Angel having a good deep think about things

Rather than being a pleasure, painting is something I'm guiltily trying to squeeze in between study and home/house stuff at the moment. I have been wondering if there is any point trying to do it if it isn't an enjoyable experience but is instead a rushed thing to tick off the damned 'to do' list.   I found time for an Angel on Friday though, and it was nice giving it a go again.

I may have gotten a bit carried away when I tried to add a little bit of colour into the Angels rather monochrome existence. I'm not too unhappy with the face though , statues are a good way of doing a face without freaking out over it being a face.

Angel in Brookwood Cemetery

I wanted to do something quicker and looser as I felt that yesterdays Angel was heading towards being a bit overworked.

They are interestingly androgynous; they have long frocks and wavy hair, but I assume they are males. His left hand is ready on his sword for some serious smiting should the occasion arise.  I  quite like my foreground grass for some reason.

Another Brookwood Angel

Well that's it, summer hols over, the girls are gone back to school and I have a quiet house. I much prefer having them around, painting or no painting.

It's fun doing this again, although also a big confusing. I ended up putting on more paint and going over more bits than I wanted to. I think the ideal must be to put it on right in the first place and then leave it.

Now that I have finished my degree and have a Ba ( hons) history, ( big very chuffed grin) , I should in theory have tons of painting time and be able to improve drastically. Except it seems I didn't quite get enough of sitting here sweating over essays, and I have decided to torture myself with another degree.  I've a month or so before it all starts again, and painting simmers away slowly in the background.

Angel , Brookwood Cemetery

 I had great notions that when I finally finished studying and the hols started that I'd have all the time in the world to paint, getting in days and days of much needed practice. Well so much for that. Instead the hols have been spent with my girls, we've had outings, trips, days in , days out, and lovely though it has all has been, I've hardly managed to grab a couple of hours to paint at all until now.

In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, i.e get in some sketching time and have a day out with my daughters, I brought them a cemetery, like you do. We went to Brookwood, It's a wonderful place, one of the largest cemeteries in Europe I think. It is vast and very beautiful to walk around in, with a strange mixture of wilderness and order. I love the old part with the angels and ferns,  and crumbling mausoleums, and graves part lost in the Rhododendrons and meadows with wildflowers. There was a butterfly collector swishing his net through the grasses while we were there. I sat and sketched while the girls explored.

This was done sitting in shorts on the most itchy grass ever, with ants. I know if you are being arty you are supposed to say that you worked up the painting from sketches done on location. I'm not entirely sure I saw the connection between the sketching and the painting, I saw utterly different colours while sketching. Although being there does make you more aware of bounced up light than photos seem to.

The gaps between painting efforts are too long, what is being learnt is being lost again I think.

First proper plein air pic

Finally, things have calmed down a bit so I had time to pootle off with my new pochade box. For some reason, I chose to go down by the river Wey near Godalming. It's a gorgeous spot and I've always loved it, but it was only when I was setting up that it properly occurred to me that I have no idea how to do water, or fields, and my tree record is pretty poor too.

 

 

It's not great obviously, nor even good,  but it's not  utterly hideous either I don't think, not for a first go. I had no idea initially what I was doing, I was hopping from water to trees, from detail to broad strokes, from panic to pleasure. Mostly panic.  It's so so different than from a photo. There is no nice neat framing device, and the darned light kept changing. Things looked oddly luminously green and lurid when the sun came out, and then everything dulled down under a cloud.

And people! nosy people! I hated the whole thing for the first twenty minutes and just wanted to give up and go home, but then I thought feck it, just do it and quit worrying. Then I had a great time.

 

 

 

The spot was chosen not for composition, but for shade and a bit of nice grass. My daughters had come along with me, and read away while I painted. We brought a rug, a picnic and a beer - there are many worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

 

Practising for Pochade box

I'll probably go out on the common with my box when it's done. In the meantime I'm taking photos of the place on our morning walk and hoping the practice might help.

 

It'll be interesting to see how I do from real life. I might eventually get the hang of trees and bushes. I'm hoping I'll be less faffy and blobby with my brushstrokes. This went through a pohase where it looked okay... and then I kept going... .

 

 

Nearly have a Pochade box.

P has built me a Pochade box! It's done apart from I don't have a thingy to mount it on a tripod yet. I'm going to be forced to go paint outdoors!! I'll have no excuse soon. Maybe I can break a leg or something :-/

 

The two panels come out, attach to the sides to form shelves, leaving the palette in the middle:

 

 

Isn't that bloody clever! He's fab at making things. I gave it an indoor try out , balanced on a stool:

( the box, not me)

 

It was just a quicky trial of the box, not an attempt to do a proper pic.

 

 

I'm dead chuffed with it, but I also had a dream where I wandered around a farm with the box looking for a place I could paint and it all going very very wrong!

