridge was built across to Coltishall Common from the parking area outside the riverside pubs. At long last I have got round to creating an acrylic only 7.5" x 9.5" to go with my earlier Coltishall snow scenes and wildlife paintings.

I don't think I ever posted the second of my winter scenes on the common last winter which replaced sales at the local riverside pub permanent exhibition - so here it is!!

So, with the remaining three from the Rising Sun Pub, which is currently closed, I now have four local scenes in this small canvas format of 7.5" x 9.5". I have a plan for them but won't disclose in case I spoil a surprise.

TWO RED ROSES

2011-11-27T12:33:00.004Z

Have not painted new work of late but did manage to finish the Trevi Fountain I posted recently.

So thought you might like to see what we did at last Thursday's ladies' art session I hold in my home weekly. Two of the ladies coincidentally brought red roses to paint, so I joined them and gave a little advice here and there. When they all left I sprayed the painting with my fine mist spray that came with my Artelier acrylic set, letting the colours run and adding some droplets of red, yellow and blue to strengthen the base, spraying and tipping the paper as I went. Resulted in a more interesting background than the plain white paper.

So thats it for now. I have some work to do for Christmas so hopefully will have a quieter couple of days to get down to it.

MORE ITALIAN ACRYLIC INK WORK

2011-11-17T10:51:00.006Z

Haven't painted much new work lately but you may remember my Italian practice work last year when Anita and I had planned to visit Italy sketching together. Had to put it off, but will make an effort to organise next year. So I thought I'd show you a couple of small pieces created from a trip to Italy a couple of years ago.

GONDOLA CORNER

This little painting is from my visit to Venice two summers ago when I went to Italy with Clive for our 50th anniversary. Its framed in my art study as a lovely reminder of a lovely time. Thought you'd like to see it. BTW, acrylic ink on Lana Vanguard support. Quite small at 8" x 5" in a 14" x 12" frame.

GRAND CANAL REFLECTIONS

Here's another little acrylic ink on Lana Vanguard done at home from photos taken during the same holiday whilst going down the Grand Canal on one of the ferries. Just 8" x 11" currently only in a two inch double mount awaiting framing.

Both going into Christmas shows at local Norfolk galleries.

PAINTING DAY AT SANDRA'S STUDIO

2011-11-09T22:31:00.004Z

I have just had a great day painting with my friend Sandra when I drove down to Norwich City to her studio about 10 miles from home. We set ourselves a challenge of creating a piece of acrylic artwork 20" x 16" in one day.

I took a sketch of the Trevi Fountain plus a photograph to work from. The sketch was the important thing as I had used washes of gouache blocks of colour and I wanted to repeat this idea. The photograph was to give me more detail where I needed it for the statues and windows.

Here I am working on the canvas. My arm had begun to ache so Sandra quickly whipped up a home made marl stick from a piece of dowling and a taped wrapped round piece of cotton to give my arm support.

Here is an image of the painting by 4.30 when I packed up to get home before the city traffic built up. We'd had breaks for tea and cake mid morning, soup and rolls and fruit for lunch and another cuppa in the afternoon when Sandra's husband Malcolm joined us. So all in all delighted how far I had got. Needless to say, lots to do to finish it off.

Here we are working in the studio together, back to back because being left handed I needed to face the other way to have my paints etc to hand!!

It was a real fun day and so good to create a full piece of work with another artist with lots of interaction and 'what do you think of this?' every so often or other such enquiries. Sandra created a wrought iron gate from her sketch book on a trickled, blended background of lovely soft aquas, lavenders and greys all over crumpled tissue to give texture. We had lots of chats, laughs and music - a fun day. Plan to make it a monthly event (except Jan and Feb when Sandra is going to New Zealand - that's right 'sketching'. !

Hope the images above enlarge with a click.

CROMER TOWN AND FISHING BOATS

2011-11-04T22:47:00.006Z

I was up in Cromer on the Norfolk north coast last week, firstly invigilating at the COAST Festival and then spending time at my friend Anne's home where I slept overnight so we could visit more of the COAST events in Sheringham the next morning, finishing with a visit to Felbrigg Hall to see the NOVA sculpture trail.

Before going on to Anne's I had a walk round Cromer in the sunshine (but very breezy) capturing lots of ideas for small works for a Christmas exhibition at The Garden House Gallery in Cromer .

Firstly, I created this pen sketch with my Mitsubishi Uni pens from 0.4 right up to a brush ............

... and from this and some photos I have now created this watercolour for the Christmas exhibition. I drew in the detail with my Lamy pen and Lexington Grey waterproof Noodlers ink so that the linework was not intrusive once I had added the colour washes with my Daniel Smith watercolours.

DAY AT THE RACES

2011-10-26T18:12:00.004+01:00

Went to Fakenham races last Friday with my art friend Sandra to not only have fun betting but to do a bit of sketching. Had a great start with a 7-1 winner in the first race! - nothing after that.

When we arrived the bookies were setting up and gave us a chance to sketch them before the crowds arrived.

It was interesting that a young lady was setting up and taking the bets during the afternoon at this first bookie stand in the long line.

After gorgeous soup chowders (Sandra had smoked haddock and I had a crab and lobster one) with chunks soft bread we spent some time near the paddock watching the horses parade and later went across the course to see a race level to the winning post from the other side. Here is Sandra sketching the back drop to a sketch she planned to do of the horses thundering past us at the end of the next race!! Braver than me! So a sketch of a sketcher sketching!!!!

A wonderful afternoon in continuous sunshine and a big thank you to Sandra for treating me into the members enclosure so we could see the races from the best (and less crowded) stand. Unfortunately we were also in line with the first fence when my second race horse fell!

WHITE ORCHID ACRYLIC DEMO

2011-10-17T14:17:00.004+01:00

Went across to the western extremity of Norfolk nearly into Cambridgeshire last week to do an acrylic demo for an art group. I took my favourite pot and white orchids, but the rest of the painting is made up including the lace cloth, window, shadows and turning the back wall into a corner to create two tones to give variety. All these things were created as I went along with no preconceived ideas.

Showed them so many different techniques, I never finished the painting completely that evening and due to insufficient drying time was unable to do the final glazes and subtle changes in tone and composition. However a quiet weekend enabled me to complete it.... oh! yes including changing the table from straight to circular, creating a corner to the room, softening the shadows ... all as follows:

Here are some close ups so you can see the different techniques I showed the art group members.

Textured pot: I created the pot shape with palette knife and modelling paste and whilst wet pressed on confetti/sequin waste strip of holes. When dry (used a hair dryer which they found quite amusing) I applied normal acrylic paints in layers of glaze thinned down with flow enhancer to ensure the pattern showed through:

I created the lace with white and Turner's yellow acrylic paint and painted darker holes in lace pattern, then added three layers of different coloured glaze to create the soft shadow.

Finally, here is a close up of one of the orchids.

Their chairlady rounded up the evening by saying it was very rare to have acrylic demonstrated in 2 hours and all they had learned would give them encouragement to tackle this medium. The buzz words to go home with were 'be more adventurous' and 'love colour - any colour not necessarily what was in front of them' .... or something like that!

SUNFLOWERS WITH SMOKEY BACKGROUND

2011-10-12T17:21:00.003+01:00

Finished this sunflower mixed media painting on Lana Vanguard support a few weeks ago and entered in local Rotary Antique Fair and Art Exhibition and pleased to say sold it together with the white gladiola painting I posted recently. Nice surprise selling a pair of floral pieces to one buyer.

I wanted to soften the background so added some white acrylic ink just tinted with a little light blue and rubbed with a soft cloth until I could see the floral images through - thus creating this rather smokey background.

WET ON WET GERANIUMS

2011-10-06T11:27:00.004+01:00

Another sunny afternoon in the garden and I could not resist painting the geraniums again in another way - this time wet on wet watercolour on my Lana Vanguard shiny surface.

Decided to add detail of the flowers with fineliner red pen to contrast with the loose wet washes.

PAINTING IN THE GARDEN IN INDIAN SUMMER

2011-10-02T11:49:00.005+01:00

Although turned into October yesterday, we are having such lovely weather I have been painting in the garden, still full of colour and blooms.

GERANIUMS IN A POT

Here is the pot of colourful geraniums in the corner of my garden near the little garden house, showing the Japanese anemone in the background in the raised flower bed and part of the lavender by the side of the paving. Sketched in the sunshine in the garden the other day with Helen.

...... and then I painted it close up again as a full watercolour in the garden yesterday.

PENSTEMON IN GARDEN
Here is a quick study of a penstemon in my garden sketchbook. Although tall and lanky spikes the blooms are so delicate.

Plan to put colour to my pen sketch of the full right hand flower bed showing the penstemon, the trunk of the chopped tree which allowed me to plant more flowers there this year, the peony tree, dahlia, californian poppies, phlox, orange large poppy heads, petunias and an acer. Too big to scan, so I'll photo it after adding the colour and post it then.

PAPPA DRAGON OVER THE SEA

2011-09-25T15:37:00.004+01:00

At last I have completed pappa dragon for my trio for the DRAGONS AND PEARLS event in Sherringham. This time over the sea with castles in the background. .. and instead of breathing out flames he has pearls coming out of his mouth and floating away.

Here are some close ups of the various parts from wings, legs, tail, castles and pearls providing more detail, texture and colour:

Here is pappa's head with the pearls breathing out of his mouth instead of flames. I think I might add two horns before calling it a day and completing my trio family of dragons. Its been lots of fun.

JAPANESE VASE ELY PALACE

2011-09-16T12:25:00.002+01:00

A few years back Anita and I were invited to paint in Ely Palace. Although we spent the day working in the grounds, inside I was attracted to two large vases on corner windowsills and took a number of photos. Here is the acrylic of the JAPANESE VASE as finally completed - my daughter having bagged the CHINESE ONE full of deep purples. It has only just been adjusted as a result of a comment by my husband who said the deep burnt orange flowers I originally created dominated the vase - then I realised why I was not satisfied with it - so voila here it is with the toned down blooms ready for submission to the Art Circle autumn show in the Forum Norwich.

MUMMY DRAGON WITH PEARLS

2011-09-12T11:58:00.005+01:00

This is the second in the family trio of dragons for the Dragons and Pearls Event in October. Although I consider her finished, I might add some more colour (greens probably ) to the wings. What's your opinion?

Here are two images of the work in progress.

As you can see from the top finished work, I adjusted her after this as the belly and back portions needed to run into each other more smoothly... and I darkened the area behind the large pearl in her hand to help make it more prominent, turning it into a rock for her right arm to rest on.

Now onto number three - daddy, which I think I will do all in shades of blue and make him strong, fiery and handsome! Not sure about the background having already used a tree for baby and mountains for mummy.

BABY DRAGON

2011-09-04T12:11:00.005+01:00

This has been great fun and part of a trio. A project entitled DRAGONS AND PEARLS to be part of the Sherringham and Cromer festival in October .... and here is a close up of an earlier stage of the baby dragon.

This is my first piece of a trio in acrylic ink on canvases 30" x 12" . Don't know why I tackled the baby dragon emerging from his egg high in a blossom tree first but I am offering him to the Turning Point Healing Centre to raffle to raise funds.

Following is the sketch onto the canvas using Stabilo 45 fine liner soluble pen. Works well as you can adjust the lines with a little water.

I plan to do his mum as a very demure feminine lady dragon adorned with pearls ........ as yet dad is only a twinkle in my minds eye looking very handsome and created in shades of blues. Here are some ideas in graphite.

WHITE GLADIOLA IN PASTEL

2011-08-29T11:38:00.004+01:00

Penny brought these lovely gladiola to one of our recent ladies group meetings, as we had planned to practice working with white flowers together. As you can see above, I demonstrated that white flowers are anything but WHITE!!

