Our show starts this Friday in Bradford on Avon!

Only 4 days until the opening of our 3 days - show in Bradford on Avon!! For the last few weeks I've been busy framing, labelling, wrapping and packing paintings and prints. I'm so glad I have a studio for that, as I can't imagine doing it in the front room with my two littles curious cheeky monkeys touching everything!

Getting the frames ready

The joint show (Bob Child, Andrew Taylor and myself) will run for 3 days 6-8 October at the West Barn in Bradford on Avon (10 am till 5.30pm) and the three of us will be there the whole time.

I also wanted to invite my blog followers and readers to the private view of the show which will be held Friday 6 October 6-9pm. The venue is West Barn, Barton Farm in Bradford-on-Avon, BA15 1LF, a short walk from the train station.

There will be original oil and watercolour paintings for sale, alongside greeting cards, calendars and a large selection of giclée prints. Many paintings have been produced during our recent travels to South Africa, Portugal, France, Belgium or Scotland.

It would be lovely to see you there, have a chat, and show you our recent work!

Here is a little preview of what you can expect to see at the show:

Oil paintings by Valérie Pirlot:

Watercolours by Bob Child:

Oil paintings by Andrew Taylor:

Bob, Andrew and I hope to see you there!

If you can't come to the show, feel free to browse www.valeriepirlot.com and contact me if you wish to reserve any paintings for you. 

Gardens and allotments

Here is a little glimpse of what I have been painting this summer - my favourite subjects: gardens and allotments! Below are the wonderful Iford Manor Gardens. I've seen many gardens (my mum is a journalist specialising in gardens so she's dragged me to countless places), but this one really stood out for me. It has an Italian peaceful feeling about it. I was actually with my mum when I painted this. The light was amazing. I had a great time doing it and I think it might well be one of my favourite paintings I've produced. 

Iford Manor Gardens in the summer 10"x12"  oil on board
Available for sale here

Detail

Here are a few pictures of the place and some steps of the painting:

Next stop: Great Chalfield Manor. It was a very hot day so I escaped in the shade near the water. Felt nice and cool there but I became the target of an army of bugs and mosquitos! I powered through, ignored the flies crawling on my arms and bugs biting my legs, and I'm not too unhappy with the result, considering the conditions.

Great Chalfield Manor  10"x12"  oil on board
Available for sale here

Detail

Next to me, my mum was photographing the place for a magazine feature...

On an other day, I got the chance to go back to my favourite allotments, five minutes walk from my house, and tried to capture this scene quickly before the evening light disappeared.

Last light on Monksdale road allotments 10"x8"  oil on board
Available for sale here

Detail

Here are a few shots of the progress:

Light almost gone! Time to go home!

Finally, here is a very small oil sketch I did from my studio at home, looking down at the garden. Louisa was at preschool and my little one was having a nap and I had an hour of freedom ahead of me. I could hear the chair calling "come an rest and read a magazine!", but I decided to ignore that and paint it instead! I'm keeping this one for myself as a souvenir of the relaxing time I could have had! 

The long chair  5"x7" - Not for sale

Finally, don't forget to save the date 6-8 October for our show in Bradford on Avon. I'll do a post about it soon but here is the little poster meanwhile...

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Clouds, sheep and boats

Here are a couple of paintings done in plein air in the countryside between Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon a few weeks ago. These outings have become rather rare lately because it is getting harder to carry my painting kit at the same time as my ever growing baby belly, not to mention the risk of breaking my chair! I would love to say I'm being inspired by this pregnancy and doing some interesting studio self portraits, but the truth is I'm spending my evenings instead watching the sound of music and eating chocolate... Still, the optimistic person I am just thought it was the perfect time to buy a new easel so I will do my best to use it before the new arrival end of next month...

For the first painting below, I wanted to use big bold strokes and keep things very simple, using the minimum amount of marks possible. I had fun painting the clouds and suggesting the sheep with a few brushstrokes.

Clouds and sheep, near Bradford on Avon  10"x12"  oil on board 

The painting towards the end

A few close up details below:

Detail

Detail

This painting is available for sale on my website with worldwide shipping. Click here to view it.

Below is my second painting of the day, done just a few minutes drive from the first painting location. What caught my eyes was the variety of greens and the light piercing through the trees and hitting the roofs of the boats.

Narrow boats near Bradford on Avon   10"x8"  oil on  board

As you can see below I like to live life dangerously as I was painting pretty close to the edge. Anybody that didn't like my painting could have sent me in the water with one push!

The painting towards the end

Detail

Detail

This painting is available on my website with worldwide shipping. Click here to view it.

Review of the Bradford-on-Avon show

A big thank you to everybody who came to our show in Bradford on Avon last week-end. We almost hit the 900 visitors in total and it was fantastic to meet so many people and have such a great platform to sell our art. We'll be back soon! Here are a few pictures for those who missed it...

Here are a few pictures of the private view reception... 

My fiancé Jon and lovely daughter Louisa came to show their support!
Louisa was mainly busy eating all the snacks...

Lovely music by Cobie Mills

If you missed the show and wanted to have a look at my work, go to www.valeriepirlot.com for all my available paintings and email me at valpirlot1@hotmail.com for any queries.