 

 

Some summer sketches

Well I have been painting, but I've been painting the exterior woodwork on the house which is no fun whatsoever. I did a rubbish job on it anyway, and managed to get impossible to remove paint on legs, shorts, dog, path and plants. I've been keeping up sketching though and have finished pad number 3. Ta Da. That's the end of the Moleskin. The long format didn't suit me, although, it was okay for this foxglove:

 

I need to leave home more often, I've been sketching looking out of doors and windows:

 

 

And I've been sketching bits of rooms:

 

 

And I've been sketching any flowers in the garden:

 

I get a bit fiddly and faffy too easily, so sometimes I have to try and force myself to be looser:

 

I've given one of my daughters some watercolours, so she was sitting out in the garden sketching with me last night, while my other daughter was out there reading with us. Nice way to spend an evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Cows in fields behind Elstead

We pass a couple of fields of cows often on our morning walks, and at that time of the day they are hanging around obligingly close to the path . Three times now I have hauled myself, the dog and my watercolour stuff to the fields later in the day to sketch them, and each time they have been huddled at the far far farthest edge of the field and have been undrawable. Rotters. I've taken lots of zoom pics instead.

 

I'll get around to sketching them sometime, but I have no idea how you would go about painting them on location. I'm sure by the time I've sorted a colour out , or cleaned a brush, they would have ambled off elsewhere.

I've not really tried bushes and trees before, I was squinting so much I think I was doing it with my eyes shut. As a technique, this has some very obvious limitations.

Water lilies

I hate it when you manage to make time and really really want to get painting, and then have no notion what on earth to paint. I wasted so much time thinking about it, and then just decided quickly pick a photo and quit faffing.  This was taken last week in the woods up the road from us.

 

I'm loving the act of painting, I love the mixing and applying the paint and the concentrating. And I'm loving just learning. The end result isn't of real importance at the moment, so I don't know why I waste time over subject matter. Daft really.

Cows near Farnham

I went out properly plein air watercolour sketching yesterday, yippee, which apart from losing the dog for an hour, felt really good. I thought I'd chance going out with the oil paints today, but it's rainy and horrid. I wanted to do something though, it's been sooo long, so I rooted through my photos.

 

I'm not too unhappy with this. It is bigish, as in 30 x 25cm, so it took heaps of concentration. I was at it about two and a half hours, all of which was accompanied by Radio 4 iplayer which is  utterly utterly fab. I'm all smug actually, as I painted a pic I don't think is too  awful, I caught up on a few hours of history programs , and also had a big savoury brioche rising while I was painting. I've now  got a painting plus a huge warm Parma ham, mozzarella and basil loaf plus a bottle of white, plus it's Friday - what more could you ask for.

I'll look at the pic again tomorrow and poke at it, but for now, I'm staying with mildly smug, or at least, just kind of pleased.

Exam over!

That's it, all done, exam finished, course finished,I am no longer a student! I am back to being a housewife :-/ Results should be sometime in August, and unless I have done something utterly daft, I should have a history degree! If I have managed to flunk things it will be because I spent the evening before the exam drinking a bottle of wine and drawing my shoes.

 

This is only my second pair of Docs since I was about 17, they last and last.

This is an attempt to catch the gorgeous effect of looking out on the ( white) wisteria in full blossom at this time of year. The lines are a bit all over the place.

 

 

I was getting bit bored with looking into the veg box, so I upended the box and put the veg on top.

 

I've got to manically catch up on house and garden, Moms coming tomorrow for a week, then after that, I'll really have to root out the oil paints and see if I have a notion what to do with the things.

sketchpad issues

I've only one brush for sketching, and it's cheap and fake, and I'm using it on a cheap and basic sketchpad. In a fit of fullofmyselfness, I decided I'd do so much better with some good quality  materials, so I  went off and treated myself to a Moleskin watercolour sketch pad. I hate it!!

 

The format is long and narrow, which is probably perfect for sweeping landscapes, but not so great for the shed in Dorset. But the main issue is that you can't at all seem to lift colour. Once it's on, it's on. I'd have liked to lighten/brighten the deck to the left of the shed, and pulled a bit of paint out of the shrubs, but it's ever so permanent.

I think it has made for a duller veg box as well, I'd have liked to lighten the asparagus:

 

 

 

 But on the up side, the study avoidance is going well:

 

 

I seem to have ferociously knobbly feet.

 

 

Lovely lovely weather,  I'm dawdling a bit too much time away on the patio.

 

 

 

Another week of studying and sketching

I'm one page off finishing another sketchbook - again, rather absurdly pleased with that. I have decided the oil paints have to stay packed away until after my exam, otherwise I think I'd be painting under pressure rather than for pleasure. In the mean time, the veg boxes keep coming.

 

Even though I thought I was aware of seasonality etc, recording the boxes makes you very aware of the changes. Things have gotten a lot more colourful for one thing.

 

 

 

Sometimes I just want to fit in a sketch, but can't for the life of me find anything interesting to draw.

Hence, some of the shoes in the hall.

 

 

And a Rhododendron, there is a big bush of these in full blousy blossom in the garden at the moment.

 

 

 

Sketching the house etc

I've been trying to draw things that are a bit challenging, especially lines and perspective etc. for the practice. That makes it all sound like a boring  exercise, but I must say I'm loving the whole thing.

 

I sat out on the grass doing the next one, Max ran off with the tissues, licked the paint, and took to chewing my sandal , painting with a dog is gas crack.