Here is an earlier stage before adding warm tones to the background, which made it come alive.

I enjoyed working in pastel again after so long.

FRONT GARDEN AND GATE

2011-08-26T13:38:00.008+01:00

Seem to have had nothing but rain this August, so sat in the front sun room doorway and sketched our garden gate leading out to the lane. Afraid the lamp on the higher parking area is a bit out of proportion - but oh so useful as you park up in the dark when it comes on automatically.

Also sketched the hanging basket on the garage wall, alongside the gate.

Both in my columbine second garden sketchbook of course, making a double spread.

NORTH WALSHAM NEW ART CENTRE STORYBOARD

2011-08-22T17:57:00.003+01:00

This is the completed canvas 14" x 40" high for the Opening of the new Art Centre constructed alongside the North Walsham High School. Its three paintings were created in acrylic ink on Lana Vanguard adhered to the canvas. An artist friend likened it unto a story board as I was inspired by the variety of students' work in the art department and, of course, the amazing architecture of the new art centre. All in all, great fun to do.

Here is a close up of the third acrylic ink collection mainly inspired by student's work in the art department. I could not resist the cat/dog or whatever animal it is created for a ghouls and ghosties project their tutor gave them and , of course, we always need a big butler sink with all that paint and dirty brushes about .

NORTH WALSHAM NEW ART CENTRE

2011-08-14T12:37:00.004+01:00

A small town 7 miles from my home recently received a grant to build a new prestigious art centre available to students and the community. The local NOVA group of artists were invited to produce work for the opening. Along with other members I visited the construction and art department of the school to get inspired to create work for submission. I am producing one canvas 40" long with three images painted with acrylic inks onto my favourite Lana Vanguard support, stuck to the canvas with gesso.

The top image is of the construction showing part of the school behind. The added school logo is one I noticed in the art department.

This is the second image create by a visit into the school art department. The faces along the top were inspired by those made by the students with wire. The hard hats appear because we took them off and placed them on a blue table top after our visit to the construction.

I have ideas for the third image based on seeing the butlers sink and a big black cat piece of artwork in the art department and probably a row of what seemed like Russian dolls, but I think were painted ceramic bottles created by the students. I'm pleased with how its going, but have ideas about outlining each block image with thick black marker pen and bringing out some of the objects by outlining in pen. Nor sure yet.

TWO BOAT PAINTINGS IN KINGS LYNN

2011-08-10T19:23:00.002+01:00

The West Norfolk Artists show hung at St Nics Chapel during the Kings Lynn Festival is over and I happily went along on the last day to meet the gentleman who purchased my two boat paintings.

Here is an image of a section of the exhibition showing my fishing nets painting top left and the Kings Lynn Fishing Boats down the aisle hung near the font.

Here are close ups of both works, which I produced in oils after originally creating them in acrylic.

Sorry, this photo was taken at the exhibition after the hanging and as it was at the top of the board, the perspective makes it look awkward, but the cabins and masts were at all angles due to the rocking of the boats tied together at the quayside - 5 boats in all!!

MUNDESLEY BEACH HUTS

2011-07-23T12:16:00.003+01:00

Mundesley is a small seaside resort on the north east coast of Norfolk. There is a sloping path leading down to a beach backed by colourful wooden beach huts. I must admit though I coloured two of them pink to add some warm colours to the cool palette. Another watercolour on my Lana Vanguard shiny support, mounted and framed in white to exhibit at the forthcoming Worstead Festival.

Here's an early stage of the watercolour:

CELEBRATION - title for my latest piece

2011-07-16T10:52:00.009+01:00

Although I finished this in oils, in fact you could say its mixed media as it was originally started in acrylic a couple of years back with lots of different kinds of modelling pastes and Liquitex glass beads textured gel for the vase and wine glasses.

Over the past few weeks I have worked on it in oils and it has changed radically. I think the original idea of two people preparing to celebrate came from an advertisement but I added the flowers, vase and reflections and shadows. ... and it probably has no bearing to the original image now its finished.

Developed on a 20" square box canvas using Michael Harding oils and keeping my colour palette quite restricted. There was a period when I was inspired by the idea of painting scenes by a window from a row of pansies in bloom in little terracotta pots painted first in watercolour and then an acrylic version, snowdrops in the window and a couple of works I did for my sister in law with little white flowers with window boxes. I think I'll plan some more for a Christmas show I will have to prepare for later in the year.

Oh! yes, here's the CELEBRATION PAINTING:

... and here are images of some of the earlier window series paintings:

PAINTING THE GARDEN ON TWO RAINY DAYS

2011-07-09T14:11:00.003+01:00

On Thursday last week when Philippa came to join me painting we could not go out into the garden because it was raining 'cats and dogs', so I drew the archway through the rain splattered window. The clematis had twined itself around the archway and then the hanging basket !!

I added the iris to the border because at the bottom of the right upright to the arch is the start of our little pond with these lovely soft pinky lavender iris in bloom.

Then I fancied doing another sketch in the garden a couple of days later when I had the afternoon to while away but - yes again - it was raining. So this view of our water feature was painted looking through the sunroom windows.

Needless to say they were both sketched in my lovely Columbine covered garden sketchbook.

COASTAL EROSION NORTH NORFOLK

2011-07-02T11:56:00.006+01:00

From another acrylic painting depicting the North Norfolk Coast I was never happy with, I have now completed the OIL version on canvas 20" x 16" ... and again realise how much I prefer oil paintings for their more subtle finish.

I kept the little boat in the distance much more restrained to help with recession and showed much more light hitting the mud flats on the left. The rocks in the front are held in place with glued on pieces of netting from a lemon bag!! In real fact it was restraining metal netting but a lot had collapsed.

Here's a close up of a part of the water and posts, so you can see how I applied the paint in layers and created texture.

MY NEW DATURA PLANT

2011-06-29T14:16:00.003+01:00

During spring planting time I was looking for some exotic plants and came across this DATURA deep purple with lime green member of the Bragmansia family. This one, unlike an earlier posting of Angel Trumpets which has its blooms hanging down, has them growing upwards to the light.

I decided to sketch them yesterday, sitting at the bottom of a garden lounger so I could get on a level with the blooms rather than peering down from my little patio area. It wasn't until I had nearly finished, that I realised the sky had gone really dark and there was thunder and lightening drawing near and I was feeling cold in my summery top and skirt!

Needless to say, they were sketched and painted into my new Columbine garden sketchbook. Here are the left and right side of my second double spread.

... and try to imagine this watercolour alongside on the right hand side of the book:

The dirty pages are from balancing my watercolour palette on the page as I worked on my knee!!

BLAKENEY NORTH NORFOLK COAST OIL PAINTING

2011-06-22T10:05:00.006+01:00

Some while ago I painted an acrylic of a typical scene on the North Norfolk coast from photos I took at Blakeney, combining fishing nets, lobster/crab pots and boats. I was never really satisfied with it but I had put a lot of work into it. So over the past couple of weeks I have repainted it with oils trying to develop a more atmospheric piece. I've always loved doing interesting skies and I think this one (from imagination) works well with a feeling of movement.

Above is the final result of the 20" x 24" box canvas. I used my Michael Harding oil paints King Blue, Phthalocyanine Blue and Green, Terre Verte, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre and, of course, lots of white (Titanium).

Below is when I thought I had finished it, until I noticed the skyline on the left was rather higher and did not portray the typical Norfolk flat landscape. I think the revised horizon above gives a much more distant and atmospheric feel to the painting.

Below I've added an image of a very early stage, from which you will see I changed all the net supports (buoys or whatever they are called!) to creamy white and worked more on the net tones, before going on to develop the landscape, water, sky, boats and lobster pots . Lots of fun.

I might look at some of my other stored acrylic works I have not been satisfied with. Somehow using oil gives a completely different feel to the painting.

ANGEL TRUMPETS

2011-06-13T12:23:00.004+01:00

Thinking about another subject to go with the FAIRY FUCHSIAS watercolour on Lana Vanguard I posted earlier, I eventually came up with the idea of ANGEL TRUMPETS, not only because of FAIRY and ANGEL connection but because both flowers hang down. I had recently planted a DATURA, which is from the same Bragmansia family but its trumpets grow upwards and the one I found was dark purple with soft lavender edges. Maybe once it is in full bloom (currently has ten buds) I'll probably paint that as well.

Here is the finished watercolour 20" x 24" on my trusty friend Lana Vanguard. Like the FUCHSIA painting, I added black marker pen to accent the shapes of the main blooms.

This is how it began:

FIRST DOUBLE SPREAD IN MY NEW GARDEN SKETCHBOOK

2011-06-08T10:03:00.005+01:00

We often sketch flowers from the garden when my ladies group meet on Thursdays. Last week I picked this little spray of what I think is an Alexandra rose climbing over my little corrner wooden garden house to use for my first sketch in my new Columbine covered sketchbook I showed in a recent posting. My watercolours were just perfect for those petal washes of soft peach tones.

I did this little second sketch with Stabilo 45 brown fine liner pen to show where the Alexandra roses were climbing. It makes a lovely double spread with the roses on the first page of my new sketchbook. There are a couple of garden chairs up there, but they made it too complicated and difficult!! As you can tell, I simply used my waterbrush to spread some of the water soluble ink from these Stabilo soluble pen lines - it took seconds!.

MORE FLOWERS ON LANA VANGUARD

2011-06-03T13:04:00.002+01:00

After creating my iris and hibiscus watercolours on Lana Vanguard, I found I still had two further frames to match, though bigger at 20"x 24". So I got down to working on one of these last week and here is the start of my THREE FUCHSIA work.

I must have been mad because I drew it in with my LAMY PEN with Noodlers Lexington Grey ink but before I started adding watercolour washes I rubbed the lines with a soft cloth which made them blury and light. Nothing like experimenting as you go along!!

This is the finished piece, from which you can see I added background colour. I decided this because of the white sepals, but at the end I added black permanent marker pen to bring out some of the shapes - and I could have left the background white to match my earlier works after all!! Ah well such is art when you work my way by making decisions as the work develops rather than have any preconceived ideas.

Here is a close up of one of the finished flowers, so you can see how the watercolouor re-acts to Lana Vanguard.

Originally I had planned to do a strelizia, then had ideas about tulips and then poppies and finally when I got the Lana Vanguard sheet out the thought of fairy like fuchsia flowers just overwhelmed me. Wonder what the one to match will be!??

SECOND GARDEN FLOWER SKETCHBOOK

2011-05-28T11:07:00.003+01:00

Here is the last flower sketch in my garden sketchbook I started way back in July 2008 a year after we moved to Coltishall. I have sketched some 32 double spreads of plants growing throughout the season over the past 3 years. It seems my plan of a sketch per month has not been far off but with some months more prolific than others.

I ordered a second book from Karen Jenkins in the same format of 7" square with Sanders Waterford paper and coptic binding but this time chose the COLUMBINE (what we know as Aqualegia) fabric for the cover. So saying farewell to my old book I added these pen sketches at the very back as an introduction to what was to come.

Here is the lovely new book, all pristine and fresh awaiting my bravery of starting anew. Afraid all our aqualegia plants have gone over now, but may still use photos to sketch them on the first page. It somehow seems appropriate.

BLICKLING HALL WATERCOLOUR AND OIL

2011-05-21T11:22:00.006+01:00

An earlier post told you I went to Blickling Hall with Anita for a sketching day. Since then I have created a full size (12" x 8") watercolour to add to my local collection of low priced works for the Worstead Festival later in the summer.

I decided these sketches and photos of the dark purple tulip borders with Blickling Hall and its towers and windows peeping through just asked for another interpretation, so I am doing an oil on canvas 16" x 16".

