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

Artists & Illustrators Summer issue cover!

I'm very excited to announce that three other fellow plein air painters (Roy Connelly, Paul Banning, Antony Bridge) and myself are featured in the new issue of Artists & Illustrators! And we are on the front cover!! I should play it cool and blasé but I'm far too thrilled and excited for that! 

This is a special issue about plein air painting and the magazine followed us during a painting session outdoors. We all had to face pretty bad weather but it was a lot of fun. The magazine is out now so grab a copy if you can (for more info go to www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk). Here is below a small low resolution preview of the feature to give you a tease of what it looks like:

Roy Connelly and Paul Banning painting in Suffolk

Roy Connelly and Paul Banning painting in Suffolk

Antony Bridge and myself painting in Bath

Antony Bridge and myself painting in Bath

The magazine team has been really lovely and the photographer has been kind enough to send me all the great images of the day out painting in Bath where Antony Bridge and myself produced a painting near Putleney Bridge. I have included many pictures below. The photographer's name is Gareth Iwan Jones - do check out his beautiful website (www.garethiwanjones.com)

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

Here is below the painting I produced during the session. The weather was overcast and it even rained at some point but I managed to catch a glimpse of sun between the clouds:

Pulteney Bridge, Bath, in the afternoon  16"x9"  oil on board

Detail

Below you'll see all the steps:

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

The finished painting:

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

Although we were both sitting on the same bench, Antony painted the Abbey (while I painted the bridge) and he did the lovely painting you can see below:

©Gareth Iwan Jones     www.garethiwanjones.com

Here is again my finished painting below. The painting session happened in the afternoon, and I must confess that Antony and I did arrive in the morning at the place to practice before the arrival of the magazine team. I painted exactly the same view, the first time as a practice, and since it was an overcast day, both paintings ended up looking very similar. Scroll below to see the first one!

Pulteney Bridge, Bath, in the afternoon  16"x9"  oil on board

Here is below the painting I did in the morning as a warm up:

Pulteney Bridge, Bath, in the morning  16"x9"  oil on board

The painting during the morning "warm up" session

Detail of the morning painting

After the afternoon painting session with the team, Antony and I decided to reward ourselves with a nice hot beverage in town. Although quite tired, we felt we could find time for a last little painting before calling it a day so we headed back to mine and set up in one of my favourite spots which shows beautiful views of Bath and we caught the sunset. I produced this little painting:

Bath view from Oldfield park, summer evening  10"x8"  oil on board

The painting towards the end

Antony was loving those greens

The sun came out and gave me the chance to add some lovely highlights

Detail

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

I would like to finish this post by mentioning that I currently have paintings on show at two places for the moment (Bristol and Corsham) so if you are around, please go and have a look:

"Inspired" at the Guidlhall Arts Centre in Bristol

A permanent painting and sculpture exhibition continuously updated throughout the year which precedes the Bristol Prize 2013.

The show currently includes all my recent Cornwall paintings.

Small Street, Bristol BS1 1DW

www.guildhallartscentre.co.uk/events/inspired

Mayastudio gallery

9B Station Road

Corsham SN13 9EY

Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm

The gallery currently includes my recent Bath paintings amongst others.

Trip in Cornwall 2013 - Part 2

Here is the second post about my recent trip in Cornwall as a part of the Bath Prize 2012 (click here to view the first post). As I was staying in Porthleven, I took the chance to go back to Marizion beach and paint again St Michael's Mount (I painted at the same spot on a previous Cornwall trip). It was a lovely sunny day with enough clouds to give some drama to the compositions. I did 3 paintings on the day. 

The first painting below was painted from a little viewpoint just off the road. The lovely blues in the sky and purple/blues/greens in the water were begging to be painted:

St Michael's Mount from the coast, Marizion  9"x12"  oil on board

Below you can see my setting. It think it is some kind of viewpoint where people can stop the car and take photographs. Some people popped by and I made myself useful by taking pictures of couples standing in front of the Mount. I could almost have started a business there and charge people for it but then I remembered I had a painting to do :-)

As I was painting, someone asked me if I was there to paint the Queen. (??) Apparently, she was coming 2 days later to visit the castle on St Michael's Mount!  Unfortunately, I was there only for the day, so the Queen and I will have to reschedule a painting session at an other time...

Again, the lazy me found a convenient place to sit as there was a concrete bench. I could just see above the railing so it didn't actually obstruct my view like it does on the photograph.

As usual, I kept the brushstrokes lose and included the minimum amount of details possible to try to capture the essence of the place:

Detail

Detail2

After a lovely lunch with my mum at Ben's Cornish Kitchen (I told you my mum was good at feeding me between paintings!), I set up on the beach to capture the changing tide and moody sky: 

Marazion beach, Cornwall - sun between the clouds  16"x9"  oil on board

I really enjoyed doing this painting and getting my fix of fresh seaside air!

The painting towards the end

The sea had some lovely turquoise and green colours in it and the water was very sparkly when the sun came out:

Detail

Finally, I did a last little study of St Michael's Mount from the beach (see below). I loved the way the blue sky was piercing through the grey clouds and how the puddles of water on the sand are reflecting the colours of the sky. I know that we can moan a lot about the weather here in England, and probably only get about a week worth of summer, but to me, it offers the most beautiful moody skies and is a paradise for painters!

St Michael's Mount from Marazion beach, Penzance  7"x10"  oil on board

Talking about summer, you can see my stylish summer look below as I was being snapped by a paparazzi from behind the dunes! 

The painting towards the end

Adding the final touches...

Detail

That was my last painting of the trip as we had to head back the following day. Here are some pictures taken of Porthleven that evening bathed in the evening sun. I didn't get the chance to paint it on such a nice sunny light but might consider doing some studio works from it:

Porthleven harbour

My mum enjoying the views

Boats on the harbour

Beautiful typical english houses in the evening sunshine

Most of my Porthleven and Cornwall paintings will be on show and for sale at the end of June at the Guildhall Arts Centre in Bristol  (BS1 2HL) as a part of the show "Inspired" - showcasing around 600 paintings, sculptures and works of Art, which precedes the Bristol Prize 2013. More info will follow.