Peppers in Dorset

The only other thing I painted while on hols were some peppers I bought at Bridport market, fab market, and fab fruit and veg. With all that choice I should have bought something else as I don't find peppers easy for some reason.

Peppers day one: I was very cross at this pic, the bowl is wonky and the colours are a bit murky.

Peppers day two: better.

Peppers day three: I have no idea why on earth I chose this angle, as it left a big bit of nothing on one side of the pic, but painting the glass bits etc was very enjoyable.

Pic of kitchen set up which I think convincingly demonstrates that painting wasn't easy and that therefore sitting on the deck in the sun with a book was by far the most sensible thing to do.

Pears in Dorset

We went off to Dorset for the last two weeks, and even though I very diligently brought my paints etc with me, it was hard to find space, or time, or nice things to paint.  The kitchen ledge was the only place to set up, and then the house there seemed to have no nice glasses or bowls. Actually, I'm probably only making excuses, I was having too nice a time sitting around lazily reading and tootling off on picnics when the weather allowed.
I did buy three pears simply because they looked nice and bumpy and paintable.

Pears day one: I quite like some of the blueish brushstrokes on the pears.

Pears day two: it all went a little more subtle.

 

 

 

 

 Pears day three: some very odd colours found there way in there.

 

 

 

 

Pears day four: we ate the subject matter.



Honeysuckle

I thought I could do a better job on the Crocosmia then I did yesterday,but on the way to pick some , I thought that the honeysuckle on the gate was looking nice and garish, so I picked that instead.

That was the fiddliest thing I ever painted. I nearly fell over from concentrating.

I love love love going out to the garage and everything being there all ready to go.

New state of the art studio

I'm all excited, we're back from Ireland ( wet) and I have a new studio! Well, when I say studio, Paul cleared a corner of the garage and set up some tables etc. It's so cool. I've been painting in the kitchen which involves a half hour set up of finding the easel/paints/rags/jars/lamp/box/painting shirt/etc/etc, and then, when all is done, it takes an age to tidy up again, especially as I seem to manage to make oily paw prints on most the kitchen surfaces ( and wierdly, on my face).

I brought all the stuff out today and have space to leave all the bits there - how fab is that. I can just go out and voila! ready to go. And also, I can do it when people are at home, something I cant bring myself to do in the kitchen. ( all that nosyness!)

I only meant to set up , not to paint today, as I have to chauffeur love sick teen son about, but as I was there I attempted a quickie. It's not great, flaws too numerous to mention, but it was fast and fun.

Not big enough bowl

We're off on the ferry to Ireland tonight, so I wanted to squeeze in one last painting. I think it will be a while before I get the chance again. The apples I bought for travelling have been subjected to an hour in the (very hot ) spotlight.

Darn damn and blast, I like my apples, I even like my bowl, I hate that horrid knife. I may well be tempted to paint over it when we come back. Is that cheating??

I'll miss painting.

Jam jar

We're off on hol back to Ireland tomorrow, so the fridge and fruit bowl are all a bit bare. The ( quite past it) apple seemed to be the only thing in the house, apart from potatoes.I faffed about for ages with different different dishes, spoons etc, and then , for some unknown reason , picked the most complicated jam jar I could lay my hands on.

The idea with the jar was to indicate a jar in a few clever brushstrokes, a la Carol Marine, who seems to be able to indicate glass just using a few perfectly placed swipes of the brush. It didn't work out that way, a few swipes, looked, well, like a few swipes. So I spent an absolute age on fiddling and faffing. The result isn't at all what I was aiming for, but, I'm not unchuffed with it. I may even be a teeny bit pleased. 

There is so so much every time to think about, so much that you have to get right or it's wrong. if it's not composition, its brush strokes, or shadows, or line, or colour, or edges..... sigh.

Three cherries who lack purpose in life

I wanted to paint cherries, so bought some yesterday. All got eaten by the food hoovers that are my children, but I left strict instructions to leave me four. I got left three.

The paint is a bit looser than lately, and I like the idea of that. There are more highlights than cherry going on though. Mostly I reckon it suffers from the dullest composition ever. Aimless, clueless non involved cherries hanging around for no purpose whatsoever. It's hard to care about them. They may as well be eaten.