Here are some images of the work in progress. Using the watercolour as my base, I decided to home in for a more close up feel, so there is not so much architecture behind the flowers and less flowers of course.

Here's an early stage with the shapes drawn in with brown stabilo fineliner as it hit and missed on the weave of the canvas.

A later stage with colour going on from Michael Hardings Aureolin, Napthol red, Manganese and Ultra violets plus Red Umber and Prussian blue to strengthen the darks for the building and as for the greens used a mix of Bright Green Lake, Phthalocyanine Green and Sap.

The windows have soft green blinds, with varying tones depending on how the sun hit the glazed windows. Oops! in this close up cropped image I can see the angle below the tower dome has been changed when I added some darks. Probably because I stretched across to the easel while seated and didn't quite make it straight. Should get my trusty mahl stick out more often. Never mind with oils its easy to correct at a later stage.

Oh! yes, almost forgot to tell you after creating the backdrop, I added thick gesso to the tulip shapes to help them stand out before adding colour - soft King Blue, the two violets and Prussian with touches of one of the reds.

Hope to spend a good bit of tomorrow finishing off the tulip stalks and leaves in the foreground, then leave the whole painting to settle before adding highlights and any little touches of dark. Maybe go over the tulip blooms with a glaze of Ultra Violet to warm them up.

BLICKLING HALL

2011-05-10T17:10:00.004+01:00

Anita came for the weekend arriving lunch time Friday and we spent the whole day Saturday at Blickling Hall just 10 miles from home. Altogether I did 6 sketches despite visit to the coffee shop as we arrived, and a good break for lunch at the Bucks Arms nearby. If I remember correctly we even had a teatime stop for latte and cake. Stunningly different architecture with all these corner towers and lots of bay windows. The grounds were beautifully kept and there were lots of walks down to the lake and up through the woods.

Here's the first sketch on arrival in the gardens - immediately getting the tower wrong, so redrew it alongside in more detail.

We were lucky enough on walking through the woodland pathways to get to the temple just as a wedding ceremony was taking place. So we sat on the rather damp grass to sketch the temple and beautiful azaleas surrounding it. You might just spot the bride and groom inside the temple!! I added the wedding bells when I got home.

This was the last effort of the day as we were leaving around 6 pm. I took the car up to the main gates and we sat in comfort to sketch the whole of the front of the building viewed down the long main drive.

A wonderful day with loads of sunshine, goodies to eat, great company and lots of laughs.

SPIRITUAL PIECES FOR GRIMSTON CHURCH

2011-05-04T14:03:00.003+01:00

Every year The Rev. William Howard organises a CELEBRATION OF ART at his church in Grimston near Kings Lynn in West Norfolk. Many times in the earlier days I used to prepare what I call 'spiritual' works and have often been asked when I am going to do some again. This year I planned to find time to do just that. Here are the results of two pieces created with acrylic inks 12" x 12" on Lana Vanguard.

Number one is called THE BORN LEADER. Trust you prefer the changes to the figure on the right hand side. I do!!

... as an earlier stage I decided the figure on the right handside was too big and I did not need the complexity of two heads together.

This is number two THE TAX COLLECTOR. Inspired by the eagle lectern at Oxborough - one of the many pre-reformation lecterns created with slits to take household taxes for Rome.

This is an early stage of planning.

... and after many adjustments and colour changes following yet another visit to the Oxborough church, came to this final piece.

Hope they will be well received at the exhibition starting 24th May through to the end of the month.

PEONIES IN THE GARDEN

2011-04-22T19:28:00.006+01:00

Philippa came round yesterday for an afternoon painting session and it was so lovely we went into the garden to paint the beautiful soft pink peonies that were blooming.

Here's the result of my effort in my garden sketchbook of flowers. I hope the new sketchbook ordered from Chalk Hill Studios arrives soon as I only have one page left!

Here's Philippa working in the bright sunlight with borrowed sunhat.

and here is how the bloom developed today after lots more strong sunshine.

PEN AND WATERCOLOURS

2011-04-19T14:41:00.005+01:00

Two more pen and watercolour pieces for The Garden House Gallery in Cromer.

Number one is of the Hunstanton lighthouse at dusk after they had put on the uplights to give this glow to the structure. I have caught it from the cliff top garden after sketching with Anita on the beach during a long weekend last year when we hired a caravan.

This is from a visit to Cromer with my daughter and girls whilst we were strolling on the pier.

Both done with waterproof ink pen and washes of watercolour, selecting a few of the many figures on the pier either sipping tea, strolling or catching the small crabs bottom left.

CROMER PIER

2011-04-13T17:12:00.009+01:00

Another watercolour on Lana Vanguard to go to the Garden House Gallery in Cromer next week with the Norfolk Lavender (same size 13" x 11" mounted and framed in plain box white wood). The pier supports nearly drove me mad and now I see the image on the screen it looks as though it might be collapsing! Ah well such is the life of a painter. Creating the sky, sea and beach were lots of fun in this technique. I had thoughts of adding boats on the beach but decided it would make two centres of focus, so simply added a little trickle of water to lead the eye in to the pier and some detailed stones in the foreground. Here's how it looked before I played with the beach adding different size stones and colours and lifting out to get back to slightly tinted highlights. Then added the trickle of water just kind of happened! Thats how my work develops nowadays - like magic - especially on this Lana Vanguard! Here's a closeup of the texture I created on this lovely support.

NORFOLK LAVENDER

2011-04-08T15:35:00.012+01:00

I have been working on small pen and watercolour paintings for forthcoming Norfolk shows and I had planned to create four square format pieces for the Garden House Gallery in Cromer, but unfortunately my local framer David has injured his achilles heel and is unable to complete all four frames for me. So numbers three and four paintings I was planning to use for Cromer I have put aside for the Grimston Easter event in the hope David will have improved and been able to complete them. The painting measures only 10" x 8" and looks really fresh against a white mount and box frame. So that meant I had to think of two other ideas to fit two white rectangle frames I have purchased to match the two completed square white. I decided to use watercolour and pen on my beloved Lana Vanguard for these and thought to use Arabic Gum solution to help with the control. It worked - or so I think! This is a popular scene at the front of the Norfolk Lavender Company shop and tea rooms at Heacham along the north Norfolk coast road. The final piece using the same technique is going to be of Cromer pier.

EASTERN OPEN 2011

2011-04-03T11:06:00.008+01:00

I was pleased to be advised that the following work was accepted for the EASTERN OPEN 2011 and yesterday Sandra joined me to attend the opening at the Kings Lynn Art Centre. Out of 642 works submitted from 7 east of England counties, 126 were exhibited. Although I did not share in any of the prizes, visiting the Red Barn (one of the four galleries at the Centre used for the show) I noticed a lovely red spot on my work. The Assistant Arts and Education Manager introduced me to the buyer and we had an interesting chat. Gathering at the Magic Pool This work was created with acrylic inks on the contemporary slippery surface of YUPO/Lana Vanguard I have been experimenting with over the past 2 years. The judges were Professor Nick de Ville a 70's designer of album sleeves and tutor at the Goldsmiths' College; Anna Lucas a London based artist film maker; and Poul Webb a watercolourist and past student at Cambridge School of Art, work acquired by the HM Government Art Collection and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, Museum of Modern Art at Rijeka plus many other prestigious international events. Their comments were most encouraging ie '...all artists chosen can justly be proud of having created a very strong and contemporary Eastern Open 2011.'

NEW ART WEBSITE

2011-04-01T15:14:00.003+01:00

As I have been getting more and more contacts within the art world with particular reference to my floral work, I decided to build myself a new art website with the aid of webs.com and above is part of my HOME page. There is a link on my blogger righthand sidebar for you to go and have a peek.

I felt that all the text in the blogging system is interesting for other artists and friends, but I needed a more commercial website to promote my work for sales and commissions.

The albums in the gallery so far have around 10-12 images in each and cover the following subjects:

- watercolour flowers

- acrylic flowers

- garden flower sketchbook

- flowers in the landscape

- Norfolk Landscapes

- Church inspired work

I will continue to add more albums to the gallery and am thinking of creating one on STILL LIFE.

Its a good thing I have always photographed and stored images of all my paintings in a stand alone Omega hard drive that can take up to a million images! Its getting pretty full over the years but I don't think I am anyway near that number yet!!

Using webs.com was great fun though time consuming and I am very pleased with the format I chose from their 70 or so different styles.

Hope you find time to go and have a look and maybe comment!

Hopefully I'll get back to regular visits to your blogs and update a little more often.

HIBISCUS ON LANA VANGUARD

2011-03-21T10:06:00.007Z

I have now finished my second floral watercolour on Lana Vanguard surface of two hibiscus blooms. I photographed these in a garden in Port Elizabeth when I was visiting friends who have a second home there and they took me on a wonderful sketching tour of South Africa back in 2007. I had bluebird hibiscus in my garden at Cherry trees with many a photograph of the glorious blooms in my archives, but I wanted a contrast with the blue of the iris I have already painted in this trio.

Here is photo of early stages of the painting:

Thought you'd like to see an early closeup as well, so you can see the wonderful effect this slippery surface has on the many watercolour washes:

Finally, here is the completed work 12" x 16" to go in a 16" x 20" frame with nice wide ivory mount:

Now to number three - possibly the South African trip is inspiring me because I'm thinking of creating a very large strelizia from a watercolour I painted in my Saunders Waterford HP pad
in the garden in Port Elizabeth:

Here I am working on some kafferboom we picked from a tree just outside the bungalow where I was staying. When I painting the strelizia I picked one bloom but kept dashing back to the front garden to see how the leaves grew:

Ah! memories!

IRIS ON LANA VANGUARD+

2011-03-16T12:07:00.005Z

I made a decision this year that I would spend much more time with my floral work and I am really enjoying myself. This is the first of a series of three watercolour studies on Lana Vanguard surface 12" x 16". If only I could decide whether they could be classified as 'contemporary', I would submit them for the Fakenham Contemporary summer Exhibition. Maybe the effect this slippery plastic surface has on the watercolour washes helps bring the work away from botanical traditional work. What are your opinions.??

Here's the finished piece:

... and here are some close ups so you can see the wonderful reaction that occurs when you add different washes on top of each other whilst they are still wet and then paint the detail once it is all dry. The other good thing about this surface is how you can remove colour right back to the white surface :

My next one is going to be Hibiscus.

WATERCOLOUR FROM ORIGINAL ACRYLIC SCENE

2011-03-11T17:19:00.004Z

This is a bit complicated to explain - I needed to create a local riverside summer scene to replace where a pair was hung in a corner on one stone wall at the Rising Sun, as the replacement hurriedly hung after a sale just doesn't look right as the subject, size and frames don't match. Get it? So I decided as it was winter to create a different version of an acrylic painting I did and sold last year. What's been happening is the local river scenes are selling quicker than the floral or Norfolk landscapes pieces that are hung ... so I need really to do and hang more of them but this is not the time of year to create new scenes of boats as there aren't any until the summer season! You may remember, my recent efforts were of the sign post in the snow!!

... so anyway here is a resulting watercolour using a portion of the acrylic boat painting as my reference. They certainly look very different paintings mainly because of the media but also because I went in closer to the boats, added more people over in the pub restaurant garden and did not paint any geese on a much smaller area of grass in the foreground. Oh! by the way Sally has had the pub building painted this lovely lemon for the new season, so I decided to update it.

...and here is the original acrylic work I sold last year that was posted some time ago, so you can see where I got the reference from.

David (my local framer) is framing it now with the same moulding as the one thats still there in the corner and I made sure it was the same size.

DAFFODILS

2011-03-05T15:11:00.004Z

My Coltishall ladies came on Thursday for our afternoon painting together and Philippa was inspired by the bunches of daffodils I had around. I actually finished a watercolour and pen riverside work for the pub but once they had left could not resist starting in my garden sketchbook before preparing dinner. Although I do have some daffodils blooming in the garden, it was too cold and damp to work outside and I did not want to pick them (these had come from a local store).

