#160 'Newlands Corner' 8x20"

I started this last weekend. But when I got back to the studio I found I couldn't finish because I didn't have enough information, it was the fist time I had visited and it was misty with the sunrise. 

So I went back and did two drawings of the subject. I must haven chosen the coldest day of the year to do it! With wind chill -7 so bitter my teeth were chattering and I couldn't draw for shaking! But I was able to finsih it today, and I'm pleased with the outcome :-)

I met some friendly photographers when I was painting that day, one of whom, Sarah took some lovely photos while I was painting, here are a couple of them.

#142 'Margate Beach' 10x12"

I had a really great day painting with Artist Michael Richardson over in Kent. It was bitterly cold with a north wind blasting us. But we managed two paintings this was the second. The first is half done because we were chased off the mud flat as the tide flew in!

This painting was a bit different because I tried one of his boards which was prepared with Gerstacker primer mixed with Raw Umber, the primer has a bit of tooth but paint still glided over it. You can see some ground colour left in the sky.

No drawing with a paintbrush before hand just blocking in the main shapes of general colour and really looking at the tone.
Michael noted that the view wasn't that amazing so I tried to 'improve it' with lively brush marks, putting them on and leaving them. Pleased with the result.

This is Michael wrapped up against the cold! (You couldn't see me for layers!)

#133 'Lyme Regis Harbour' 9.5x12"

This was the final painting I did in Lyme. Absolutely loved painting the fishing boat, and emphasised it in the composition and the detail which I included. I spent 3 hours on site painting and was exhausted afterwards, a really complex subject but the sort of thing I want to paint more of. 75% finished it and then did the rest in the studio. I have included my palette below from the studio as it shows how many colour mixes I had to, not including my outside palette! 

There was a pile of fishing nets that I squeezed behind (see below) thinking I'd be out the way and in a quiet spot. It turned out the Harbour Master was doing some stuff and I was right in the way, but it meant I got talking with some of the fisherman who were really friendly and one said his relative owned the boat in my painting and that the boats name was rude and best not to have that as the painting title! I can't say what it is but I didn't paint it on :-)

I put a lot of extras in like the windsurf boards, people, flags as I thought it gives life to the scene, I'm really happy with the overall result.

#130 'Rainy Day, Victoria Embankment' 9.5x12"

This was the painting I started last weekend outside in London.  It was a complex subject and good size painting to tackle en plein air and in the rain! See pic below.

I used my 'Best Brella' for the first time and it was a boon! I couldn't have painted otherwise as it was raining too hard. Didn't stop me getting cold and wet but my palette and painting was dry! You can buy the pochade umbrellas from America, same people as the Palette Garage.

I experimented with colour themes I wanted to emphasis the rainy grey day but when I got the painting home it looked very grey and washed out. So I left it to dry and re worked it, I'm happy with the result, especially the composition.

Sadly I didn't get into the Royal Institue of Oil Painters Exhibtion. (ROI) But I'm really pleased to have got 2 paintings through the first round, it shows I'm on the right track and will keep trying with the London shows :-) Some stats for the ROI all approximate: 1000 people entered online 300 got through the first round 95 through into the final exhibition. 

#118 'Icebergs, Jokulsarlon Iceland 3' 8x8"

Due to the tides and flow of water the icebergs shift a lot each day some of them end up out of the lagoon and into the sea, so when we returned the next morning (Monday) it looked completely different and I found it harder to find one I liked so I painted a collection. More challenging as I wanted to make them clearly an icebergs and not an abstract of blues. I worked especially on the tonal contrast making sure I had a good range. 
Choosing big bergs I thought I'd be safer in their movement but the front light ones shifted and a different shape was formed.
The cloud level was quite low and the peaks of the Glacier mountain were obscured again another challenge to depict this. Also the weather had come in and the wind was really wipping around me I had to hold my pochade so it wouldnt fly into the water and hold my arm staedy to paint the fiddly bits as it was being blown around so much!
This was our last full day in Iceland and the boards I could paint on were very limited, I only had square left, amazing I had got through so many! (I have the last painting to post tomorrow.)
To finish this painting I put some seagulls in, they were circling around he 2 large bergs in the centre. I used the pointy edge of a short flat brush to do it, can you spot the birds they are tiny! I wanted to show the huge scale of the place.

#112 'Dyrholaey, Iceland' 20x30cm

 

Thursday I completed 3 oil paintings in one day! That's my record so far:-) I will post them all today....
I decided to make the very long trek on the rock stacks beach to the other end to get a different view, see pic below.
It was early around 8am when I started painting. Just as I was about to begin a rainbow appeared nearly over my head. I could see the rain coming and battened down the hatches until it passed. - Had to show you this as it looks like the rainbow's coming out of my pochade!

My light coloured board was attracting midges and once the paint was on their they were all sticking to it, not easy to paint around! 
Iceland has huge spaces, its a big country and this view was still a long way away, although it showed off the sky well, and after the rain the clouds were interesting and I enjoyed painting them. My board was a different type again and you can see the weave of texture it has created. The light house gives this one scale, so tiny!

Husband Nick took this of me doing the long walk down the deserted beach!

Painting in the rain! Iceland

 

I thought yesterday was bad, today was WET!
I started painting in the rain thinking I could muster through it. Husband left to photograph and I was left to battle. The rain was driving and my board and palette was wet within seconds. I kept wiping it down but each brush stroke was resisting my board and congealing in lumps! I thought I'm not going to let some rain beat me.....So I wiped and wiped and went through all the kitchen roll I had. My palette was actually flooding see pic below. I covered most of the board, but the strokes were a little laboured to try and make it stick, after an hour I was thankful to see Nick again. My waterproofs had worked for me but my painting kit was sopping, it's now drying on the hostel radiator.
My painting is ok, but not finished hence why I haven't posted it. I will look at again at home, when its dried out and see if its worth finishing.

Daily Painting #19 'Bananas' 10x8"

This was a difficult subject to tackle. I started it on a square board - as many still life's work better square but changed it to landscape as it wasn't working. I mixed many colours and tones of yellow. I'm pleased with the subtle changes of tone to describe the banana shape. Although it was challenging I was totally focused and enjoyed it. I wouldn't have tried this subject at the start of my daily painting, so it feel like progress :-)

Below is my palette and the colours I mixed as a starting point...