SALTHOUSE CHURCH FROM THE MARSHES

One of the pieces I am working on depicting scenes on the north Norfolk coast for a show in Holt.

Painted in acrylic on an 18" x 14" box canvas. I put together three photos, one of the pathway, one of the field and one of the buildings and church. Considering they were all from different angles (and days) I think it has turned out ok.

Afraid I am having trouble uploading images again. This is the second try after reducing the size of the file and it still hasn't achieved the full colour right down to the bottom, so ignore that pink stripe!!

MORE ITALIAN ACRYLIC INK WORK

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.

BLICKLING HALL WATERCOLOUR AND OIL

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

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.

NEW YEARS EVE LONDON FIREWORKS

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.

29th WORLD WIDE SKETCH CRAWL

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.

CHEATING AT ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE

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!!

HOLKHAM HALL WITH DEER ACRYLIC PAINTING FINISHED

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.

ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL WORKSHOP OIL PAINTING

I have at last finished my other project and and sent it away to be printed. More another time.

... so today I had the joy of getting out my Michael Harding oil paints and starting the second in the pair of paintings for the summer West Norfolk Artist show. Fortunately I had already worked on the composition so I could get the paints onto the palette, get out my brushes and wonderful Liquin orginal which improves flow and transparency.

Above is the first stage and as you can see (or remember) I am starting with much softer colours and application than the Rehearsal piece of work I posted some weeks back. I have used Kings Blue Deep, Brilliant Pink, Raw Umber and lots and lots of Titanium white, all blended with a wonderful soft mop brush to create a mix of tones. All these colours were in the other painting when I allowed the blue in the mix to be more dominant on the walls and screens.

For a first painting session, I am really delighted. I'm really looking forward to applying my shiny floor technique and hope I manage the figures well. . To vary the heights of the people, I added a young girl, which I might paint in red as a focal point - Sandra's idea when she saw the original sketch. Don't think this second piece will be as busy.

By the way, that painting hung on the right screen is Sandra's of Beckett's chapel in Wymondham. Maybe you'd like to pop over to her blog to see her stunning Norwich architectural pieces. http://sandrarowney.blogspot.com/

HILLSIDE RETREAT

Sorry I have not posted for nearly a week - due to two reasons. The first I had trouble with all scrolling. The minute I tried to move down or across screen, it jumped right back to where it had begun!!!! Absolutely no way to try to add text or images. Anyway completely sorted at last including purchase of a brand new ergonomic Microsoft keyboard as the other one was 10 years old. However, it turned out to be the wireless mouse I have had for some years.

Oh! yes, the other reason - I am in the middle of a major project, I will tell you about when its all finished. Patience now!!

Anyway, to return to my stay at Anita's, I played with another acrylic in the style of Mick Waite (remember the DVD we watched?) and here is what developed based on an Italian photo in a holiday magazine. Bit heavy really, with lots of thick paint applied with big brushes. Needless to say, being me, I really developed the flower border in the front.

Just a couple of close ups for you to see the simplicity and different ways the strokes were applied. Maybe these images will enlarge with a click to get even more detail.

Very bright colours though, but then I suppose I was thinking of the strong light in Italy, even if the sky looks overcast. It all really reminds me of my very early work when I first started using acrylics umpteen years ago.

LUXEMBOURG CITY FLOWER MARKET WATERCOLOUR

You may remember I recently posted about a visit to Luxembourg to see our family and noted that when we were there Karen and I went into the City to the Saturday flower market - plus the usual clothes and vegetable stalls. I promised my daughter in law that I would send her a watercolour of our visit having taken my lovely Lumix camera with me that morning. Here are the results.

My first composition did not please me, as the cathedral with the lovely long spires was half hidden by the trees from the photo I first used. I also was not happy with the number of people I had sketched in ... so this first attempt was abandoned.

This next image shows where I re-drew the composition bringing the cathedral building and spires more to the right and a little larger. I was happier, as it meant the two paths between the trays of flowers lead not only to the back of that open delivery lorry but on and up to the spires.
Here is a close up showing the detail of the trays of flowers in progress and the improvement by leaving out the figures near the centre I had in the first composition. This final image is of the completed watercolour put behind a small double mount, so that it was protected but not too big to post. I must have used at least 4 photos to arrive at the final composition and throughout there was decision making as to how much to leave out!!! - the usual bane of every artists - and the artistic licence of moving things about .

Only hope Karen does not decide to have a look at my blog before Christmas presents are opened!!

