Painting in Widcombe by the river Avon

Here is a plein air painting I did a couple of weeks ago in Widcombe alongside the river Avon. My discerning blog followers might notice I did a painting almost at the same spot last year, depicting the footbridge (you can see a small section of it on the right). Click here to see which painting I'm talking about.

Sunny day, near Widcombe footbridge   14"x10"   oil on board

It was a beautiful sunny morning and what caught my eye was the variety of greens, the sun hitting the facades of the houses, and the green footbridge/roadworks fences caught in the sun. Below is the picture of the view I painted. I set up alongside the river handrail and tried not to drop my brushes in the water (almost did!).

My faithful and patient bike waiting for me to finish my painting

The painting half way through

That's me in action

I didn't need to look at my watch to keep track of time because I could hear every 45 minutes the guide on the microphone in the tourist boat passing just below me, saying each time exactly the same sentence at the same spot. I got a few waves from the tourists too so that kept me company. 

Detail of the finished painting

Detail of the finished painting

This painting, alongside many others, will be for sale at our forthcoming show in Bradford on Avon on 2-4 May. If you haven't heard about it and want more info, check out my last blog post here. I hope to see you there!

Hot summer day at Sydney Gardens, Bath

The week end before last I went painting at my favourite place in Bath: Sydney Gardens. It was properly hot but the shade of the trees and the presence of water helped making it bearable. This is my favourite painting place because it combines all the perfect ingredients to a good painting session: beautiful scenery, lots of greens, reflections with the water, peace and quiet, and plenty of spots in the shade. I did a study of three different bridges (two on Saturday and one on Sunday). Here is the first one:

Hot summer day, Sydney Gardens, Bath (1)  12"x10"  oil on board

Detail

The picture below shows the actual view, although the photograph doesn't do justice to the beauty of the place (which explains why for me painting in plein air can often be so much more rewarding than from photographs):

That's me below adding the final touches. I have always been secretly convinced that the quality of a painting is always directly proportional to how basic/comfortable/unflattering the outfit of the painter looks. Based on this, surely I must have painted a masterpiece!

Oh, and by the way, if you were thinking for a moment that I look like I had too many ice creams this summer, I must reassure you; this rounded belly is actually the sign of my next big masterpiece; the kind of work that takes 9 months to complete! I'm now almost 6 months pregnant and enjoying every bit of it! I'll give more explanation in my next posts about how it changed my painting habits...

Below is my next painting on that day. I loved the reflections of the sky in the water and the beautiful sunlit Bath stone of the bridge:

Hot summer day, Sydney Gardens, Bath (2)  12"x9"  oil on board

It is funny the type of encounter you make while painting. While painting this, a skater guy complimented me on my work and asked me if I was interested in producing paintings at the back of his handmade skateboards! Well, I never thought of my work as being young and trendy before! I kindly turned it down, but flattered nonetheless by the offer. What's next? Nightclubs murals? 

Detail1

Detail2

The painting towards the end of the session

Finally, here is my third painting at Sydney Gardens. I went for a long format to catch the lovely curve of the path alongside the canal. This scene had all the elements I love in a painting: highlights of the bridge, water reflections, lovely greens, strong curvy lines, and patches of blue skies:

Hot summer day, Sydney Gardens, Bath (3)  16"x9"  oil on board

Here is below the painting towards the end. I spent a bit longer than usual one this one, and felt it was time to go when I noticed that two little spiders had started building an impressive web against my leg! Honestly, do I look like a tree??

Detail

Before I forget, if you get a chance, get a copy of the latest Artists & Illustrator magazine. Three other plein air painters and myself (and my bump!) are making the cover! Click here for more info.


My paintings are available for sale directly from me or through a gallery and can be shipped worldwide. Prices depends on size and subject and generally range from £100 to £500. Please email me to check prices and availability at valpirlot1@hotmail.com

Sydney Gardens in October

Autumn colours have arrived! Here are a couple of paintings I did two weeks ago at my favourite painting spot in Bath - Sydney Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday and I was planning on painting the bridge and the water, but when I arrived what caught my eye was the sun hitting the Bath stone on the beautiful building in the park so I gave it a try:

Sydney Gardens House - October afternoon   10"x12"  oil on board

Detail

For some reason I seem to have deleted by mistake the pictures I took of the set up during that painting but I took a quick photograph a few days later just to show the building - although the light was not the quite same:

After finishing that painting, I realised I had to go soon as I had to meet people, but I was frustrated I didn't get a chance to paint the bridge as planned, so I decided to do a very quick study of the bridge before heading home. I did this in 20 minutes - which explains why it looks quite abstract:

Sydney Gardens' bridge - October late afternoon   10"x8"  oil on board

The painting after the 20 minutes session

Detail

I just couldn't resist the appeal of the sunny reflections on the water and light yellow/greens showing behind the bridge...