Just placed a selection of flowers into a separate pot ensuring I had numerous views of the blooms to create a study and develop them across a double spread.

Heres the right hand page:

here's left hand page:

.. and this is what they look like across a double spread (unfortunately my sketchbook for the garden opens out to 14" wide - too wide for my scanner so I've placed the two pages side by side to get the effect:

Hurrah, its March and spring is well on its way.!!

FIGURE PRACTICE YET AGAIN

2011-02-25T10:47:00.003Z

Every so often I get out my Venezia sketchbook to practice figure drawing. Sometimes I use DVDs, others magazines or books and even 'real' people! Here are a couple of recent attempts.

This first one caught my eye in the SkyMagazine as I loved the movement. A few errors stare out at me from the too large left foot and the too little left foreshortened hand, but at least I had a go. I'm glad I added the tennis ball as it adds a narrative to just a sketch.

Number two is a double spread of our youngest grand daughter when she was staying. Here she is in the sunroom after washing her hair. I like the way the second sketch reveals her lovely dark hair after removing the towel. Decided the features were so bad I would leave the second face blank.

Used Lamy pen with Lexington Grey Noodlers ink and a little Daniel Smith watercolours.

Now you know why I need to keep practicing!

GOUACHE ITALIAN SKETCHES

2011-02-20T16:19:00.003Z

I went to a demo recently organised by the Norwich Art Circle when David Mynett demonstrated pastel landscapes. He brought along numerous sketchbooks from his travels and everyone (including me, Denise and Marianne I went with) was bowled over by his sketching technique. He was happy to share with us the fact that he covered all the white pages with gouche (created from watercolour and white mix) and then when he was out working he would choose a page colour suitable for the scene he was painting. They were very striking and most inspirational.

So much so I came home and had a try, covering some half dozen double spreads in my Derwent 5"x 7" leaving a small border of white around for notes. Here is part of my very first attempt - I cropped the image as the figures on left were completely out of scale and looked hideous but this central section gives you an idea of how the light and dark background gouache affected the result. !

This one of the Spanish Steps in my Italian practice sketchbook was a little better although I felt I needed to add pen at the end to sharpen it up and I know it is wonky!!

.

... but the third attempt was much more pleasing of the Trevi fountain and I could see how the different ground colours could really enhance the painting if chosen carefully. I needed to put a number of layers on in various parts.

It was necessary of course to add white to my watercolours in areas otherwise the paint just acted as a glaze and the base gouache came through too dominant.

I sourced all three Gerald Brimacombe photos I took the sketches from in an internet gallery on Italy. As they are only rough sketches in my own little book I could not see a problem with copyright and of course the colours were determined by the gouache background with his photos providing a realistic reference to the subject.

It was fun and I certainly plan to try some more and maybe use this technique as a contrast to my stabilo sketches when I eventually get to Italy (in May).

SECOND COLTISHALL SNOWSCENE

2011-02-16T16:22:00.003Z

I took a little stroll down to the riverside this morning to deliver the three new little acrylic paintings to the Rising Sun for hanging.

Deciding to post the new third painting of the boat by the boathouse gate entrance again in the snow, I find I did not have a finished photo, so here it is in progress

The addition of the reds in the Union Jack flag top right and some colour on the two figures, really brings it alive - and of course the finished trees and gateposts. I'll stroll down soon with my camera and let you see it finished.

Meanwhile, here is the completed Signpost in the Snow of which I posted a WIP recently.

They make quite a smart handsome little pair hanging side by side.

HYACINTHS IN THREE MEDIA

2011-02-11T22:36:00.008Z

My lovely neighbours brought me in a basket of six hyacinth bulbs for my birthday and now a week later they have grown into the most beautiful looking and smelling blooms. So on Thursday I painted them in watercolour when my ladies came round for an afternoon session of painting together.

Here is the watercolour afternoon effort:

Inspired by Penny creating a lovely work in pastel pencils, I created a study in watercolour pencils in my garden flower sketchbook when they left. Then this evening I decided to spend time doing another study in Inktense pencils to see how different they would turn out.

Here is the double spread: (which can be enlarged sepately)

PUB SIGN AND FOOTBRIDGE IN THE SNOW

2011-02-04T14:36:00.004Z

This weeks Thursday meeting of the Coltishall ladies saw me starting the second little 7" x 9" acrylic painting for the Rising Sun. One that had sold was of the pub sign in summer and I decided to replace it with a version in the snow I photographed early December. I liked the couple seated on the wooden fence of the footbridge over to the common and here is the stage I managed during our afternoon together.

Not sure the angle of the house in the background is correct, but I'll wait until I've added the bridge, figures and the geese in the snow before deciding what to do. The dark line of the water running down into the river will make sense once the bridge is in - I hope.

Here's number one finished with lots of amazing colours in the geese from reflected green from the grass to some soft pinks and greys in their plumage. The most difficult section of the painting was the bank supports at the back - nearly drove me mad!

RISING SUN SMALL ACRYLIC TRIO

2011-01-29T13:07:00.005Z

I have been spending time recently planning a trio of small paintings just 7" x 9.5" to replace some recent sales at The Rising Sun Public House.

This first painting of the trio is based on winter visits to the river side by lots of Pink Footed Geese. ... and on Thursday ladies group got as far as creating the early stages of the water, the bank and the grass. I started putting in the detail of the first bird yesterday afternoon. I decided not to continue the posts along the back riverbank and, in fact, reduced the number along the main line to make the geese less cluttered. I might add a few small geese off in the distance by the time I finish it, but not sure yet. Still long way to go.

Number two and three will be based on photos I took earlier this winter when it snowed hard. One is of the pub sign with a couple sitting on the bridge behind looking out over the water. The other down by the boat houses depicting the flag, some people playing in the snow and probably a few more birds by the water - no boathouses though - I've done them to death!!!! I'll keep posting as they progress.

COLTISHALL LADIES GROUP

2011-01-19T14:07:00.003Z

Last Thursday we restarted our Coltishall Ladies weekly group and two of us worked with pastels. I had another cyclamen plant in full bloom and it seemed a good subject to play with lots of colour.

Drawn in briefly with a cream coloured pastel pencil on an almost gold coloured 360 g/ms sheet from my Clairefontaine Pastelmat 30 x 40 cms pad with interspersed wax paper to protect each work from smudging, I then used my box of 72 soft Ashby pastels. At the end I used a natural sponge to wet over the background to see if it helped the main image come forward. Not sure it made much difference!!

Of course, I think you could say its not really finished as a piece of artwork but what I achieved in the afternoon involving tea, cakes and lots and lots of chat catching up on each others' news.

FRESHENING ACRYLIC ROSES

2011-01-16T16:29:00.004Z

Stuck indoors due to wintry weather, decided to check out some work I had started many moons ago to finish for a prospective client interested in roses.

This canvas is 24" x 30" and I freshened it up with new raindrops and highlighted edges of some petals created with my silk gutta outliner tubes. I glazed areas with smokey blue (mixture of white and king blue) thinned down to create feeling of moisture in the air and over the bud and distant blooms.

This is one of a series of 16" x 16" macro flowers, which I have freshened with more highlights and stronger shadows, then added a cobalt acrylic wash to the background leaves and stalks to send it back further.

Finally, I was comfortable with the original working of this third rose, so simply gave it a light semi permanent protective matt varnish.

ANOTHER MAGIC GARDEN PAINTING

2011-01-09T17:03:00.006Z

As it seems such a long time since posting the sketch of the London Fireworks on the first day of the year, I looked round to find something to post. I've been working on some more MAGIC GARDEN pieces for a Spring show and dug out this VIEW OF THE TREES from my store cupboard to bring back to life.

I don't think you have ever seen this particular one I was not too pleased with, so I added lots of my gutta shiny glissening paint usually used on silk to give it some oomph and played with the treeline. I also took my own advice about 'more darks' and think the outcome is much improved.

please enlarge to see the effect of the shine.

NEW YEARS EVE LONDON FIREWORKS

2011-01-01T17:12:00.005Z

Before Christmas I tracked down a company making hand made watercolour sketchbooks named 'handbookjournal co' on the internet and ordered two square 5.5 inch vermillion red covered hard books. I've been using one to find out how well they take water washes and whether you can paint both sides of a sheet without it going soggy or buckled. Hurrah! they are great, so I decided to keep one for my Italy trip and play with the other.

I took one on my visit to our daughters for Christmas and sketched a few scenes in the local pub we stopped at on our way over. Since being back have sketched a few buildings but this afternoon I decided to use some of the photos I took last night of the London Fireworks New Year Celebration we were all up late to see together on TV- as our grand children are staying with us. It was the best ever with music and fireworks working in unison. Here is a watercolour painting of a scene when the skies were all pinks against a silhouetted London skyline.

Wishing you all a very happy and successful NEW YEAR.

VIEW ACROSS THE BORDER

2010-12-29T15:36:00.005Z

You may remember an earlier post at the beginning of December when I had started a second acrylic piece to go with my AFTER THE RAIN. Well, I have finished it choosing hollyhocks and irises as my main flowers, so maybe you'd like to check back and see how it started because here is the finished VIEW ACROSS THE BORDER:

In case it does not enlarge, I add some closeups of areas of the flower border.

I am pleased with the result and it makes a good contrast to the AFTER THE RAIN garden piece both 76 x 61 cms canvas. I have some moulding of a silvery bronze box frame about 4 cms wide and will ask David (local framer gallery owner) if he could use that for me.

Now I must work on my second MAGIC GARDEN 41 x 41 c ms to deliver all by the end of January to be transported to Normandy.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY SUCCESSFUL AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

CHRISTMAS WISHES

2010-12-17T15:30:00.004Z

Here is one of my original paintings I used for a Christmas card a few year's ago and still sent out one or two this year to art friends who had not received them in the past. These fresco angels were created with a palette knife and lots of acrylic paste to create the feeling of plaster peeling off an old church wall.

Originally, I thought I'd send you my Christmas Greetings using some photos this year... so I'll still do that and add these too ...........

This first one is a decoration I have created for our lounge to substitute for a Christmas Tree, as we are going to our daughters for the Christmas period. When the candle inside the snowman is lit, it makes a really pretty corner.
Here's another lounge decoration, two robins sitting on the hi fi equipment in front of one of the many windows along the long wall running through our lounge and dining room.

So I'll finish with HAPPY CHRISTMAS GREETINGS and every good wish for a happy and successful arty New Year.

WORK IN PROGRESS

2010-12-11T15:06:00.005Z

After many weeks not painting any main work, I felt the need to get away from sketchbooks and practicing for Italy, so decided I needed a second acrylic work to pair with my AFTER THE RAIN on 76 x 61 cms canvas. I had a rummage through many references from my photos to previous paintings to get ideas and then just got out my varied acrylics from both Liquitex heavy and soft body to Liquitex ink, a one inch Pro Arte acrylic brush and simply wacked on diagonal streaks of blue and white paint across what might become the sky area. Then filled the area below in shades of blues, greens and naples, with a few ideas for distant trees and flower borders in the front.

To date it has arrived at this, by which time I had decided to soften the blue of the sky, use the same hue for irises in the foreground and reduce the width area of the left and right flower borders.

Working backwards, here are some images showing the transitions as I worked without any particular ref in mind, apart from the shapes of the tall hollyhocks on the left.

Here you can see the earlier darker more vibrant sky I obliterated and the wider borders I removed.

I think this was the first photo I took, simply to remind myself how I had begun.

Where it now takes me I have no idea after the best part of a week away, but it certainly contrasts well with the original painting I wish to pair it with shown below, which you may remember from a much earlier posting.

