Three in One!

Three paintings from different areas of UK! One from inland Wales, one from Norfolk coast and one from the Lake District. The first one is from the small parish of St Margaret Newton in Wales very near Hay on Wye, I liked the Church so much I was inspired to do it again, a second time. Just changed the style a bit as well as the angle.

The second one is from one of the West Norfolk coasts. It is a simple  and uncomplicated coastal scene, with everything crisp about it.

The third one is from a scene on the way to Wastwater, Cumbria in Lake District. Very exciting scene with lots of things going on all over, water, bridge, buildings, walls, gate, sky, trees and mountain and fields. Started with some under painting which helped in maintaining the harmony in  a painting where each element is fighting for the viewer's attention.

Thanks for viewing, comments welcome!

It's All About Art!

Three days full of painting demonstrations and workshops, in all media(I missed one though!) at Islington, London from 22 to 24th July, 2010. Great opportunity to see famous art teachers at work through out the day and to learn their tricks and techniques.Terry Harrison, Geoff Kersey, Matt Palmer, Fiona Peart, Vic Bearcroft - just to name a few I liked. I enjoyed spending two full days there. It was fun to do workshops and I tried soft pastels which were good for portraits.

 This was Geoff Kersey demonstrating a winter scene.

This was Terry Harrison demonstrating a summer scene.
Here are my versions. The last two are done  with pastels:

Thanks for viewing, comments welcome! Have a nice day!

Putting Punch into Watercolour

Just returned from a grinding 3 day painting course 'Putting Punch into Watercolour' by famous painter and author Tony Paul in  a picturesque village - Castle Rising in West Norfolk, close to Kings Lynn. He taught us a new technique developed by him and for 3 days we were trying to put that to work in our paintings. We did all our paintings 'pleine aire'  and under difficult weather conditions. Especially the second day when we went to Old Hunstantion beach where it was very windy and blistery. I enjoyed the whole trip thoroughly and the experience of painting outdoors, the course was finished off with the teacher's analysis and  evaluation of all our paintings. Though I understood his concept, I could not bring that out in my paintings because of various reasons, but I plan to redo all of them to see if I can master the technique he taught us. Here are some of the pictures from the course:

 

The West Norfolk Arts Centre

 

Our teacher giving tips

 

The subject of our teacher's demo

The result of the teacher's demo

My effort, after spending a good 3 hours!

My effort of the afternoon, had tough time with my greens!

Subject of my Sunday morning painting, Old Hunstantion beach.

My painting done in typical coastal windy conditions. My easel was blown up twice and my palette was full of sand!

Our well earned lunch, at the Ancient Mariner.

We moved into the village of Old Hunstantion to paint in less hostile conditions. I chose this subject for my painting.

After 3 hours, I produced this.

After the class, I managed to do some sightseeing, this lavender farm was fascinating!

I chose this view for my subject on the third day.

My painting of it.

I was not sure if we understood what we were taught well enough, so we requested for another demo, which Tony Paul kindly agreed to.

 

His version of the same scene. All in all it was a very demanding 3 days and every moment of it was enlightening. Lots to think over and lots to put into practice! Thanks for sharing my experience! Have a nice day! Looking forward to the big event in London coming week, 'Art for All' by Society for All Artists in Islington Business Design Centre!

The Orangery-Kensington Palace, London

This building is adjacent to the Kensington Palace and is called 'Orangery', housing a restaurant among other things. It was  an early winter evening and the light was rather diffused. The highlights of the building and the parasols providing the right contrast, I painted rather loosely taking care to preserve the whites in this moody composition. Arches 300lbs NOT 34cm x 24cm. Comments welcome! Thanks for viewing! Have a nice weekend!nice weekend!

 

On Her Majesty's Service

Close on the heels of my previous portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, comes this one, totally unplanned, unprepared! There were other projects waiting to be started, some waiting to be finished, but why did I embark on doing the Queen again? Of course I am not obsessed with the Royalty, except that on two different occasions, I chanced to meet them, the Queen and Prince Phillip,(Queen's Garden Party and Cambridge Hon'y Degree Convocation) recently. This is from a photo while she was on a visit to Canada recently. The earlier one was when she was at the Wimbledon this year.

(P.S: 1. Just a thought, on both these occasions, is she wearing the same dress? Is it due to the Squeeze?

2. At this rate, will I end up doing Merkel? Time only will tell.) Thanks for viewing! Comments welcome.

Portraits Gallery: Celebs

I have taken to portraits for sometime now, some of the portraits I did recently are here. Just don't know if they can pass for the celebs they are supposed to portray! I only hope they are not unduly offended!

Have a nice day! Thanks for stopping by!