A blogger asked me last time to show how I travel on my bike with my painting kit, so here it is:

As you might notice this is an electric bike. I know people sometimes think these are for grandmas, but let me tell you this is simply my favourite thing in the world! Bath is very hilly, and I don't own a car, so basically this is my car and I can load my kit and go high on the hills and not worry about parking. I use it too to pick up frames from the shop and drop paintings at shows. You'd be surprised how much you can load on these! 

The front basket is the perfect size to carry my pochade box

The two back side baskets carry my panels, stool and easel

 If you have missed my previous posts painting in Sydney Gardens click here:

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/sydney-gardens-bridge-on-summer.html

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/sydney-gardens-bridge-in-spring.html



My paintings are available for sale directly from me or through a gallery and can be shipped worldwide. Prices depends on size and subject and generally range from £100 to £500. Please email me to check prices and availability at valpirlot1@hotmail.com

Day out painting in Bristol

Last Saturday I headed to Bristol for a day out painting with the Plein Air Society (a group of plein air painters meeting every month in a different city). We were so lucky with the weather as the sun was shining all day, which has become pretty rare here in rainy England! After meeting for a quick coffee we headed for the top of Clifton with views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Here is my first painting of the day (click on all pictures to enlarge):

Clifton Suspension Bridge in the morning   12"x10"  oil on board

Below you can see my set up. We were painting in "contre jour", facing the sun, which was quite blinding but it gave interesting contrasts in the painting:

That's me, towards the end of the painting session:

I loved the variety of greens getting cooler and more purple as they recede in the distance:

Detail1

I must admit I added the bridge railing details back in the studio as my hand was too shaky and it was a bit too windy on the spot to be able to draw a straight line!

I loved the sun reflection shining on the water:

Detail2

As you can see below, I was surrounded by two talented painters on that day - (click on the name for website): Wayne Attwood from Birmingham and Tom Hughes from Bristol. They both produced great work on the day and were rather well equipped. In fact, they were both showing off a bit with their sun umbrella but it was so windy that after only a few minutes Tom's got broken and Wayne's flew over the edge! Nature always has the last word!

Tom Hughes in action

Wayne Attwood working on his little gem

Andrew Taylor (below left) arrived a bit later but managed to do a quick painting of the view. Ian Mood (not pictured) was sketching a few meters away.

After a quick lunch break we decided to turn around and paint the beautiful view over the Avon Gorge which was bathed on that day by a lovely pink light:

Leigh Woods and The Avon Gorge, Bristol, September afternoon   16"x9"  oil on board

Here we are, all lined up (And someone is still not giving up on the umbrella):

My painting after around 30 minutes:

and towards the end...

I confirm there is an actual view of the gorge behind that bush,
I'm not just imagining this scene from the view of the bush... 

Detail

Andrew at work

Tom

Wayne

After we finished that sitting, it was around 5.30 and we all felt like maybe we could squeeze a last quick painting before calling it a day. I decided to turn around again and paint the view towards the Suspension Bridge with the tree in the foreground:

I was well into it when I realised that I was the only one painting and the other painters were just relaxing on the bench and waiting to go to the pub. A bit of pressure for me to do this one very quickly then!

I was painting a lady on the bench but she moved away before I got a chance to paint her properly so I wiped her off and Andrew kindly sat for me. He kept moving so one could hear me shouting every 3 minutes "Stop moving Andrew!". I did this in about 30 minutes and spent an other 20 minutes at home adding a few details as I ran out of time since the pub was calling for us!

Andrew on a bench playing with his camera,
Clifton Suspension Bridge, September evening
10"x7"  oil on board

Detail1

Detail2

My paintings are available for sale directly from me or through a gallery and can be shipped worldwide. Prices depends on size and subject and generally range from £100 to £500. Please email me to check prices and availability at valpirlot1@hotmail.com