Saturday 24 April 2021

It's good to be back at Arlington



With Easter over now and the weather so good (in other words it has warmed up, I am not a fan of painting whilst freezing cold!) and so I have been plein air painting again at Arlington Court National Trust after what feels like months and months.  It is so good to be back there.  Can't believe how lucky we are with this weather at the moment, and making the most of it.  I guess we will pay the price with a deluge of rain at some point, nature has her ways, but meanwhile I've been painting in the open air, how wonderful again at last.

This first week back has really been about getting in a couple of warm-up sessions, to get back into it.  Even so, I have managed to do 6 hours.  Admittedly that was not painting the entire time, I stop to chat with visitors and hope they enjoyed seeing my paintings.

Now back in the studio, the paintings will dry and hopefully be ready for my visit next week.

This Oil on canvas is looking across at the house....a given subject as the canvas is happens to be 8x16 ins.


click the image below....


  I saved this clip onto my Youtube channel, hopefully it makes a good place to save videos)




Monday 19 April 2021

Finding inspiration

During Lockdown it has been difficult finding new inspiration for paintings.  Okay, I can look online and obviously there is a great wealth of choice within various places such as Instagram and particularly Pinterest....(I save a lot of potential inspirational paintings there).  

However, there is Nothing like getting out there.  Now with lockdown eased a bit more, it has been possible to travel further afield.  I went down to South-East Devon and stayed with our daughter (Lil).  As she is into photography it worked for both of us as we set off to find something new to photograph/paint.  Although I didn't take my painting kit with me, just my iPhone, which was perfect to slip into my pocket, stop when I saw something good to refer to later and move onto finding something else to take a snap of.  

We drove to Tiverton Canal namely the Grand Western Canal.  Depending on which way you are facing, it starts in Tiverton Devon and ends about 5 mile shy of Wellington Somerset.  The whole canal is approximately 11 miles long.  Small fry in terms of canals in the UK, and it is totally landlocked, unlike other canals that join up and go for mile upon mile.  I'll add a link or two at the bottom of this in case you would like a read up about this particular canal.

Plus we put our bikes in the car (and little Hamish) - this meant we could travel much further than walking  along a small section of the canal.  

We didn't start the cycle ride at the Tiverton basin though, but found a car park further on at Halberton. 










I think you'll agree the photos show how much there was to enjoy...including the oversized plastic heron in the picture above.  Works for a business though, it catches the eye and then you see it's a B&B.

Of course, daughter took photos and very often without my knowledge she photographed me!  


 
(I have absolutely no idea what I was jabbering on about and pointing, but it must have been important at the time)


....you see little Hamish there ↑    He got to run along sometimes, but when we felt he might get tired, daughter popped him back into the trailer (strapped in, just in case he decided to go for a swim!)

and he loved the attention he got from passersby 



and then there was this....

Yes the caption should read:

"An outing for care in the community"

Lovely of her to have got me eating an apple, where I can only say I was deep in thought about a possible painting view on the opposite bank - 



I really do need to wait my opportunity to get my own back some time!



click the image below for a very short video clip ⤹



here are some links about the canal:

Grand Western Canal - wiki

Tiverton Canal 

Where we parked:

Halberton - canal car park - if you happen to use What3Words then the 3 words for this are hilarious:

pacemaker.dentures.rotate

 - incidentally, you don't need the App for this -  

Just go to Google and put: 

What 3 Words > fill in the place you want to look for > then you get the 3 words

pacemaker (dot) dentures (dot) rotate



Although we didn't cycle the entire route, at least this is something for another visit...

and

Lil did manage to do some photography but she also quickly got some snaps of a deer on the opposite bank.  Although it didn't stand there long - plus Lil wasn't prepared with her camera at that second - she still got these





Yet more reason to go back another time, that's a definite.


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Monday 12 April 2021

Work-in-progress


Currently on the easel and as the caption says ...now to let this layer dry. 

sometimes I have to sit on my hands to stop myself fiddling with more paint

When it is dry, I will then go back and add detail to complete it.


I'm getting a bit techie too, and added this (also with a separate video clip) to Instagram.  Not only that, but to Instagram Reels.  Apparently it is Instagrams version of TikTok.....yes, I know - somewhere along the line I seem to be a hundred steps behind everyone else!!!

Anyway, I gave it a go and it seemed to work - which is amazing for me, I gave myself a pat on the back.

Hopefully the video clip will add here too, says me -

so just click the image below ⤵️ and put your sound on

(The scene is across Exmoor)








Monday 5 April 2021

When you find a random pattern...

 Designer Sand....couldn't believe the pattern in the sand today over at Woolacombe beach - for the location simply to go:

#what3words : speech.glossed.yield

incidentally, you don't need the "App" for this - simply go to Google and put in:  

what3wordsuk > speech.glossed.yield





In fact I've looked at the location again and could get even more precise: try...

dispose.crumb.assure