Venice - Day 1 & 2

After a week back at work, I finally managed to take the pictures of my paintings from the Venice trip. I stayed with 3 other painters (Haidee-Jo Summers, David Pilgrim  and Tim King) and we shared an apartment near the Rialto Bridge. Although it wasn't a proper "organised trip", there were several other painters in various accommodations including Karl Terry, David Bachman, Chris Daynes, Tony Dakin, Stuart Fullerton, Roy Connelly, Mike Richardson, Sidney Cardew and Eric Davies. It was fun to keep bumping into each other during the trip.

DAY1:

Here are my paintings from my first two days in Venice. On the first day Haidee and myself set up on the Piazzetta to catch the beautiful morning sky:

Piazzetta in the morning   12"x9"  oil on board

Piazzetta, San Marco

Detail

We set up on the top of those "tables" laid out for the high water. It gave us a great perspective and kept us out of reach from the tourists:

Haidee and I

You can see who is the lazy one sitting down :-)

My painting at the end of the session

In the afternoon, after trying those delicious italian sandwiches I tackled the unavoidable Basilica San Marco. No wonders it's such an popular subject; it's simply magnificent! 

Piazza San Marco between the clouds  12"x10"  oil on board

Detail

It was quite a challenge to paint, without mentioning the fact that I was standing right in the middle of the square attracting masses of curious tourists. I must say most of them were lovely and gave me nice words of encouragement to keep me going... Someone even gave me two roses!

A local photographer (Luca Girardini) took these two pictures while I was painting and kindly sent them to me:

© Luca Girardini 

© Luca Girardini 

The picture below was kindly taken by fellow painter David Pilgrim and shows the kind of crowd we sometimes have to cope with when painting in public places! I must admit I felt a bit the pressure as it seems every brushstroke I made was carefully inspected by the onlookers!

DAY 2:

On the second day, first thing in the morning we tackled the Salute from the other side of the Grand Canal. The light coming from behind the Salute was just fantastic and gave a lovely contre jour effect: 

Salute Maria della Salute - early morning  12"x10" oil on board

Detail

We actually managed to find the exact same spot where Ken Howard - the master of Venice paintings - stands on his Venice oil DVD. I realise it must sounds sadly geeky! I just wish I produced the same painting as him! I almost wiped mine of frustration but manage to "save" it after all.

My easel in the foreground and David Pilgrim and Tim King in the distance

We then crossed the water and Haidee and I painted near the Salute looking across the canal towards San Marco. What caught our eyes was the lovely sunlight on the buildings contrasting with the dark blue gondolas in the foreground. The is the result of my efforts:

View accross the Canal from Fondamenta Dogana alla Salute  10"x8"  oil on board

Detail

Haidee and I in action, blissfully unaware that two minutes later
I smashed my turp glass bottle in pieces in the floor!

After this, most of us then started wandering in the little streets around the Accademia looking for inspiration and the reflections of the sunny buildings on the water caught my eyes so I went for a little study of the scene:

Reflections - Fondamenta Venier Sebastiano   10"x8"  oil on board

At the beginning

Detail

At the end of the session, the light reflections on the water had completely gone so I was mainly painting from memory.

At the end

Haidee, Roy and I finally went for a quick "nocturne" painting just alongside the canal. I planned to catch the sunset but by the time I got my painting material ready it was completely dark! We all felt pretty hardcore painting at what felt like 11 at night but in fact it was only 4 in the afternoon! Despite my pretty cool head torch light, I couldn't really see what I was doing but at the same time it probably gave a feel of spontaneity and urgency to the painting which I quite like:

The Accademia bridge at night  10"x7"  oil on board

The view as we started

Haidee and I painting with Roy's easel in the foreground- thanks Roy for the pic!

My painting towards the end

Detail

I will post soon more paintings from Day 3 and 4 so watch this space!



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

Back from Venice!

I just got back from Venice - what a wonderful painting experience it was! I had only been there once when I was around 15 years old for holiday so it was my first time there as a painter. Although it was an informal 'unorganised' trip, we were actually around 14 plein air painters there staying in various accommodations and bumping into each other during the day. I did 18 paintings during my week there - it was quite a marathon! Here is below a quick glance at my work. I will now need to give a closer look at each painting and will post them gradually on the blog with action pictures in the following weeks. Watch this space!

