Swimmers below Corte

Although I didn't paint when we were on hols, I did of course take lots of pics. The one this painting is based on was taken looking down from the Citadel in Corte  - where we huffed and puffed up to on  on a ridiculously hot day. The kids in the river below had the right idea.

 Now personally I don't think that's too too bad a start after a long gap in painting. My own assessment of where I'm at: I think I'm okay at colour mixing mostly, I think I'm okay at getting some light and dark , or tone or whatever. I think where some of the problem lies is just in how to approach putting paint on the darned board - thickness of paint, brushstrokes, how big, what direction, how much paint, which ones first etc. I was sort of okay on the rocks and trees on top I think - I just went for it, blobbed it down and it's alright. I faffed, fussed and fretted over the water though, and worse, I went back in this morning , with - crime of crimes - a small brush - and fussed and faffed some more. And I think it shows. I have a feeling that it is only practice that will help there.

On the whole though, I'm not unhappy with it, and there are bits I think worked okay. I think.

Had to edit - I mixed up my place names - this was in Corte, not in  Bastia - Corte is right in the middle of Corsica, in the heart of the extremely stunning mountains. Very striking citadel.

bits of faffing about - new oils and hols.

Well I'm done with study - I shall allow myself to be smugly boastful - well it is my diary after all - I've just finished my BA Hons Humanities with Art History, or some such title, and gotten myself another 1st class degree. Ta Da. I have no idea how that happened.

I found it to be a killer year - it was art of the 20th C and was therefore a horrendous morass of truly nasty critical theory so I completely dropped painting and even sketching. So it's back to scratch and trying to remember which end of the brush to use etc.

Out with the old peppers - a half-hearted attempt as just did it on a desk without didn't do a proper set up . The house is upside down from what seems like endless building work, so it's all too much of a bother finding anything.

I've bought myself water based oils - a) because I'm messy as anything and get paint everywhere and b) cos I thought it might be easier to being the paints on hols. 

 I've sat in the garden a few times giving it a go, it is a bit subjectless out there though, but at least I'm practicing again. I thought I better get accustomed to the new paints. 

We went off to Corsica and I very diligently packed the  paints, but they never came out of the bag! It's kind of hard to put aside that sort of time when ye are all off doing nice stuff together, and I suppose I chickened out too. I did do some simple sketching though, so I wasn't utterly and entirely useless. 

I tried this a number of times, the view down on St. Florent from the terrace, but it was always the late evening by the time I tried it, and although the light was nicely hitting the town when I started, it had always gone by the time I got around to colouring in! Hence, sort of dull. But I do like having this sort of thing as a little record. 

This was my one and only attempt to paint out in the big bad world, i.e , not from the safety of the house. I sat under a brolly while the others were snorkeling. It is only a quickie, not least because the lady in the hat under the pink brolly seemed highly suspicious  of the way I kept staring in their direction.  

Nice to be giving it all a go again.