Attempting to run long long before I've got walking sorted.

Another ridiculous picture to attempt in terms of complexity. For some reason I wanted to try it, probably because of the light -it was taken on an early morning walk through an oyster farm of all things - but it was beyond my abilities.

Which is not to say I didn't love the trying. I did. And I'm learning. Among other issues,  I'm much too impatient for this type of thing, the drawing and perspective etc needed way more thought and attention, but I was dying to get going. It's overworked and murky in places, but there is something about the middle bit that I think slightly works for early morning light, so that's something. 

The study books have arrived - Art of the Twentieth Century - even a quick glace at the intro had me frantically rummaging through the dictionary, so I imagine painting will be pushed aside a bit. If I do still paint I'll try and sensibly paint simpler subjects. 

Some Statuary

I don't know why I decided to do this pic, I suppose even though I know it was  not the most suitable, but I liked the golden glow in the water of the basin. So worth a go, anyway I'm  sort of in the mood to try anything at all as soon enough the study will start again and I'll probably end up not painting for ages.

I drew the fountain a bit lopsidedly, and it is weird compositionally, but the right hand foliage isn't my worst, and I quite like my pillars blending in to the shadows a bit. 

The pic was taken looking down a long avenue in the Boboli gardens in Florence last October. We paid the entrance fee meaning of course to walk about attempting  to be all cultured etc, but actually, we found the first bit of grass, a lovely lawn in front of the palace,  and all fell sound asleep in the late afternoon sun. Lovely day. 

Second attempt with first boardwalk

The more I looked it the more I just didn't like my first shadows, so I sort of smeared white spirit on the path bit,  rubbed it, and left myself with a fine blue mess to work on.

I think that's a bit better. When I started this painting malarky I bought short sharpish flat brushes for still life, I'm not sure they are the best for landscapes though, bit cartoony and edgy sometimes when you are looking for soft. Therefore I have ordered some filberts, partly because it's one of those lovely words that you just have to keep repeating, filbert filbert filbert. Must be time for my afternoon nap. 

Boardwalks again, different direction

I wasn't happy with my shadows on the boardwalk yesterday, so thought I'd do another similar pic and see if I could improve. It's a better view of the boardwalk, but not such  nice trees I don't think. 

I prefer the shadow, but it's still not what I was trying to get. Actually, I have no idea what I'm trying to get which may be apart of the problem. I don't quite know what kind of style I'm aiming for, I'm hoping a nice one will just magically appear one day. One of the things I'd like to do better is a balance between thick paint and washier paint, but I keep going over areas and therefore lose any areas of thinner paint. But then it is quite nice to smear on nice thick stuff. 

Blue Boardwalks

We are fabulously lucky around here for fantastic walks within a really short distance. We go to the Moat once or twice a week, where there are boardwalks out over a nature reserve/wetland/bog. The colours can be spectacular sometimes, with vivid bright blue, or ultramarine, or slate gray water, and sometimes the boardwalks look bright blue.

Honest - they can look that blue. Not that cartoony, not that jaggedy, but really, that blue. 

Not quite Tate Modern

I popped up to London to see the Malevich exhibition in the Tate ( extremely interesting) and took a photo from a balcony. The shadow of the huge chimney was falling rather dramatically on the scene below. It was a daft subject to try and paint,  but I just liked the idea of giving it a go.

There's a huge amount of blankish space, and absolutely nothing is in focus, plus the shadow makes the clump of birches look like they have a sharp corner plus plus plus - still, I loved doing it. I realised I haven't been painting because now that the hols are here, so are my daughters, and for some reason, I'm quite uncomfortable painting with anyone around. Anyway, I locked myself in the end room and told everyone to pretend I didn't exist. which worked apart from approximately 57 milliion interruptions.