Monday 29 July 2019

Plein Air painting at Arlington Court

I never tire of painting over at Arlington Court.  When I think that the various locations have been painted enough, I find another angle and the view dictates the kind of painting, be it Landscape, Portrait or as in this case Square.  Seasonally it changes too, and also the weather makes a difference.

Last week I painted by the Lake, with the Lily's out.  It was slightly overcast, the occasional dark cloud threatened, but luckily it didn't come to anything.  At least it was cool enough to paint, temperatures recently have been high and HOT!



and guess what came along to see my painting


Yes, a Dragonfly.  It rested on the side of my pochade box for probably about 5 minutes. Time enough for a photo, perhaps it knew to wait.



The majority of the painting was done in the time I had, but I did complete finishing touches to it at home in the studio.

Here's the completed painting, and you'll see I added a couple of people
sitting on the bench overlooking the lake.



and a close-up of the piece, which measures 10" x 10".



 ðŸŽ¨ 🎨 🎨 






Sunday 21 July 2019

Still busy with Oil paintings

Mostly using palette knife with a little brush work.  








~ Picked the cherries from our tree before the birds helped themselves ~


~ This one already has a buyer ~





 The Dining Room at Arlington Court

I have to admit, I have trouble photographing my work.  Either I'm too close and although it shows brushwork/texture it doesn't really convey what the overall painting is really like as they all look better up on a wall.

My next challenge is that having a number of these paintings to dry, where do I put them during that time?  (As you know Oil paintings can take about 3-4 weeks to be touch dry, they will then have Re-Touching Varnish applied to protect whilst still allowing them to breath and dry naturally).

So, with this challenge to hand, I asked my husband what we could make or buy to keep the paintings laying flat whilst they initially dried!   As he seems to be able to come up with something genius, the very next day he happened to go to the local Recycling Centre and came home with this...




As you see it is perfect, not only for canvas and board sizes 6" x 8" and also 10" x 8" (with an even larger one on the top), but it doesn't take up much room either AND  Each painting gets to dry on its own little shelf -

What was even better is

 this stand was FREE - win win.


🎨🎨🎨













Monday 15 July 2019

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.








Wednesday 10 July 2019

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...



🎨 🎨 🎨






Saturday 6 July 2019

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


🎨 🎨 🎨








Thursday 4 July 2019

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"


~




Wednesday 3 July 2019

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. 



🎨 🎨 🎨