Landscape in Belgium

A friend of mine recently posted a picture on Facebook of a sunny path in the Belgium countryside and I automatically wanted to paint it. So, after her permission, here is below the quick study I did. I kept it lose and spontaneous and tried to capture the essence of the scene:

Landscape in Belgium  10"x8"  oil on board

Below is the original photograph which I cropped to adjust the composition:

copyright Delphine Simon

Detail

On an other note, I went to London this week with other painting pals to see the amazing show of one of the best plein air painter alive to my opinion, Ken Howard. It was a show of 80 paintings at Richard Green Gallery to celebrate his 80th birthday and the work was simply stunning. (click here for the catalogue) 

It was also the launch of his latest book "Howard's Switzerland" which is a painting journey retracing the footsteps of Turner.  (click here for more info)

We had the chance to meet Ken and his lovely wife Dora (thanks Adebanji Alade for the picture!):

Left to right: Roy Connelly, Ken Howard OBE RA, Tim King, Dora Bertolutti Howard,
unknown, Haidee-Jo Summers, David Pilgrim ROI, and myself

This really inspired me to go back at the easel and become the best painter I can... Let 2013 be the best painting year so far!

View from the train window

I think that the most beautiful landscapes are sometimes the sceneries visible from the train's window. I don't take the train very often but I always try to get a window seat and keep my camera at hand should an inspiring landscape appear. This is one of those.

View from the train window    10"x8"   oil on board

I treated this painting as a little study keeping in mind a few goals: simplify, use big brushes and plenty of paint. I wanted to give the feeling of what we would see from the train window and make it simple and almost abstract as you would only see this for a second or so.

detail

To unify the whole painting and enhance the bold brushstrokes, I applied a glaze of raw sienna with liquin original once the painting was dry.


Here is below the original photograph:

I applied a photoshop filter to it to simplify the scene and get the essence of it and only used this as a reference when painting:

I like to see this painting in a frame as I think it frames it just like the train window would.

Natural Arch, Mackinac Island

As this is my first post of the year, let me all wish you a very Happy New Year and thank you for visiting my blog and leaving lovely comments last year. I'm posting here a small painting I did in December from a photograph I saw in a friend's album on Facebook (with approval of course). I usually like painting landscapes from life but I also like to do little studies from photographs to work a specific concept and colour palette:

Natural Arch, Mackinac Island  5"x7"  oil on board

Here is the original photograph taken on Mackinac Island  - I love the way the view is framed by the rocks. The sea has beautiful colours you don't see often on english shores.

photograph © Keonne Rodriguez

detail

Mackinac Island, Michigan

A few days ago, a friend of mine on Facebook posted his latest holiday pictures of Mackinac Island in Michigan, US. I've never been there and certainly have never painted there but I found his photographs beautiful and couldn't help asking him the permission to use them for painting studies. So here it is:

Mackinac Island, Michigan    12"x10"    oil on board

I love painting outside in plein air but I also love just losing track of time in my little studio, forgetting everything and just having fun with the first painting idea that comes to my mind - and this is exactly what this sort of painting is about.

The reference photograph © Keonne Rodriguez

Here is the painting in progress
with my computer showing the reference photograph

Canal Saint Martin, Paris

Here is an other one from my Paris trip in May. This is the bridge at Canal Saint Martin. It was a nice change for the bridges on the Seine I had been painting for days.

Canal Saint Martin, Paris     12"x10"    oil on board

This part of the Canal is not in the centre of Paris so this was much quieter than my other painting sessions and I hardly saw any tourists despite of the fact that this bridge is famous for being in the movie "Amélie". I just love this movie. I've stopped counting how many times I've watched it. The soundtrack by Yann Tiersen is also one of my favourite thing to play on the piano.

Amélie making ricochets on the Canal

It was a grey dull day but it was the perfect condition to see all the shades of greens in the trees and the water. I also loved the highlights of blues and turquoise on the metallic bridge.

As you can see below it was pretty quiet. Just a shame the ground was full of litter. Obviously not a prime tourist location.

I was so glad I took my warm coat as it was a bit nippy there

Below is the painting at the end of the session. I only worked 5 more minutes on it here back home; I'm aware it's more a study than a accurate finished painting but I wanted to keep the freshness of it.

Allotments at Sion Hill in August, Bath

Last week-end fellow painters David Pilgrim and Tim King were staying in Bath. On Saturday I joined them at the preview night of the Gallery LeFort's new show where David has some lovely work on display (and sold two in the first hour!) and got a chance to check out some great work from other artists like Peter Wileman and Peter Brown. We met the day after for a lovely painting session at the allotments on Sion Hill.

Allotments at Sion Hill in August, Bath   14"x10"  oil on board

I simply can't get enough of the "tree with a view" theme (David calls it with humour "a typical Pirlot subject") and Bath is certainly full of those sceneries.  When I arrived on the spot, they both had been painting for an hour already so I really had to go for it and not waste any time (no naps on the grass this time for me then).

My painting at the end of the session. There was no sunshine
but I HAD to wear my cap to feel in the painting mood

David produced a lovely painting of the scene
with a tall portrait format

Tim -that you can see at the back- produced a great painting
too which you can see on his blog

Goult in the midday sunshine

Following my previous post, here is an other painting I just made a couple of days ago since the return from my holiday in France. This was done from a photograph taken on the first day in a beautiful little village called Goult.