VILLAGE COTTAGE COMMISSION

Earlier this year I was asked to paint a lovely local cottage in acrylic on canvas 36" x 24" and to my embarrassment could not find time until late into summer to start it, but more embarrassing was I never got round to finishing it until Autumn came along as I was so busy with work for events and shows throughout the year. I am happy to say it was delivered to very satisfied clients, who have given me permission to add it to my blog. So....

here is the finished work


Thought you'd enjoy seeing how it progressed from initial stages, so some different images for you to look at

early blocking in stage

It was difficult to get the basic drawing down, as in real life half the house is hidden by a large tree in the flowerbed lane side of the driveway. Took me ages going back and forward to set the various windows in place, as the left hand third was, in fact, a separate cottage at one time and the windows are different shape and sizes to the rest. Even, you may notice, the roof line was slightly lower!! As for the three chimneys they all seemed different.

here is a close up of the left hand cottage showing the longer shaped windows and the left hand flower bed from plants back in the late summer.


Here is the porch area, with the delightful unusual coloured door.



and finally a bit of artistic licence where I have brought the brick post with the numbers of the two cottages forward from the entrance to the drive. I simply had to add the soft pink summer roses that grow in that righthand side flower bed beneath the lounge windows.



What you might spy in the finished image at the top is the added acrylic gel with glass beads to create the feeling of the pebble drive surface.

It was a long job but once drawn in I thoroughly enjoyed the painting from the brickwork to the flower beds, porch and even the windows!!

HOLKHAM HALL AND HUNSTANTON in NORFOLK

Back from our time with family in Luxembourg and, as promised, here are some more sketches from my weekend trip with Anita to the north Norfolk coast.

We spent the whole day Sunday at Holkham Hall finishing with a yummy pub/hotel dinner on the way back to our caravan.

This is a sketch of part of the mansion I enjoyed doing in pen late afternoon seated on a rise above Holkham Hall and sharing the bench with us amongst the trees was a magnificent bronze seated figure of Thomas Coke (pronounced Cook) the founder of the family fortunes and builder of the house in the 1750's. This is a classic 18th century Palladian style mansion with many artistic treasures and home to seven Earls of Leicester. Other delights are the deer park with many interesting architectural features from an obelisk to an ice house and church and a large lake.

please click to enlarge for detail

Here are the last two sketches on Saturday evening as the sun went down, leaving some delightful skies. We stopped off at Hunstanton lighthouse and walked down onto the beach for a quick standing up sketch and some photos of the sunset but it was getting cold and blowy.





We walked up the slope to see the lighthouse in more detail and found this little expanse of clifftop grass with a round flowerbed and a wolf made of twigs beside three slim young silver birch saplings. When Anita kindly went back to fetch the car, I sat on a bench and quickly put this next sketch together as the light disappeared leaving a pinkish glow.

I added the colours to both pen sketches when we got back to the caravan. They were sketched in my new soft cream suede bound journal, rather like a Moleskin to look at but made by Derwent I purchased from my village gallery for £7.

INK AND WATERCOLOUR WORKS

Surprised to find its over a week since I added a post to my blog. I know I have been busy with all manner of art matters, but I can now show you some of the actual artwork I have been working on over the past week. These are for a local village who are running a weekend Sculpture Trail and Arts and crafts exhibition in aid of their church roof fund (14th - 16th August).

I am producing four pieces in 12" x 12" natural frames with ivory double mounts, using ink and watercolour. Black and sepia penwork and black, sepia, blue and purple ink for the dark areas.

as usual need to click to enlarge for detail

Number one is of the church (St Botolph's Trunch) from a photo I took back in the winter as I wanted to use the birch trees without their foliage so you can see more of the church building. I fell in love with the soft winter light and long tree shadows.


Number two is of the interior as I felt the notice propped on one of three plastic stacker chairs advising you not to enter due to 'unstable roof' would make a perfect subject for the reason for the event. Here the use of inks for the screen and darker panels makes a great contrast with the soft watercolour washes.


I will create another post when I have completed the other two works which are based on a visit to the village Open Gardens and Scarecrow event last week - and hope you find them amusing!!!

ORCHIDS IN INDIA

Finished piece called ORCHIDS IN INDIA

I decided to produce some new pieces to use with some work already completed and create a series called FLOWERS IN MY TRAVELS for submission for the Kings Lynn Summer Festival event held by the West Norfolk Artists in the lovely St Nicholas Chapel venue. They are all acrylic on 16" x 16" box canvas.

You may recognize from earlier posts that I had created earlier this year both TULIPS IN AMSTERDAM and PROTEUS IN SOUTH AFRICA. I took a good hard look at these compositions and changed them somewhat so they were not so complicated. I also used an old rough painting as a base for another one about SUNFLOWERS IN S.W. FRANCE from our many stays with friends in a farmhouse out in the country between Bordeaux and the Dordogne.

