#352 'Moored by Richmond Bridge' 11x14"

I started this on a Friends of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) plein air day. 

Standing under Richmond Bridge - its cool there!

There were over 20 great plein air artists on that day and although it was inspiring and lovely to work next to them I felt a pressure to 'perform' and produce a decent painting. It took me till lunch to settle and during the morning I had started 3 paintings which were all scraped! Then I started this little boat and I was away!

8x10" study completed en plein air

I actually completed this little study on the day and Ioved it so much I wanted to do a bigger version and slightly different angle.... so I started another one :-)

I mapped it in a underpainting of Burnt Sienna on site but then the group went to the pub and so it was abandoned till the studio...

Having just painted it once to do it again helped as I was familiar with the shape and colours. I made the boat large in scale to feature it and give a strong composition.

#268 'Sunrise, Bosham Channel' 8x14"

I had seen this view passing in the car so it was a bonus it was so gorgeous.  I was surprised to see over 30 swans nestling in the sea grass, cleaning and having breaky, it was quite a sight!
A very cold start, the sun rose to the left of the picture and the shape of the shoreline where the tide level was just right, it led the eye in nicely and with little posts in the foreground not sure what they were for. 
The tower in the distance is the witches hat of the Bosham Church. Nice to have a focal point along that horizon line.
The green sea grass was very dark in tone but had a little light and colour on it. I used the mix for the brown foreground foliage and added Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue and a little Zinc White - which lightens but not too much. I will go back there it was a great spot!
(The above photo was taken not of the exact subject I painted as the sun came up and it was too bright to see the work so I moved the easel around.)

More news..... 
This week was the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) Private View and start of their exhibition. My first time showing at The Mall Galleries so I was hopping around with excitement looking at the wonderful work - worth a visit if your in London. I felt so proud to have my painting on display, it's the landscape above my head. It's been one of my goals as an artist so lets hope it continues!

News Update

There are certain land marks in an artist career and one of them for me is getting into the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) exhibition (& later be a member of their Society).

The ROI was founded in 1882 and is the only British Art Society that promotes work of the highest standard exclusively in oils.They hold an annual exhibition in the Mall Galleries in London.

I tried for the first time last year and had 2 paintings selected - which means through to the first round but didn't get hung in the show. 

Today I am going to the Mall Galleries because I've had 3 paintings selected, very excited! (see pic above) 

The first round is judged on line with digital images. The next stage is taking the framed paintings so they can judge to whether they are through into the exhibition! Oh my!

The last few days I have been painting the above frames and making them as good as I can, fingers crossed I hope to get one painting through!  I will let you know next week when I find out 😳

I have also been preparing for a Venice trip leaving Tuesday this week, for 6 nights. Really excited to be going to Venice and paint for the first time, I have been just once before in 2012 and wasn't doing outside painting then so just sketched. 

I have been making boards and more boards!! I don't want to run out. 

I hope to blog when I'm there, depending on if I get any time in between painting! Otherwise I will catch up at home.

Lastly back in the summer I won 2 prizes with the Artist Magazine one was with Royal Talens receiving £250 worth of art materials.  I choose Rembrandt which is artist quality paint, it arrived yesterday and the colours look amazing (I've not used them before), a bonus I can take some with me to Venice, yay!

#230 '1964 Mechanical Horse' 8x8"

This cute little vehicle was in Ian Cryers collection in Somerset. He loves old stuff especially around the railways. He tell me this is quite a rare 'Scammell Townsman' and he has two them! They were used instead of horses for hawlage on the railways lines. 
I thought it had great character and that's what I tired to capture. 

Ian lives next to the M5 motoway which he loves because he can store all his old machines under the motorway. The light was strange under there hard to see where it was coming from and a lot of midtones.
To take the uncertainties out of painting this unsual vehicle I painted it as though it was as a boat! (which I'm more comfortble with) and broke it down into shapes of tones and colour- manily yellows! Using a violet (Ultramrine & Perminant Rose) to darken and dirty the yellow for the shadows.
It was my 3rd painting of the day and the light was fading so this is where I got up to ...

I finished it in the studio this week, tricky to decide how to paint the background. 
Its almost like a still life I tried just a plain thinly painted same colour all over. It didn't work, I wiped it off. So I took elements of what was really there and simplified them, so the emphasis is on the Mecanial Horse and hopefully doesn't compete with the background. It was a fun subject to paint.

#228 'Somerset Canal' 10x10"

Just had a weekend in Somerset with the Friends of the ROI. (Royal Institute of Oil Painters) Really enjoyed paiting and talking art with others.

This was the first painting I did, it's next to where I was staying and also the hosts house - Ian Cryer the president of the ROI. 
I was the first to turn up so we painted together and his wife brought us cups of tea, a very lovely afternoons painting!