Goult in the midday sunshine   10"x7" oil on board

What caught my eye was the sunny landscape framed by the arch and the patches of sky showing through the top window. For the little story, it wasn't the first time I came to this village. I was actually there when I was 14 years old for a family holiday and had my first holiday romance with a local guy called Pierre... You bet I was looking around last week expecting to bump into him! (but I didn't...)

One of the reference photographs

Below is my painting in progress in what is my usual set up for studio work - I never get around to print my photographs so I tend to paint with my picture on the computer as a reference. Not ideal but good enough for small studies.

Do you think I'm a little bit running out of wallspace maybe??

Cheddar with the Plein Air Society

Yesterday I went painting in the Cheddar Gorge with the Plein Air Society group. Well, I say "group" but since Andrew and I couldn't find anybody, it was actually just the two of us (so a group of two then). The heat didn't stop us from walking right to the top of the Cliff - I was putting on a brave face (a bright red face that is) but wasn't that far from fainting!

Here is the first painting I did:

Views from the Cliff Top, Cheddar    10"x8"  oil on board

This spot was slightly off the path and offering a wonderful view across Cheddar and beyond. For some reason, I couldn't get the Jurassic park tune out of my head while painting this (probably because of the real sense of drama in the place). I actually had to stop myself from painting dinosaurs in there.

Andrew feeling inspired

I was so glad I took my umbrella  - I would have burnt like a toast otherwise

That's me working hard as always

The second painting was a small one I made on the way down in a lovely place we spotted on the way up but saved it for the end. I had a great time painting it apart from the fact that my umbrella fixing broke so I was holding it in one hand and painting with the other (no spare hand to get rid of the mosquitos unfortunately)

On the way down from the Cliff Top, Cheddar   6"x8" oil on board

What caught my eye was the lovely curvy path with patches of light disappearing into the dark woods. A theme and composition I have done many times now and always gives me great satisfaction.

Cornwall trip - Part 2

Here are 3 more beach paintings from the Cornwall trip (see last week's post for the 3 first paintings). The first one below was done at St Michael's mount on Marazion beach in the morning. Funnily enough I saw (and painted) the Mont St Michel in France a few months ago so it was interesting to see the english version of it.

St Micheals Mount, Marazion beach    6"x8" oil on board

I decided to go for a small board to be able to work quickly and keep it spontaneous

I love my pochade box (guerilla) as it allows you to work on all sizes of boards

Tim King did a lovely painting of the same view next to me

Tim and I then joined the rest of the group which was doing a painting of the beach so we decided to join in and tackle the same scene.

Marazion beach   7"x10"  oil on board

The light kept changing but I tried to capture a bit of the sunlight when it came out

from left to right: Tim King, me, David Bachmann and Michael Richardson 

Everybody working hard (apart from Tim having a snack)

The painting below is the dunes at Carbis Bay. As we arrived we were walking towards the beach and the stroke of light between the dunes caught my eyes. David and Tim carried on walking to get to the beach but I decided to stop there and paint this. I had a really good time painting it (well, apart from the rain and my palette falling in the sand) but wasn't really happy with the result so I decided to start it again on the studio today based on my painting but trying to avoid making the same mistakes. Here it is:

Dunes at Carbis Bay   10"x8"  oil on board

The original painting at the beginning of the session (just before my palette fell in the sand!)

David Pilgrim and Tim were doing a scene on the beach a few meters away

I really felt inspired by that place and would have loved to stay there all day to paint those dunes but I suddenly felt really tired after it and went back to the car to have a quick nap instead. I really hope I can go back there again one day to do more paintings.

To be continued...

Cornwall trip - Part 1

Well, I haven't posted anything for a month but I was away painting in Paris, Cornwall and busy finishing a commission. I will post it all gradually in the next few weeks.
To start with here are 3 paintings from the Cornwall trip. What a great experience! It was organised by the talented Plein Air painter David Pilgrim and also a part of the group were Tim King, Michael Richardson, Roy Connelly, David Bachmann and Anthony Bridge, all very inspiring artists.

Cliffs from Pendeen in a sunny morning       8"x10"  oil on board  

This one above was actually my last painting, done the morning before I caught my train back home. I think it's my favourite because I had such a good time painting it, probably because I knew I had to go in a few hours.  As I was painting this, I really thought "this is the life!"

The water had the most beautiful colours

I didn't paint right on the edge but still close enough to feel the height of the cliff

David was painting a lovely piece of the same view a few meters away from me

This one below was painted on our way to St Ives. Tim, David and I stopped the car on the roadside to have a look at the beautiful countryside, and before we knew it we were all painting like mad. Nothing better than those unplanned ones!

Views of the countryside between Zennor Head and St Ives   8"x10"  oil on board

What caught my eye was the little triangle of sea showing behind the hills

David and Tim painting a beautiful tree a few meters away

Tim and I exchanging serious painting tips (thanks for the pic David!)

This painting below is an other moment of bliss. It was painted at sunset, the last effort of the day after a pretty long painting day. It was also a bit of an effort to get there as it's a steep walk up in the cliff from Sennen beach. But once up there, I suddenly forgot the fatigue and just enjoyed the moment. And for some reasons, I was happy with the painting form start to finish, through every brushstrokes, which has never happened to me before.

Lands End at sunset (Dr Syntax’s Head)      8"x10"  oil on board 

The beautiful golden tones in the rocks caught my eyes

I had to work quickly as the sun gradually disappeared

Here is a picture of the group to finish this post. From left to right: Tim King, myself, David Pilgrim, David Bachmann and Michael Richardson. (In case you wonder the lovely painting on the left is David Bachmann's - although I wish I painted this myself!) As you can see I was the only girl in the group but managed to survive!

To be continued...