GRAND TOUR SKETCHES

2010-11-30T15:07:00.004Z

Its been such bad weather that I put on a DVD of a programme called GRAND TOUR when the art critic Brian Sewell toured the cities of Italy. I stilled some of the scenes and sketched in the comfort of my lounge with my Schmincke watercolours.

Number one is of a group of people in a square with blue fountain and some columns - Brian Sewell is in the left bottom corner where you can just see his umbrella cum sun parasol.

This one was of a pretty corner in Vicenza - the people must have gone inside the pay the bill!!

Here's Brian - looking with my hand rather much younger - outside the steps of one of the many buildings he took us into.

Well, a bit of fun one afternoon getting practice trying to sketch people in street scenes.

IRIDACEAE PAINTINGS - in other words Irises!

2010-11-22T10:41:00.008Z

Am currently working on an idea for a large piece on irises - that wonderful flower family Iridaceae. So am going over images of earlier work depicting irises, of which I thought you might like to see a selection.

This one is from a large tall canvas in acrylic showing the textured acrylic stone surround of a stainglass window with painted irises in the bottom window so that I could combine my two favourite genre - flowers and churches

This is the first of abstracted pieces framed as three individual squares alongside each other, in very thinned acrylic to create flowing washes.

.. and finally here is a panoramic line of different irises painted in acrylic on canvas, which you can see is not quite finished at this stage. After adding the stems and leaves on the right I added some soft lavender thin acrylic washes to the background creating more light to the left. Don't seem to have a photo in my archives of the finished piece but I remember it well. I still have the original pencil sketch in one of my panoramic watercolour books.

I am enjoying going through the archive photos of my earlier work with irises - and there are plenty more from watercolour botanical studies of flowers in my garden to acrylic decorative large pieces. Its amazing how often you can paint one flower species and yet create something entirely different every time.

Glad to say all three images will enlarge with a click.

LADIES THURSDAY GROUP

2010-11-19T15:33:00.004Z

My Thursday afternoon meetings continue with the five ladies invited attending as and when they can. This week there was just Helen and Maggie working with me, so we had fun.

I continued with a sketch I had done the previous day with my Stabilo brown fineliner soluble pen on quattro square block watercolour. It was of a local Gardens during the summer with one of their wired sculptures. This time a heron by the water. My visitors were surprised to see me use both a water spray to dampen the washes and then add ground salt crystals to create the effect you can see mainly in the left hand side foliage. Needless to say, it is nowhere near completed.

Maggie fell for my two little Christmas robin ornaments I had set by the side of a cyclamen plant in a basket. She added the logs from her imagination and I've promised to turn them into Christmas cards for her with my computer and Publisher software.

Helen brought along three works that had never been fully completed and we discussed what they needed. There was an acrylic landscape with poppies in a field which she felt had too strong a green in the distant fields. A watercolour of tulips in one of my square vases that needed anchoring with the use of a shadow at the base and also some darks into the foliage and petals helped bring it more 3D and alive. The third one was of a Yorkshsire cottage she staid at on holiday that just needed some attention to the pathway to the door. Then in the last 15 minutes or so she just got out a size 10 brush some green and red watercolours and created this lovely study of the cyclamen - adding some salt to the leaves whilst they were still wet. All without any initial drawing. Charming.

I thoughoughly enjoyed our afternoon together - our work encouraged along by music playing and tea and coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate.

FEET AND HANDS

2010-11-12T14:00:00.004Z

I thought I might practice sketching hands and feet and with the Italian trip in mind I started with my Sistene Chapel book and inevitably went to the famous God creating Adam Michelangelo painting on the ceiling.

Then I checked out lots of feet from various scenes in the chapel and came up with this selection

from angels, sibyls and prophets:

Then at the weekend on the front cover of the Telegraph Magazine was this photo of Elton John using his hands to speak! Simply had to have a try:

All done with my latest favourite Stabilo Brown (45) fine liner with water and a little Schmincke watercolour.

AUTUMN LEAVES

2010-11-05T20:08:00.002Z

Philippa and Maggie joined me yesterday afternoon for a session of sketching and painting . Prior to their arrival I walked down to the river and along the common to collect some of the glorious autumn leaves from oak trees, sycamore, beech and others. Here are a selection of leaves I chose to paint - I am afraid they have scanned rather darker than they really are

.... and here are my watercolour interpretations sketched into my garden flower sketch book labelled 'Autumn leaves from my village' as I did not have such a variety in my own garden. I used the Daniel Smith palette that still seems to be going on and on, having put down the shapes with a water soluble graphite pencil.

Hope you are also enjoying this wonderful natural display of colours.

FIGURES FROM THE SISTENE CHAPEL CEILING

2010-10-27T16:28:00.002+01:00

Still working on practice sketches for my Italian visit, I went to my wonderful full colour plate book MICHELANGELO - THE FRESCOES OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL which I purchased a few years back at a local library sale. I was hooked when I came to the chapter on SEERS - ie prophets and sibyls. So began a series of watercolour and pen sketches using my Daniel Smith paints and Lamy pen with noodlers Lexington grey ink. Here are three efforts:

Jeremiah - lost in thought

I think the hands are a bit big but pleased with all the colours I managed to put into the flesh.

The Libyan Sibyl

Afraid she has turned out rather masculine and squashed at the top of the sketchbook page.

Zechariah - the Hebrew Prophet

This, in fact, was my first one and as you can see the head is too small. Well! its only practice and I have not done figures for ages.

To be continued at some stage.

29th WORLD WIDE SKETCH CRAWL

2010-10-20T14:58:00.005+01:00

Anita came for the weekend and we spent sketchcrawl day at Norwich Cathedral.
Must confess this little sketch of the spire is from a photo I took whilst popping outside
when the sun broke through.............

... so while it was sunny we found a bench and I chose these two diverse buildings in the cathedral grounds. I think the one on the left is the chapel and assume the dutch architectured white house is the home of someone who works in the cathedral - lucky family.........

By the time we were frozen through with a cold wind blowing up, we dashed back to the restaurant for lunch where, when we arrived around 11 am , we had gone straight for latte and cake before beginning our endeavours. Here's part of our table 14..............

........... and by 3.30 we were in the cloisters sitting in the sun trying to understand the intricate design of one of the archways....

A good fun day and thankfully Clive had kindly offered to cook his famous meatballs and tagliatelli for dinner. So we got home in plenty of time for a little sip of alcohol before settling down round the dining table.

STABILO SOLUBLE FINELINER PENS

2010-10-18T17:23:00.005+01:00

I am certain you will have read that I am going on holiday to Italy next May with Anita sketching in a number of cities on a tour . Ever since our booking, I have been practicing buildings and people from DVD's and holiday brochures in different media trying to find a particular technique and materials I would like to take with me.

I have my Lamy cartridge pen with Noodlers Lexington grey ink I thought would do beautifully with overwashes of watercolour, but realised well into producing a series of work from my book on the Sistene Chapel that I actually needed soluble ink. So last night, the last evening of Anita's visit, we set up a still life and I tried out my set of stabilo pens to see which bled the most. It turned out that the result was dependent on the paper used. This made me realise why my sketches the previous day in Norwich cathedral for the 29th sketch crawl with Anita came out so pale - it was the paper in the Derwent Journal bound with soft caramel coloured suede effect I had taken for the day. (I'll post these another time - probably via Flickr which I opened an account with this weekend with the guidance of Anita).

So here is the result in a watercolour book of the still life using the brown (45) stabilo fine liner and Daniel Smith watercolour washes.

... and a close up in case the full image does not enlarge so you can see how lovely the ink bleeds into the washes at the drawn line edges. :

NANNY'S GARDEN POEM

2010-10-14T11:23:00.006+01:00

Nanny's garden - a beautiful place

Like a dream

Like a fairytale

It brightens the day

It brightens our way

The sun upon nanny's garden

This little verse was written by my youngest grand daughter (aged 11 yrs) when she and her sister stayed with us for a weekend recently. Elisha has always liked 'playing' with figures and words and we often make up games together. This time it was to give her a title and for her to produce a few lines in less than 5 minutes. We happen to be sitting in the sun room when I mentioned my garden and out popped these wonderful words in no time at all.

We had some magic this past week or two as I had almost given up on my planted cosmos that just seem to grow taller and taller as the summer came and went and could almost be entered into the Guineas book of records for their giant height. Not until now in October have they decided to bloom - three colours and at least thirty blooms out all at once with many a bud awaiting. So here's a couple of photos, both taken through my bedroom window. In one you can just see the village church down the hill over the rooftops.

Elisha nearly broke my heart when she wrote the following for the subject of family:

Family are forever

Family stay together

We love

We care

The sky never dull

The sky always bright

We see brightness

We see darkness

but whatever happens

we stay together.

Unusual posting but just had to share them with you. Hope Elisha doesn't mind.

WATERCOLOUR BEGONIAS ON LANA VANGUARD

2010-10-09T12:09:00.002+01:00

It was such a lovely day last Thursday that Philippa and I decided to paint the afternoon away in the garden and we chose a pot of glorious apricot/orange begonias in bloom on the garden house steps.

I decided to use watercolour on the Lana Vanguard (YUPO type paper) and here is the work as it is today - not sure if it is finished really but I like the soft washes of the reflections on the table I created. Maybe the blooms need more attention but somehow I like the unfinished look. Think it makes a good pairing with the sunflowers I posted last week.

This is a photo of the early stages just letting the colours mingle as I created the shapes before me.
The palette looked so yummy I had to photo it for you full of the lovely Daniel Smith paints Anita squeezed in for me last summer. They have lasted for ever and my favourite palette to use outdoors especially flowers/gardens.

Here's a close up of some of the early washes, where you can almost see a replica of the palette above!!

Thursdays seemed to have turned into floral works, but as the weather deteriorates I shall get back to my Italian practice sketchbook.

Currently sorting out some work for a Christmas themed show. I think my two Ely Cathedral interiors might be right, my crackle glaze candles and possibly from my work when I visited Peterborough cathedral. Or I might work on creating some new nativity style pieces. Only got to the end of the month to submit details, so better get cracking!!!

WATER COLOUR SUNFLOWERS ON LANA VANGUARD

2010-10-04T17:42:00.005+01:00

Finished Sunflowers in watercolour on Lana Vanguard medium 16" x 12"

On Thursday afternoon I only had one of my ladies arrive for a session of painting together, but that was fine. Just as I planned for the 6 ladies I had invited to be part of this rather personal group to come as and when they wanted with no commitment simply to spend art time together.

So I had the chance to paint the sunflowers I had purchased from the local farm shop and decided to play wet on wet on YUPO type paper (a French version called Lana Vanguard) and I used watercolour for a change in place of my more regular acrylic inks. Maggie had brought three red rose buds to paint in acrylic on a small canvas.

Here is the first layer and early design:

.. and some close ups of the various areas of the painting where you can see I added or lifted colour:

It was lots of fun and I simply developed it as I went along. Hope the top finished work will enlarge for you to see the detail of layers. These Thursday afternoons I am keeping for this little group are good for me as I don't have to do anything 'seriously' ... maybe that way they will turn out better!!

VENICE ON YUPO FROM SKETCHES

2010-09-30T17:49:00.005+01:00

Today Anita booked our trip to Italy for May to benefit from an early booking reduction. Whilst discussing all the ideas over the past week on the phone, thought I'd like to do a painting from my sketchbook. So decided to use two sketches and put them together of when I went to Venice last year. I decided to use acrylic inks on YUPO (well that new Vanguard I have been telling you about available from Jacksons of London).

This is the finished piece, measuring 20" x 8". Gondolas look very dark here, hope you can enlarge and see the detail in this corner.