Painting on Piazza San Marco © Luca Girardini - Photos - www.lucagirardini.com

Painting with Haidee Summers on Piazza San Marco

Painting the Grand Canal and Salute from the Accademia Bridge

My new studio!

Please let me officially introduce you to my new studio!! I hope you don't mind but I need to share the excitement! As some of you might know, I just moved house a couple of weeks ago, and I'm very happy to be able to use the loft room as my studio. My mum visited me last week-end and we set it up together. It's now ready to produce master pieces!

As you can see I'm making the most of the space on the walls to place some boards still drying and hang my latest framed work too. I find it useful to be surrounded by my work while painting as I can take inspiration from it, steal the best bits and make sure I don't repeat the same mistakes!

My painting book collection finally found a suitable place:

(and no, I haven't started drinking, these bottles are for still life!) 

Just outside the door I hanged on the hallway landing a selection of work and prints from other artists which I find very inspiring, just the perfect invitation to go to the studio!

There is plenty of storage underneath the roof all around the room, so no more boards falling on my head while painting:

I'm loving the big velux windows overlooking the rooftops of Bath. The window gets the early morning light and is then clear of direct sunshine for the rest of the day which makes it perfect conditions to work in:

I just bought on ebay some drying trays for plates which work perfectly to dry wet boards:

They have become very useful yesterday as I took the huge task to triple prime over 40 boards in preparation for my next painting adventure:

Indeed I'm off to Venice the day after tomorrow for a week of plein air painting with a bunch of very talented painters. Can't wait! Looking at the amount of boards below, you'll probably think I'm bit overoptimistic to paint all that in one week, but it's Venice afterall! 

My grandma's kitchen

A couple of months ago, it was my grandma's 90th birthday. She is such an incredible woman and she still has more energy than the whole family together (and God knows she has a big family!). As a present I gave her a little painting I made of her kitchen in her house in Belgium. This is sacred place for the whole family as this is where my grandma prepares the Xmas dinner, makes her own cranberry jams, welcomes visitors with a hot chocolate after long walks outside, or has her breakfast staring at the window. Every object in the room has a story and this is a place where you always feel welcome. 

La cuisine à Malèves (The kitchen at the Malèves house) - 10"x12"   oil on board

Detail

For those who follow my blog, you might remember the two paintings I have done of my grandma's garden and sewing room. Click below to have a look at those previous posts:

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/my-grandmas-garden.html

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/la-chambre-couture-de-bonne-maman.html


I'm moving house tomorrow so maybe I'm posting this now in the hope that my new home feels as warm and homely as my grandma's place! I might not be able to paint for a while as I need to set up my new studio in the loft room - all very exciting really. I'll do a post about it when it's ready.

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

Looking up to Gay Street, Bath, October afternoon

Last Sunday I went painting in Bath centre with talented painter Paul Weaver who is also one of last year's Plein Air Prize winners at the Bath Prize. It was our first painting session together and it was nice to exchange tips on material and painting spots. I ended up wiping off my first painting as I really wasn't happy with myself (while Paul was effortlessly producing a little masterpiece which was rather inconsiderate!). But the afternoon session on Gay Street was more successful for me. Here is the little painting I did:

Looking up to Gay Street, Bath, October afternoon   8"x10" oil on board

What caught my eyes was the sun shining on the Bath stone and the masses of trees on the left.

Detail

Here is below a photograph of the scene I took as I was painting:

Here is below Paul painting with watercolours and myself. We set up at the corner of Queen Square trying not to be too much on the way. I know I look like the lazy one as I'm sitting down while Paul is standing up but for my defence, I broke a leg of my tripod in the morning so I could only use it at its lowest position...

As we were painting, a lady looked at our work and mentioned how she loved watercolour works, how great Paul's painting was and how watercolour is always more difficult than any other mediums. Then her husband asked me what I was painting with, and I replied "oils". He then strangely replied "Good for you!" and then walked away. Those words kept Paul and myself laughing for the rest of the afternoon as we were trying to figure out what he meant by that!

Paul adding some finishing touches to his lovely watercolour

My painting towards the end of the session

I have recently been painting again at Bath's Sydney's Garden so I will do an other post with more paintings in the next few days.