For this post, I am showing you how I worked on a completely new piece based on our trips to India, when Clive was absolutely bowled over by the TAJ MAHAL. Here are a couple of stages and as you will see from the finished piece at the beginning of the post, I decided to remove the spray of orchids climbing up the right hand side into the sky.

early blocking in

later stage when building/reflection added

As usual, they all show my love of flowers, plus my passion for colour. When I get back at the weekend from staying over near Kings Lynn with my daughter, I'll photo all four together and post the series for you to see and let you know if any were selected.

BWTAS TOWERS IN EAST ANGLIA SHOW

Hope I am not boring you with these two latest pieces of work but thought you'd like to see them both finished now.

Water towers at North Walsham
I really enjoyed adding all the colours to what seems at first glance in real life just greyish white concrete. Having such strong sun light to give that glorious shadow underneath the big tower, I felt there had to be more colours in the concrete, so introduced yellow, then added greens and blues and reddish browns in the shadows, all colours that appear in the landscape and houses/roofs (or is it rooves?) .

Drainage Mill at How Hill

As I liked the hints of warm colours in the towers, I decided to add some into the grasses and reeds of this painting as well. I had felt all along that there was something I did not like about the composition and I realised it was the parallel path and drain near the bottom (see my post image of 25th June), which seemed to take ones eye away from the main focus... so - simple as it can be with acrylic - I added grasses and reeds over the dark brown drain that had been on the right hand side - and Oh how much happier I am.

They are now varnished, labelled and corded and ready to go.

NORWICH CATHEDRAL ACRYLIC PAINTING No: 2

Am I glad May is nearly over and we go away to Italy at the weekend for a well earned rest - it has been an incredibly busy month. Finally, I had a week to create this acrylic painting of THE CLOISTERS AT NORWICH CATHEDRAL and completed it last night around 11 pm when I continued shapes around the sides of the box canvas. Today Clive put on the D rings and cord and I varnished and labelled it ready to deliver with the other 3 paintings to my pal Sandra who will take it to the selection committee for me.

Here are a couple of photos of the process throughout the week.

When I visited the Cathedral I simply loved the way the bright light was flooding through into the cloisters and hoped I could achieve this feeling. To do so I added some yellow to the white light to help the contrast with the blue tones in the stone floor. I decided to extend the large shapes of the archways on the foreground floor area to give more impact and did a final white glaze all over the floor area both light and shadow. You will see the difference when you look at the top photo of the final painting.

Hopefully in June I will be able to visit my blog and yours more often.

NORWICH CATHEDRAL

click to enlarge
Sorry, I have not posted anything lately but been very very busy. Firstly preparing the West Door of Norwich Cathedral above in acrylic for submission at the end of May (one week!) to be selected for exhibition at the Cathedral later in the summer.

Thought you might like to see its stages, but as I have put the finished work up already, here's a middle stage followed by some of the early wash shapes on sketch created with graphatint grey pencil. Make a change to go backwards through the process!!

I used photos I took last summer on a visit (only 10 miles from home) and painted on 16 x 16 inch square box canvas using a real mix of acrylic paints from Liquitex, W&N Finity and some Spanish tubes I bought years ago and for the final coat on the wooden door, I popped down to my local Swallowtail gallery and purchased - heaven forbid - a cheap Paynes Grey. Everyone know's I don't use Paynes Grey but felt a glaze would knock the tone back but allow the rich warm reds and blues to show through. I used such a mix of manufacturers paints as I saw so many colours in the stone and wood from greens, reds, yellows, browns and blues and I just rummaged in my box until I found the colours I wanted from unusual ones like Mars Orange, Light Green Oxide etc.

I have one week to sketch (from my photo s) a view of the cloisters (with some people on the green outside in the background). Hope it goes as well.

Happy painting folks.

SECOND RISING SUN RIVERSIDE PUB OIL

You may remember some posts ago I mentioned the plan to create a body of work for the local riverside pub THE RISING SUN. Here is the second oil painting I am glad to say I have now completed. Thought you might like to see the different stages.

stage 1 - blocking in on warm underbase

stage 2 -creating colours and reflections

stage 3 - adding Eqyptian Geese

Completed after adding tone, treeline and detail

Just as a reminder here is a photo in my artroom of the two oil paintings together. The square is 16 inches and the landscape 24 x 12 inches, both painted with Michael Harding lovely pliable oil paints on box canvases.

Had a meeting with Sally today and we have agreed to have the work hanging for Easter Weekend, so I have quite a lot to do by then. Don't expect too much blog activity please!