Here are a few cropped photos as the work progressed.

It was lots of fun as the sky changed colour radically and the darker corner (where the gondolas are) changed a lot in respect of shadow, moving water and the addition of the poles.

Clive reckons the light shows the scene as it would be just before dusk.

I think I might try some more another time from the sketches Anita and I have been doing from the BBC Art programme series POWER OF ART. Nothing like getting the feel for Italy 6 months before you go!!!

SECOND LADIES ART GROUP MEETING

2010-09-27T16:36:00.007+01:00

Had our second Coltishall Ladies Art Group at my home last Thursday, everyone doing something different. I'm taking these Thursday afternoon sessions as a regular opportunity to get back to my sketchbooks I have so neglected this year.

Helen had brought along a cutting from her passionflower to draw after she finished her acrylic canvas of mixed flowers. I liked it so much, I decided to paint it directly into my garden sketchbook - maybe it will encourage my new passionflower to grow in my garden next year!! Philippa and I sat alongside each other so we could share the cutting and both tackled it with watercolour. At the end I added a few lines with Stabilo fineliner water soluble pens. Here's my sketch:

Before the time for the afternoon gathering, I walked up the lane and cut some blackberries which I also painted into my garden sketchbook. Well! I can always imagine the lane is part of my garden!!

Jasmine sketched one of my figurines - an elegant Edwardian looking lady with long flowing dress and big picture hat. Penny tackled the conkers we did the previous week and improved with each water soluble pencil sketch. Maggie had brought along a very funny bouncy chicken ornament to create an acrylic on canvas for a gift.

Lots of comradery, chat and fun by all. What a lovely afternoon it was together.

AUTUMNS HERE VERY EARLY

2010-09-20T20:14:00.007+01:00

Had my first Coltishall Ladies afternoon Group meeting last Thursday and Maggie chose some of the conkers, acorns and rose hips I had collected from the lane to paint in watercolour. So today when I found I had an hour to spare, I decided to have a go in my monthly garden flower book, which I have neglected since July.

I realised how much I enjoy painting in this commissioned Sanders Waterford watercolour paper sketchbook, so have decided to get another one done for my Italian trip. At £15, a 7" x 7" chosen cover, size and paper its a great bargain. Just need to remember the name of the website for the lady in Cambridge!!

Was good to play with watercolour after so long. It is such a delightful medium to work in, putting layer upon layer onto the conker to achieve the strong rich warm colour, followed by a quick flick of the brush with blue and purple for the shadow.

Then I put three acorns in front of me with their little cups that we always called pipes when we were small.

A simple little posting today folks, but I am now enjoying so much freedom without any new oils or acrylic paintings to get ready for shows, as I have everything ready for Wymondham. Yarmouth and Sheringham. I shall definitely put the autumn/winter months to come over to sketching practice... although after another sale of a local landscape work at the Rising Sun riverside pub this week, I may need to do one or two more to hang in my permanent show there.

INSPIRATIONS SHOW PREVIEW

2010-09-12T12:22:00.005+01:00

Last night was our Preview at the Belfry Art Centre after hanging the show on Thursday with some excellent work provided by 18 members of the NOVA Group. They all responded really well to the theme of Inspirations - bringing along items for us to display on differing sized white plinths near their hanging finished works. With Pia's help, our coloured glass maker member, Sandra and I managed to receive, label and hang every piece of work submitted using the last plinth and, more to the point, our very last hook to hang the paintings on fishing wire from the dado rail. !

Here is how the hanging looked down one side of the Art Centre ....

and the other half of the show ???
it seems I'll have to add these to a different posting as the system won't let me upload any more images.

Altogether there were artworks of

- sea inspired work from acrylic on canvas to torn distressed stitched paper

- abstract work on stretched canvas with inspired textile designs on coats and bags

- oil paintings of scenes on the beach in muted warm colours

- digitally enhanced photographs of surfers printed on canvas and put on stretchers

- collage work of such images as a cockerel and water colour teapot

- lace making on circular bases

- views through windows (yes real wooden window frames complete with brass handle)

- a coloured glass witch as a wonderful square electric lamp plus some glass hangings

- fused glass art on tiles

- my public house interior inspired acrylic paintings and

- Sandra's tightrope walkers

It is on until the 26th September and we look forward to a good footfall as a result of the issue of Sandra's press releases and Nick's publicity material.

NUMBER 3 SURFER COMPLETED

2010-09-08T17:44:00.005+01:00

Finished painting 10" x 10" mounted and framed in light wood.

This week I have been working on the third surfer acrylic ink painting for Sheringham Reflections show in October and am very pleased with the result. It reminds me of the days I lived in Dorset and used to paint the sea quite a lot. Now I realise I have missed it as I so thoroughly enjoyed creating the waves and blending all the colours.

Thought you'd like to see some close ups of stages as I worked:

1) I was very pleased how I created the silvery lavender colour for the first background layer all over the Lana Vanguard silky sheet put on with a soft spongey 4 inch roller. I used Mars Red, touch of prussian blue and lots of white acrylic inks with cerulean watercolour:

2) Here I am at my working bench in the little upstairs studio, showing the colours I had chosen for the painting and my original photograph and how I was adding the figures colour by colour using quite soft water colour brushes. size 3 and 8 making them much larger and closer together:

3) Here's a close up of the boy and his blue surf board reflection after I had removed the masking fluid:

... 4) and finally a close up of the main wave showing all the colours I put into the water.

IT WAS FUN!

SECOND SURFER PAINTING IN ACRYLIC INKS

2010-09-04T15:34:00.005+01:00

I have now completed number two of the trio of surfers for the Sheringham Reflections show.

When I visited Mundesley beach with the grand children, they were putting out the colourful flags for the surfers and swimmers and I took many photos. This one I feel reflected (ha ha!!) what I wanted to achieve. It had the dark back drop, against which the figures and flags showed up well and I must admit had staggeringly elongated reflections in the water lapping the beach. I did quite a few adjustments to the original photo, strengthening the colour of the sand and softening the distant buildings. I used a different blue to number one surfer painting, mainly because I had run out of cerulean acrylic ink!! I think I might cheat on number three and add some cerulean blue watercoloour to my mix to get back to the softer blue. You'll also notice that I did not put in any detail to either of the faces.

Here is a close up of the reflections, which I was very pleased with , without too much fiddling and almost exactly as I put down the paint in the first layer. Some of the white ripples were created with what you call in the US of A miskfit and we call over here in the UK masking fluid, which at the end was rubbed off to reveal the white streaks of water across the top of the reflected colours.

Now I have to consider what image number three will be created from. Always decision making this artwork, isn't it??

THE WINE BAR

2010-08-30T13:15:00.004+01:00

I am preparing work for the NOVASTRAND II INSPIRATIONS SHOW Sandra and I are curating at the Belfry Art Centre in September. My theme is based on interior public houses that came about because I needed work to show that would interest any men visitors to my Open Studio weekends, being that most of my work was based on floral and gardens. All participants are offering items for display that inspired their works being exhibited based on their own theme. To date we have such diverse subjects as windows, circles, halloween, city landmarks, surfers , strand (shoreline), the seaside town of Cromer and cows!!!

The one I am showing you now was based on this earlier rather abstracted work which I always thought was not finished. Its never been exhibited and I had called it
THE PURPLE BAR -

On working on it, the painting became more realistic and I changed its name to
THE WINE BAR

On showing it to Sandra, she wondered if I could turn the strange original shape over the shoulder into a tea towel - voila

I have two others ready for the show I will post another day and there was one I had called THE SPANISH BAR I sold at Wells Next the Sea last year. Maybe I'll do some more based on Coltishall pubs, particularly the one that exhibits my local scene paintings for sale.

CHEATING AT ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE

2010-08-25T11:00:00.006+01:00

During my weekend at Anita's we discussed our trip to Italy next May and decided we needed to get more comfortable about sketching plein air their wonderful ancient architecture, so had the brainwave of putting on THE POWER OF ART a BBC art series. With modern technology we chose a few scenes during Simon Schama's travels to still and sketch from in the comfort of Anita's lovely soft green sofas.

Here are three efforts that very late but fun time evening:

Dome in Florence

double spread in Sennelier watercolours

St Peter's Rome

in Sennelier watercolours

Went a bit wrong with the St Peter's full colour when I added three arches of a bridge at the bottom. Just did not like them so heavily drawn in ink. So guess what? - I stuck a piece of selected colour paper from Anita's card supplies and wrote on the top. !! There's always an answer!!

Corner of St Peter's Rome

borrowing Anita's sepia water soluble ink pen

If we keep doing this over the next 6 months. maybe we will feel comfortable sketching in the streets amongst all the tourists!!

WEEKEND WITH ANITA

2010-08-23T14:37:00.003+01:00

On Thursday last I had a phone call from Anita asking if I was busy at the weekend. Within minutes we had arranged for me to travel across Friday lunch time to her home (70 miles from me), join Anita on her trip to Five Mile Inn near Ely on the Saturday to meet fellow blogger Sue (http://artofanomad.blogspot.com/) and pay a visit to the Haddenham Gallery on the way so I could see her work including a series of National Trust property sketches. Even in these austere times she has already sold four works.

Friday evening we put on Power of Art (Simon Schama BBC art series) to sketch Italian architecture in preparation for our trip next May. Technology is so great nowadays that we stopped a shot of The Dome of the St Maria Cathedral in Florence, then St Peters in Rome and did a few sketches. I'll post these later in the week. It was great practice but need plenty more before contemplating doing it plein air.

On meeting Sue at the Pub/restaurant Saturday morning, we went inside for teas and coffees to chat and get to know each other. Then before we knew it, it was lunch time. My first sketch was done viewing through the window as lunchers came and went on the riverside terrace. His companions disappeared before I got round to them spilling over onto the left hand page to make a double spread.

After lunch, we went down by the river and the sun came out although it was still windy. Here is my riverside effort using graphitint pencils and waterbrush - plus leaning over and 'pinching' a few watercolours from Sue's box when I needed more colour blocks. Don't laugh at my cows!! Certainly shows my love of plants judging from the only decent thing in it being the tree trunk!!

Finally, after a cooked supper at Anita's home I decided to paint her glorious pink roses. Here's my double spread.

Its great being part of Anita's family weekend and after a quiet Sunday with a trip to nearby Benwick riverside, I returned home in the evening before the rain set in - but it was dark most of the way. Thanks Anita.

REFLECTIONS NOVA SHOW SHERRINGHAM

2010-08-13T15:44:00.006+01:00

Have been planning my trio for the Reflections show. After chosing images from a trip to Mundsley beach with the girls (grand children) when I photo'd them playing as well as the surfers, I started one in watercolour. It just looked rather bland, so used it as my draft and decided to get out my new Lana Vanguard similar to YUPO and work in acrylic inks.

Here is the result of number one of a lonely surfer walking along the beach. It was great fun to do and I feel the result is quite interesting particularly as I used salt in the foreground sand area.

Here are some close ups where you can see the effect of acrylic inks on this shiny plastic surface.

Took this photo before I added more white foam around the bottom of the wooden posts.

Here you can see where the course sea salt granules and ground salt were scattered.

I think I shall be happy with this technique for the three pieces. Probably will decide on the one of the girls skipping towards the shoreline, both of them with both their feet off the ground and I can strengthen the reflected images in the wet sand.

Number three yet to be decided upon between a life guard putting out wonderful coloured flags to tell the surfers the condition of the sea and a couple which looks like a dad and son carrying their surf boards down to the sea.

I'll keep you posted. haa haa!

WEEKEND AT WELLS NEXT THE SEA

2010-08-10T12:10:00.004+01:00

Been catching up at home since returning from 3 wonderful days at Wells next the Sea at Sandra's cottage, coinciding with the week long carnival. Sandra, our host, had to pop off two mornings to invigilate at the local art exhibition and we both went over to Kings Lynn on the Saturday afternoon, leaving Anita happily sketching around the quayside and cottage garden.