Patchings Art Festival

Last Saturday I was at the Patchings Art Festival, near Nottingham. It was such a great experience and how I missed this annual art event in the past! It is a 4 day festival but I could manage to be there on only one day. I carefully selected Saturday when most of my favourite painters demonstrated their skills and shared their knowledge. I had a chance to speak with David Curtis, disappointed though that he was working on an oil painting at that time. Met my teacher and friend Peter Woolley who was kind enough to give me some tips on foliage. (Use very little of Prussian blue in the mix and pass the cadmium yellow for green most of the time.)Attended 2 of the demos of Charles Evans which were very lively. He uses only 8 colours and 4 brushes! It was shocking to know one of the colours is Hooker's Green, (which he admitted as the same as admitting oneself to be alcoholic, but he says he can make myriad greens mixing it with the other colours in his palette). See his picture below:

 David Bellamy painted a coastal scene with rocks and mountains. I learnt how Yellow Ochre pushes out the other colours but gives a lively variation to the mountains. I saw Fiona Peart doing 2 landscapes, the place was jam packed and I could only stand and watch. She showed how to represent a misty background with clever use of gouache with a slight blue  tinge. Peter Woolley and me admired the way David Curtis paints his architectural subjects so well. One other artist I liked very much was Trevor Lingard, I saw him  do his wet in wet dark toned landscape. For me the find of the Festival was Robert Newcombe, it was a revelation talking to him and watching him do his what he calls 'impressonistic line and wash' using a sharpened match stick in place of a drawing pen. I admired his work greatly and he presented me with one of his sharpened match sticks! I tried  line and wash watercolours using his match stick just to test how good it could be, here are my attempts. Though I did these in a hurry to recapture his style, I plan to use this method in a few paintings. I always had a few reservations about line and wash but my mental block is gone. It is a really new rewarding experience.

I thought summer was here!

It is very fleeting, the feeling of summer, you can never trust. Nothing is as it seems to be! Anyway as the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines, whenever it does in these parts! I thought I ran into an artist's block during which period nothing came right! I always try to do something out of my way and loose to break out of that block. I saw this photo in the Sunday Times and decided to do some bodyscape in the beachscape! Gave myself half an hour and let the brush wander loosely on the beach! Thanks for looking! Have a nice (summer) day!

Hereford Cathedral, view from the river Wye

The Cathedral in Hereford offered magnificent views from anywhere in the town. I liked this one from the banks of the river Wye because of the painterly opportunities it offered to paint the trees, water and the birds thereof. To include all elements I selected the vertical format and slightly herded in the surroundings to fit the frame. May be if I am planning to do it again, I will try the landscape format. This was done on Arches 300lb Not surface, half imperial. Thanks for viewing, have a nice day!

The Church of St Margarets Newton, Herefordshire

While attending the literary festival at the 'Hay on the Wye' last weekend, we stayed in a small but lovely parish of St Margarets Newton, some 10 miles away from the Hay. It was on a most scenic part of  Herefordshire and an early morning walk took us to this lovely old church with the sun just coming out after a day of rain. I wish I had brought my sketch book with me, but the early morning scene was so beautiful and was well etched in my mind.The feeling of early morning sunlight has been well captured in my painting in which I had pushed the focus to the golden mean area. The orderly tombstones had been replaced by some loose ones to give some 'life', (I mean to the painting). Done Bockingboard 485gms Rough half sheet. Comments and criticisms welcome! Thanks for viewing!

VanBrugh's Grand Bridge

I took the reference photo of the Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge while visiting Blenheim Palace (W. Churchill was born here). The sprawling park outside the palace offered many scenic views, this bridge being one of them. My painting below is an attempt to present the still water and the reflections with the freshness of a watercolour impression. The foliage was my main challenge and I am happy it has come out well. The still water and the reflections were achieved easily as well as the foreground grass with the help of liquid frisket. The sky was left simple so as not to divert the attention as lots of things are happening below.

Cornwall Coastline

The Cornwall coast offered some magnificent views for painting. 

The first one is off the Lands End coast. Boats provide some link outside the elements of nature which these two paintings depict. It was fun doing the water, mountains, cloudy sky and a bit of the sandy beach..

  The second one is off the peaceful village of St Agnes. Hope you like these paintings. Thanks for viewing.

On homeground!

Distant hills and coconut treeline setting up the background, green paddy fields forming the middle ground and and a lonely furrow in the foreground is an ideal subject for this portrait format! Taking the eyes into the painting and holding them there are the big shapes of the fields and their varied angles. Deliberately kept the trees taller than they should be to give that vertical contrast to the frame  when all else is horizontal! I put elements from different reference photos to create this exercise in design, without loosing the spontaneity of a simple subject. Thanks for viewing! Comments welcome!

(Half sheet Bockingford 425gms NOT surface, W&N tubes-lemon yellow, ultramarine, cobalt blue, burn umber, manganese violet, rose madder)

Kyrenia, Turkish Cyprus

Kyrenia, Turkish Cyprus is a harbour town busy with tourists with an old castle on the beach. Last December we were there and it was a nice sunny day. You cannot miss the sunlight in this painting done on a half sheet of Arches NOT paper 300gms. Thanks for viewing and comments welcome as always.

Church of St Leonard, seen from  the Charlacote Park, near Stratford upon Avon. 51cm x 33 cm
This was based on my photo taken last year when visiting Stratford upon Avon. The Charlacote Park, a National Trust property, is outside Stratford upon Avon and at a distance from the sprawling gardens of that property looms this beautiful church. The sky in the photo was a gloomy one which I transformed into a  dynamic one, the accidental blooming just above the Church roof adding to the liveliness. Thanks for looking and comments appreciated!