 

I'm not the most innovative when it comes to subject matter. I wandered around looking for things and ended up sitting in front of the shed.

 

The next one  I didn't do for drawing practice, I wanted to try and quickly catch the late sun on the grass and the backlit viburnum. Minimum drawing and very quick painting.

 

 

And last weeks veg box.  Now that I think of it, I think that fennel bulb is still sitting in the fridge a week later, oops.

 

still sketching

I'm almost at the end of the bit of time I decided to take off study, but haven't got around to any oil painting at all. I seem to be chasing around catching up on the garden, the house, the kids and the dog, in no particular order. I'm still sketching though, so at least I'm still getting some practice in.

 

Still doing the weekly veg box. Yippee for spring, the veg are getting more colourful, less root veggie, and more tempting. Also still doing hellebores.

 

 

I find it a bit funny that I want to be a big and bold painter, but I am possibly more of  a delicate and  finikity painter. I have to make a conscious effort with the watercolours to try and get some proper dark in there, like in the shadow of this chair.

 

 

This was nice to do, I just had a nice lunch on a tray outside, the dog fell asleep under my bench, the sun was divine and I sat there happily sketching, squinting and improving my wrinkle count. I have used artistic licence and left out most of the weeds on the patio.

Finished a whole sketchbook

Ta Da - one sketchbook finished. Keeping one is one of those things I always wanted to do but never quite got around to it, so I'm a bit absurdly pleased with myself for actually doing it.

 

It's nice to look through - not necessarily for it's artistic merits, there is a lot of rubbish in there - but I like the way it's a little visual diary that reminds you of certain times. It's got the dog, the kids, the husband, the food, bits of the house and garden etc. I'm going to try and keep doing it, especially as painting is just not possible for a while.

No painting, only sketching

There doesn't seem to be any hope of any painting time, Easter hols, kids, dog, study, looming essay and after that looming exam conspire to take up all available time. I have serious study guilt permanently.

 

I'm still trying to keep up a bit of sketching,  I seem to be honing excellent wonky perspective skills.

 

It is an appallingly cheap notebook, 99p for 70 sheets! So the paper is rather rubbish if you want to lift colour or if you go too wet. Having said that, cheap makes you nice and careless.

 

 

Much though I love the veg box arrival, I don't think I want to see another wintery parsnip or swede. They don't exactly make the heart sing.

 

 

I quite like my onions. It's still bitter with the cold outside there,  not a leaf or a sign of spring. I'm quite looking forward to a bit of warmth and maybe going outside to sketch. There may be something more exciting than veg out there. I may even treat myself to an ever so slightly better sketchpad for the occasion.

Fast Flowers

This was a bit of a rush job - I just wanted to paint something, anything. Both the set up and the painting were very hurriedly done.

Sometimes there is some nice quality about paintings done in a hurry. The whole thing may not work, but sometimes there is a bit more life in them than there is in things you labour carefully over.

Lousy photo - also a rush job.

Rain and the dog

It's hard to get bothered or excited or interested; this endless rain and lousy Spring sap the life out of you. I took the photo for this last October in West Witterings. I'm not entirely sure we have seen the sun since!

 

I utterly forgot to post about the other main distraction that has arrived in out lives:

 

Max, who is about 9 months old. He's a Collie/Labrador. Daft as anything. Also rather nice. At about lunch time every day I have a think whether I should spend the next hour painting or walking the dog. He wins. Walks are tedious stop/start affairs as he is slowly learning to walk nicely on a lead. He does extraordinarily well until we see a dog/child/bike/lorry/leaf/clump of grass. It would be so so much nicer if most of this  walking wasn't in the bloody rotten, persistant, unwelcome, relentless, dull an perfectly horrid rain.

 

Forgotten which end of the brush to hold

It's been an age since I've managed to paint - so much so, both the brushes and myself have gotten old and stiff in the meantime. I had the essay from hell to write ( re the role of religion in the construction of political identities in Israel/Palestine) which entirely engulfed my life for the last few weeks... and now I'm free! Yipee! Well, for another week or so.

 

Nothing special. But it was nice to get painting again. I adore Hellebores but did it no justice. It's a wiper. I was happier with my sketchbook/watercolour attempt.
 

 

I've been trying to at least keep up sketching, it's nice to feel you are doing something a bit creative, or at least still looking and drawing. Doing it has made me realise just how much my life revolves around the kitchen.
 

 

It also revolves around food - I've been charting the weekly veg box arrival.
 

 

What a narrow little life I lead! Which is not a complaint, it's just the way things are at the mo, study,family, food. Then some more food. Anyway it's cold and wintery. I  like having my sketchbook. It's something I've always meant to do, this time the commitment is lasting nearly to the end of a book.
 

 

The only other bit of oil painting I've managed to do is a copy. I tried to copy a Roos Schuring painting that I've got in one of her calenders. I think the way she simplified things and captures moods and weather is amazing. I thought copying would give some idea of how she goes about it.
 

 

And I did learn from the experience, I learnt I certainly can't paint like Roos Schuring !

Someday maybe.