Here you can see how beautifully Sandra has revamped her cottage in lovely soft blues and creams. We sat round the fireplace from time to time just chatting together before and after visiting the carnival musical evening events. We had fun singing along with an amazingly good live Beatles sound alike band and even had a temporary tattoo each from a little teddy bear, stars and (of course for me) a group of three flowers. Here is the comfy sofa .......

Got up fairly early for me and spent time in the garden sketching. All the fruit trees were laden with quince, damsons, apples and pears. Here's a little group of apples sketched whilst eating my breakfast of croissant with real butter and Wensleydale cheese and cranberries and cup of coffee .....

.... and here's something that grabbed me from the first day - the contrast between the colourful boats stored at the bottom of the garden seen through the black wrought iron gate.....

Planned to sketch little objects in the garden in a double spread, but only managed this stone chimey pot acting as a plinth for a bowl of found very round stones placed in front of another apple tree on the other side of the brick pathway that divides the garden and runs right up to the cottage door.

Really pleased how much I sketched despite our various outings. Down to serious stuff now, preparing three water colour works for the NOVA Sherringham event in October under the theme of Reflections.

PASTELS

2010-08-01T18:55:00.003+01:00

Sorry, not visited your blogs of late - have been so so busy with art and family. Now have my brother and wife staying with us for a week and today after visiting our village pub by the river for a carvery lunch, the men watched the (recorded) grand prix and Gaynor and I sat in the sun room. Ha, Ha - wherever is the sun nowadays.

Gaynor was knitting for friends new baby so I got out my pastel set and began to sketch the flower arrangement that includes some of our pink hydrangeas from the garden. Gaynor says it took hour and a half from start to finish. Quite gentle and a most enjoyable time, especially as I have not painted for ages.

As I have posted this floral pastel, thought I would add the early stages (as far as I got) of another pastel sketch. This time of a section of my garden when my ladies came for our summer garden sketch day together. Nowhere near finished of course.

Ron and Gaynor are going home on Thursday and then I go off to Sandra's cottage by the sea for a sketching weekend together. Hopefully will have something worthwile to post when I get back.

NOT VERY SUCCESSFUL YUPO PRACTICE

2010-07-15T22:22:00.006+01:00

Have been spending the past two days sorting my art room and getting works ready for delivery next Wednesday and Thursday to Kings Lynn and Alby, because I am going over to my girls tomorrow until Monday and bringing our eldest grand daughter back with me for a few days.

But prior to that I was playing with my last sheet of YUPO with acrylic inks and although some areas were successful in this waterfall scene, the whole painting did not work for me. Two close ups I think work individually:

floral area and waterfall reflections

When finished I just felt it was too bright and chocolate box so the following completed painting was washed away in the bath so that I could play again on this my last sheet. Will post the result of that playtime another day - very sombre in comparison about a derelict church interior!

By the way, for those in England, the London Art Supplier Jacksons have stopped stocking YUPO but have an alternative French version called Lana Vanguard. I've ordered a pack so I can continue to play with this technique without having to keep washing out what I did before!!!

HOLKHAM HALL WITH DEER ACRYLIC PAINTING FINISHED

2010-07-11T16:20:00.003+01:00

Well, here it is complete and now framed up ready for the Alby Craft Fair at the end of the month. Very typically me with the foreground grasses and foliage painted thicker and layered to bring them forward yet not detract from the main scene. Lastly I softened the shadows in amongst the trees as I felt a smooth transition from the sunny areas was less harsh and unlikely to deflect the eye from the main view.

HOLKHAM HALL AND DEER PARK

2010-07-06T17:22:00.003+01:00

Back last October Anita and I rented a caravan on the north Norfolk coast as a base to visit various locations for a sketching break. One of the places we visited was Holkham Hall and ever since I have wanted to create a piece of work from my sketches and photos. Well, I got round to it this week as I need a third local country scene for an Arts and Craft Fair in North Norfolk near Cromer soon.

Here's one of my original pen sketches:

and following is the planned composition drawn with pen onto a sheet of acrylic canvas, as I shall be framing it with mount and behind glass. You will see I have put the buildings behind trees I selected from a wood on higher ground which we sketched whilst seated on a bench with a bronze figure and dog beside us (quite spooky making you keep looking round to see who was nearby)!! I've also added some deer from photos taken in the deerpark.

This following image is an early stage of development using Atelier Interactive acrylic paints, as it was so hot when I started painting these first layers I needed to keep spraying them with a mist water spray to keep the pigments pliable and moist - a great feature of this particular acrylic paint.

I'll keep you posted as to how it develops.

WEEKEND AT SNETTISHAM BEACH LAKES AND SEASHORE

2010-06-28T21:31:00.005+01:00

What a weekend - from the moment we arrived at Ruth and Tony's cottage by the sea at 12 noonish on Friday until we left last night at 8pm it was glorious sunshine racing up into the 30s. Lived in swimsuits and shorts for 3 whole days. Had a lovely outdoor lunch with Ruth and Tony when we arrived, so they could tell us the ropes before leaving us to their idyllic little cottage with a lake just outside the front door and the seashore outside the back door!! Amazing views of constant changing scenes of the tide coming in and out and boats bobbing in the water.

We sketched the whole time, dabbled our toes in the lake seated on the new landing stage decking at the bottom of steps all recently built by Tony. Paddled in the sea, walked along the seashore to the yacht club, across to the lake and one of the causeways. Walked on Sunday morning to the RSPB centre and other than that lazed away the time in the sun, eating and sipping our favourite rose wine.

Here is my sketch of some of their boats moored in the lake.
Late afternoon sketch down on the water's edge as the tide was going out.
Sketch Sunday morning at the RSPB gateway near the Rotary Hide.

Friday evening sketch of one of the causeways crossing the three lakes.

... and the last one I am planning to post is of Friday evening in the cottage, when we got together some of the lovely object d'art to create a still life painted by CANDLELIGHT as there is no electricity in the cottage only small strip lights in each room run on batteries. !!

An amazingly happy three days in a wonderful setting all to the generosity of my friends Tony and Ruth who allowed us to stay in the family cottage that used to be owned by Tony's grandma and where he spend every summer holiday as a boy playing 'Swallows and Amazons' with canoes, rowing and sail boats. Our grateful thanks.

SPRINGTIME IN THE WOODS

2010-06-24T15:34:00.003+01:00

My trio of seasons have now been delivered and I thought you might like to see the final one on Spring which was commissioned after purchase from the Reepham Gallery of summer poppyfields and autumn harvest time. All three works were acrylic paintings on stretched canvas 20" x 44" .

I really enjoyed creating this one from ideas gleaned from stopping off at woods on my way home and thoughts of springtime wild flowers even though it was well into May. Hurrah for my natural history background that always seems to get into my work. It sort of created itself as I painted along, starting with the pair of central silver birch trees, then the idea of creating a 'dell' in the foreground for the wild flowers and somewhere along the process deciding on a pathway through the wood. The thought of the broken tree trunk on the right for the ivy arrived as I felt it was a little bland just petering the pathway off the canvas on the bottom right. Wonderful what imagination can do once you have the references and ideas in your head and heart.

Not the easiest of formats to work with, but by having full closeup detail at the bottom it seems to work.

Here's a photo of the wild flower detail in the foreground:

... and here's the complete work.

Now I am all packed ready to leave for Ruth's cottage by the sea to meet up with Anita for three full days sketching, chatting, sipping and just being girls!!!

WELLS NEXT THE SEA WATERCOLOURS

2010-06-18T17:33:00.003+01:00

Here I am again ages since my last post. Where do the days go?

Clive went away for a week by the sea in the Med and the time just flew by. Half way through Laura and Wayne came over with the girls for a day and night, and then left the girls with me for 5 days so they could have a little break together travelling and staying around Norfolk and Suffolk. There are so many wonderful places to visit. The girls and I had a lovely time particularly our day at the seaside at Mundsley - I'll post some of the lovely photos I took of them playing in the sea and of the local surfers one day soon. Before we knew it , it was time to go to the airport to pick grandad up. On the Monday I took them home to meet up with Laura in time for her birthday on the Tuesday.

So, the only thing I have to show you is two small watercolours I did from photos taken at Wells Next the Sea North Norfolk coast. I needed to mount them up for a gallery browser of coastal scenes.

Here's number one - a memory of a weekend at Sandra's cottage when we strolled into the quayside to watch the boats come in. This one had landed crabs and quite a crowd (I only used a few figures) was watching them unload. Number two is of a day spent on the beach sketching with Anita where some children were playing cricket by the beach huts. Afraid I made a mess of the little girls face so she doesn't look as young as she actually was - probably playing with her elder brother. It was a lovely afternoon together and I tried to sketch the beach huts in their glorious full row that seems to go on for ever. The main problem both times was trying to get in all the steps and railings.

Finished my large trio of Spring, Summer and Autumn scenes now and will show you once they have been delivered.

PS TO MIXED MEDIA PREVIOUS POST

2010-06-07T15:30:00.004+01:00

If you read right through my previous post on this mixed media day, you will remember I was having problems with adding additional images. I thought it was a shame for you not to see some of the finished paintings, so here they are :

a great result using quite a large proportion of collage.

wonderful result from one of our newer ladies- doesn't the black lace and fringe of the Spanish shawl provide a strong base to the brighter colours.

and lots of contrast with this lovely lady with her jewelled necklace and hat trim from glitter and beads. The tissue papered orchids and patterned paper strips skirt really work as well as the added pastel over the mid ground grey.

Well done ladies attending my first mixed media workshop at Coltishall.

MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP

2010-06-07T14:26:00.006+01:00

Had a small group this Saturday. I think I made a mistake in choosing the first Saturday of every month, as the dates coincide with Bank Holidays and now school holidays.

We began with choosing our individual subject, sketching in and adding first layer of watercolour washes. Where wanted, patterned papers or tissue were glued in before moving onto acrylic layers, with added glitter, beads, etc. Then deciding on adding pastel over the acrylics and penmarks where appropriate. Each piece of work took the whole day to develop.

This still life subject became a wonderful painting, the artist using watercolour washes with added acrylic, glitter for the grey shiny evening shoes, gutta silver to help create the pearls, torn grey leather-like papers for the shoes' bows and lots of other imaginative applications. I can't upload the finished work - such a pity it was stunning.

this subject became a very colourful work from the original sketch and water colour washes through to addition of acrylics, pastels and penwork.

My system won't let me upload any more images, but this early creation of a lovely lady came from a statue in front of a silver vase full of white orchids. These blooms were added with torn small strips of white tissue with added tones of yellow in the highlights and blues in the shadows. Again I can't show you the finished work.

This subject started with this first watercolour wash.

We break now for the summer with a sketching garden party in July and sketching by the local river in August.

I'll post and then see if I can edit. Great day by all, however small in numbers.

very busy - so here's my garden!!

2010-06-03T15:41:00.005+01:00

At last summer has arrived and we are basking in warm sunshine - correction - hot sunshine!! This is a corner of our rear garden with packed herbacious border leading up to the little gardenhouse with steps up to chairs and table - a very sunny corner all morning. Great for breakfast coffee and toast.

The garden parasol Clive bought me last May was made of wooden poles and has been a real pain with the struts breaking, so we ordered a posh new Acamp metal one that tilts and also has a crank handle. It arrived this morning and here I am already in its shade reading a super book about Queen Elizabeth's childhood - just popped in for a cool glass of sparkling rose delivered this afternoon by our dear neighbours to celebrate our 51st anniversay this weekend!! .

