Magic Carpet

After some tweaking, leaving, tweaking again and

finally deciding this is it,  COMPLETED PAINTING

I have painted this scene before in Gouache, last year in fact, after a trip down to Lizard Point in Cornwall.  The light was so perfect and having looked through my photo references, decided it was an Oil painting this time, which I've given an unusual title (*footnote will explain why I chose the name for this piece)

Photos are a great memory of places visited, but somehow a painting puts me right back there.

Title:  MAGIC CARPET

size 8" x 8" (20 x 20cm)

*footnote: 

 click here ⬅️

Mixed weather

Our recent visit to Cornwall saw sunny days, but also brought horrendous gales too, in the form of Storm Brendan.   A slight concern as we were staying in this Grade2 listed building in Penzance...

With that Huge tree next to it...

However, storm and trees apart, we had a good stay 

Plus I got to do some plein air painting (as per previous blogpost)

During one day of storms, we did some Wave watching, and nearly got blown off our feet

You see!

That’s St. Michael’s Mount out there in the spray and mist. 

 No plein air painting in that, but I did some quick sketches for reference later.

This small painting on art panel was done alla prima.  I hope it conveys a sense of the atmosphere.

Another blogpost soon, with contrasting weather we enjoyed during our stay in Cornwall.

🎨🎨🎨

A look at Leading Lines

Leading Lines are important in a painting, although they may not be obvious. They tell the viewer where the focal point is and draw the viewers eye around the painting.  Not a new invention, the old masters used leading lines in their works and we still do today.

Here's my reference photo taken on a recent holiday in Cornwall

Veryan Beach

I do a quick sketch to get an idea of layout

in the next image I've added notes to show where the leading lines are

- also you will see a barely perceptible grid of thirds,

that's why I made a note about moving the building over to it

                                      ⤵︎

This was enough information for me to set out the drawing onto a

6" x 4" board for this oil painting

(small and quite fiddly to paint in detail, but nonetheless I enjoyed this little piece)