Interior painting - Arlington Court

Because of the furniture etc in the House itself at Arlington Court, I'm not able to paint a scene there in person, so I do the next best thing and take photographs and copius sketches.

As you see from this photo, there's a lot of information to get, 

so I simplified it

A few lines, down  to basic forms

Setting out colour and tones by 'blocking in'

The final painting

As with all paintings, lessons are learned and I would actually approach this painting slightly differently another time.   I intend to keep this painting to look back on in the future and see how my "Interior Paintings" progress.  I'm always wanting to move on my skill level and push myself with technique, it's all an adventure.

Inspiration from a sketch

So inspired with a sketch of Hamish,

that I used it as reference for an Oil painting

...and I remembered to take photos of the various stages too...

🎨 🎨 🎨

Think I'm enjoying Oil painting, don't you 🤣

"Welly Boot Garden" 

Flower Cup - Oil painting

Some of you will have seen this already on facebook, but I'm adding here for those who don't do fb :)


This next Oil painting was inspired by a photograph I took at Arlington Court, in the Tea Room.  The tables had decorative little teacups and saucers containing flowers, which was a lovely touch.  

Step-by-Step stages of this painting were

Then I added some shadows before I got going with the actual Oil paint itself

In fact the painting was done in a way called Alla Prima, which basically means 

in one go, so I didn't stop to take photos along the way, I wanted to Keep Going.

Truth tell, I was enjoying myself too much to stop and take pictures ;)

and here it is

"FLOWER CUP"

Oil painting 8" x 6"

on canvas board

🎨 🎨 🎨

It's true....I'm back into Oil painting

Some of you will have seen this already on facebook, but I'm adding here for those who don't do fb :)

Here's another step-by-step painting ~

this time it's inspired by a cuddly donkey (not mine).

I took artistic license and changed it's colour to blue instead of grey.

Really pleased with how he turned out and I've titled this:

"Too Cute to be Blue"

~

Oil painting

Volunteering at Arlington Court - plus painting the landscapes there - eventually I guess it was inevitable that I would want to paint some of the interior decor.  Unfortunately painting within the House isn't possible, the furniture etc cannot be subjected to splashing paint (especially the way I work)...so it has meant I have to take photographs and work from them.  Not a problem, it's just finding the right capture.  

I've started a project of Oil painting Interiors (setting my own challenges here) with this scene, here's the photo reference:

I'm enjoy painting these in an Impressionistic style

and today I completed the painting

It now needs 3-4 weeks to dry before I add retouching varnish. 

🎨 🎨 🎨

Sketching in Fuerteventura

Wow!  that was fun....My first holiday abroad in YEARS all made possible because our daughter was able to look after William

(he had a lovely time with her and little Hamish)

Husband and I went to Fuerteventura 🔗 in the Canary Islands and, of course, I took some painting supplies with me...

Can't tell you how wonderful it was to be standing looking at this view

and actually painting it there and then ❤️ 🎨

 The scene is on the west coast of the island at a place called

El Cotillo 🔗

This next painting was at 

Corralejo 🔗

Fuerteventura, being created from volcanic activity over 20 million years ago, the terrain is very arid.

I was amazed at how the hills - mountains and general rocky surfaces held so much colour.  I kept seeing greens, even though there were very few areas of grass or trees, then discovered it was lichen. 

On our travels around the island I still sketched and here are some of my sketchbook drawings:

(Photos on one of our drives)

A quick sketch at the harbour in Corralejo

Stopped in the shade to sketch this church in the main town of

Puerto del Rosario 🔗

We even drove down to 

Caleta de Fuste 🔗

(not one of our favourite resorts, but it was on our drive around,

so thought we would stop and take a wander - at least I got a drawing out of it)

Not your usual 'holiday drawing subject' but since we were having a coffee under a large awning

I spied a subject...

All in all it was a

FANTASTIC HOLIDAY

I LOVED IT

💃💃💃

Back to Oils

I have to admit, it has been some time since I set up my easel for Oil painting.  Somehow I drifted away from it with Watercolours (which I love) and then I got into Gouache (in a big way).  The Gouache was the opener to me going back to Oils - Gouache being much more akin to Oil painting than it is watercolours.

It's good that the smelly mediums of Oil painting in the past - well, technically they are still there for some - but for me I'm making the most of the odourless ones, particularly for brush cleaning.  

Zest It!  is effective with a smell of orange - much more bearable.

Living near the sea, I had to get stuck into a Seascape - albeit small 8" x 6", but I'm also trying out some other mediums along the way and wanted to see how they worked on a small canvas board.

Here's the Work-in-Progress stage

~ to this stage it took about half an hour ~

then left it to dry off a bit overnight 

enough to come back to the next day and complete with finishing touches and details

Now it needs to wait for about a week to 10 days before I add retouching varnish to protect it.

(If the paint isn't completely dry at that point, providing it is on the surface, I can still add the retouching varnish and the painting will still cure beneath the varnish - the retouching varnish breaths - who'd have thought!)

~ Now I can't wait to start another painting ~

🎨🎨🎨

The Walled Garden - Plein air painting

Another plein air painting session at Arlington Court yesterday.  Lucky that the weather came out sunny, having been very overcast during the morning.

I set up my easel in the walled garden this time and decided to do a watercolour of the foxgloves.

Bees were plentiful and {{busy bees}} too, but they didn't bother me.  Something nice about hearing bees a buzzing whilst painting.

(Look, I had even worn my coat over there, but found it much too hot to keep on, so my trolley looked after it for me)

I'm after a loose Impressionistic painting here...

Waiting for paint to dry, I poured myself a coffee from the flask I brought along,
just had to remember Not to dip the brushes into it instead of the water pot!

Glad I decided to do the foxglove painting

~ what do you think? ~

As an extra, here's a quick sketch of
The Old Granary which was about 5 minutes walk from the walled garden

 All in all that was a good painting session,
and I'm looking forward to the next time,
but where to paint?....ummm, you'll have to wait for that.


🎨🎨🎨