I've had winter pansies all through the darker months and now they are blooming their little hearts out and growing taller and taller in a raised bed full of blues and purples.

I bought these aliums when visiting Amsterdam flower markets some years ago and was able to dig them up and bring them with us for our new garden.

I used to have the most incredible passionflower in my Cherry Trees garden (photo below) , but somehow they don't seem to like this soil at our house in Coltishall. I do so miss these beautiful unusual flowers.

... and finally a view of the front garden steps up to the garden gate passed the garage and flower bed where the lovely big white poppies grow - remember I painted them last summer in my garden sketchbook - and they are just coming out.

Sorry have not been posting of late or visiting/commenting your own , but have been very busy creating a new commission 20" x 44" entitled Springtime in the Woods to make a trio with my Summer and Autumn acrylic paintings on canvas. Thanks DJ for your concern , but all is well just a busy bee!!

VIEW OF THE CITY OIL PAINTING

2010-05-24T12:19:00.003+01:00

I had decided to create another 16" x 16" box canvas piece for the Kings Lynn Summer Show in oils, but it wasn't until I was on our way back from Yarmouth with Sandra that I came across the very subject. VIEW OF THE CITY OF NORWICH FROM MOUSEHOLD HEATH early evening.

View of the City complete

(actually there is a little more of the foreground pathway and sky as I cropped this image to use for postcards being printed by Vista)

It all came about because our return to the city coincided with the outpouring of the Norwich football club fans after the last match of the season which meant they had won the cup. The main road was blocked and everything came to a stand still, so we headed off across country to approach the city further round and Sandra took me on a detour past the prison to see the view that just about every artist worth his salt living or visiting Norwich has painted, from Seago to Cotman I am sure!!

Well, above is my finished version and below an early stage of blocking showing more sky and pathway foreground area.

I was trying to consider what tones I would use to create the early evening light and it was only later when I realised my other works for the show had figures that I decided to add the loving couple seated on the bench. Hurrah for google images for some references of people proportions to the size of the bench.

Early blocking in stages, not really knowing where it will eventually lead me!!

PASTEL WORKSHOP

2010-05-18T15:35:00.011+01:00

two works in progress (plus the inevitable cups of tea)

Way back at the beginning of May I had a pastel workshop with my regular artists, but realised this morning that due to so much dashing about I had not posted info about our day together here in Coltishall village hall. It seems (thank goodness for my routine) I had put the photos I had taken onto my hard drive Coltishall workshop folder, so it was easy to find them.

I took many brightly coloured subjects and one of our kind ladies brought some new interesting figures and pots. So here are a some photos of the subjects they all chose from - I loved them so much I wanted to join in and in fact took photos for use in my studio when I get the time:

dancer, pansies and lace - blue plate, orange and vase of flowers

floral portion of our mixed subjects for a pastel workshop.

The morning began a little different than most of my workshops, as we plunged straight into a full subject learning as we went. Here are some works in progress (as well as the photo at the top):

... and here are some floral works :

I could not get all the variety of work into this post, but must mention our young lady's work on the Venetian mask Maggie kindly brought in for us. It would also seem we got so involved I did not photo the finished work at the end of the day and I know there was a delightful study of the ballerina with flowers as well as the one above with the lamp . Naughty tutor!!

PS: I have had real trouble with this post - with uploading the images and now with this massive space before the comments and other details - it won't let me delete blank lines all the way down!!!! I've given up trying so keep going if you want to add a comment please!!

I've been in to get rid of the blank lines this morning, hurrah it worked today!!

MELTON HOUSE GALLERY REEPHAM

2010-05-10T17:00:00.006+01:00

I can't believe how the time has flown since I journeyed over to Sutton Bridge to take an acrylic workshop for a group of artists over there in Lincolnshire on the 21st April. I stayed on to visit friends and ever since I have been back have been delivering work for Norfolk and Suffolk shows, attending previews, stewarding and visiting Yarmouth one lovely day with Sandra to see the Seachange Exhibition and visit a new gallery opened by Michelle who runs the Beccles Upstairs gallery. Oh yes, then on 1st May had my local group at a pastel workshop, so no time to add a new post to my blog.

Then I came home early from delivering and invigilating at a West Norfolk Artist show at Ringstead Stables Gallery, as I had developed a very itchy rash and everyone was worried it was shingles. Fortunately, my doctor saw me on the afternoon of my return and diagnosed an allergy. So I am on cortison creams and anti histamine tablets and slowly improving.

Then last Wednesday (the day I returned) I had an SOS from a new gallery which opened this year in the lovely market town of Reepham in Norfolk. Having seen my book Ten Years in the Life of a Painter, Laura asked particularly for my flower pieces. It was a lovely opportunity at very short notice to find a selection of floral works available from my stock and I rose to the occasion taking down work for her to select and hang the very next morning. We had great fun together working out what went where with much juggling and changing of minds as the morning progressed. Eventually there were 13 pieces hung, including the Norfolk Poppyfield acrylic on an easel in the window -

Here is the hanging in progress

and the corner where we hung the four watercolours I had brought.

My larger acrylic pieces made a grand showing on the main wall opposite the entrance doorway. I'm going back tomorrow to meet their PR lady and photographer, so will photo that as Laura straightened and labelled all the works after I left on Thursday.

ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL WORKSHOP OIL PAINTING

2010-04-30T14:56:00.004+01:00

At long last I have found time to get on with my oil painting of the West Norfolk Artists Workshop at St Nicholas Chapel in Kings Lynn to make a pair with the Rehearsal I painted earlier. I have used the same colours as before but created the piece much lighter.

Blocking in stage:

This next image is where I got to yesterday and, as you can see, I still have the painting on the right hand panel to create and straighten up the nude painting. It turned out to be one of my dear friend Sandra's acrylic paintings of Becketts Chapel in Wymondham. Amusingly, she has offered to come over and paint it again into my painting for me!!

(Sandra's website address: http://www.sandrarowney.com/)

nearly finished: Thought you'd like to see the pair together I photo'd a few days ago, as they were propped up side by side in my little studio room. As you can see, very different lighting. I am really enjoying adding figures to my work after many years.

Rehearsel and Workshop side by side:

Don't forget to enlarge images for detail.

ACRYLIC WORKSHOP

2010-04-25T15:46:00.011+01:00

Don't forget to

enlarge images.

14 members of the Sutton Bridge art group attended this workshop in Lincolnshire last Wednesday, before I moved on to stay with friends. Arriving after a very easy journey with hardly any traffic, the first thing I asked was for the tables to be set up as above, so that everyone could face inwards to the 4 or 5 different still life subjects I setup in the middle. These covered

my good old copper pots with oranges and my tall African family statue;

grapes and china plate and bowl;

brown ceramic fruit bowl with pineapple and white and terracotta tea towel;

blue vase with yellow daffodils ;

dried flower arrangement of hydrangea heads, artichokes, my wooden snowdrops and large peonies all in a chunky creamy and brown country vase and my bronze cat.

All had draped cloths of varying colours and patterns as backdrops.

I also took along a few paintings to demonstrate the various techniques from sculpting with modelling paste, use of crackleglaze for some candles, blending soft colours, splattering, glazes of thin layers, and applications of heavy duty, normal consistency pigment through to acrylic inks and finally the use of gutta silk paints to add decorative elements.

After discussing the various acrylics and mediums available on the market over a cup of coffee, we then quickly moved onto the methods of applying acrylic paint. We started with thin washes overlaying dried paint to see how glazes work to create luminosity and the method of mixing paint on the canvas to keep the colours pure. Moved on to applying thick paint with knife in large areas and then mosaic broken lines of various colours or tones to achieve an impressionist effect.

Before lunch break, we had covered

masking with card, torn paper and masking tape;

spattering with toothbrushes;

flicking a loaded brush;

all wet on wet and wet on dry to see the different effects.

Finally I gave away my secret of 'printing' colour shapes after applying paint to pieces of watercolour paper.

Everyone had the chance to try various mediums from flow enhancer, sand, beads, etc and my gutta silk paints for gold or silver highlights. We discussed crackleglaze and tried using modelling paste.

During the last few moments of the morning everyone prepared a stretched canvas with gesso coloured and applied as they chose. A very busy morning, getting us all ready for a 'masterpiece' using chosen techniques in the afternoon.

AFTERNOON CANVAS WORK

Amazingly, quite a number chose to work with modelling paste and one lady did a close up of a daffodil simply using this technique for the petal shapes and placing colour afterwards. Two other ladies asked if they might use my 'sculptured poppies' painting as inspiration to use modelling paste and the impressionist mosaic style of applying acrylic paint.

modelling paste close up daffodil and sculptured poppies in progress

photo of one of the still life subjects with acrylic painting in progress , paint having been applied very thickly on gessoed smooth background.

This lady was very clever in creating the artichokes and teasel by placing modelling paste with a knife in small marks to create the various shapes that made up the individual dried heads.

Two other works created in the afternoon are posted below. Unfortunately, I did not get round to everyone with the camera as they finished their main work, such a pity as there were some really different interesting pieces such as the African family statue, where the artist had added beads, seeds and silk gutta in gold to create their costume jewellery.

this gentleman used varied washes for his background on top of white gesso (the white area would turn into a lace tablecloth by the end)

and another gentleman started to block in after placing composition with brush and diluted acrylic

All in all a very happy, funfilled and successful day - of that I am assured as I have been asked to visit them again for another workshop. Sorry if it has turned out to be rather a long post - hope you manage to drag yourself through all the text to the images at the end.

ANOTHER GARDEN SKETCHBOOK SPREAD

2010-04-20T10:26:00.004+01:00

Here is the last garden sketch I did when relaxing after my op. I added the catkins from the front garden to balance the spread. Afraid I took photos rather than scan (don't know why!!) and you can see my shadow on the left.

.. and some close up photos for more detail.

Had a very busy time since Easter and now off in the morning to take an acrylic workshop in Lincolnshire. Happily it is not far from where I lived in the Fens so will be spending evening and staying with friends. Some of the Thursday evening art group I used to run will be coming over to spend the evening together. Really looking forward to it.

On the way back I am delivering work for Sandra and me to the Grimston St Botolph's church for their Spring time annual show. .. so the car will be loaded!!!

On return hopefully will find more time to comment on all your lovely blog postings.

VISIT FROM ANITA AND MAGIC GARDEN SERIES

2010-04-13T10:24:00.008+01:00

Completed Magic Garden Series No: VIII - Garden Pond

16" x 16" box canvas acrylic

Just had four lovely days of Anita's company here in the Broads of Norfolk. We had two whole days out visiting wonderful local beauty spots sketching and lunching out together in the sunshine. Her work is wonderful and made my so called sketches look so poor I am not even going to post them to you!!!! Do go over to see what she achieved with her Alphonse Sketchbook with scenes from my home and plein air work at Horning and Reepham in her 'visit to Joannie's sketchbook' at http://artbyanita.blogspot.com/ .

On Sunday we stayed at home sorting, planning and chatting and I asked Anita for her opinion on three of my magic garden series for a summer show, which some children visiting an exhibition last year called THE LUMPY PAINTINGS because of their many layers of thick paint!! One I had never really liked so never exhibited and after a really helpful critique, went to my little studio room and made many adjustments. Below are two stages of the changes after checking some iris reference photos taken at my friend's garden pond when I realised I had originally painted cultivated garden blooms that would not grow by water:

Decided the left looked unbalanced so added a further yellow iris slightly duller in the shaded corner:

The final adjustment can be seen in the finished piece at the top, which came about by me having coffee in the sunroom this morning with Clive and noticing the pale blue sky dropping right down between the trunks of the trees in the corner of the garden. I feel the uneven line of the blue pond I have now created between the reeds and blooms and the added stronger final yellow layer to the irises really adds to the character of the work. Do you approve Anita?