I had a lovely commission to work on this week. Some peaches for a new born girl. The baby’s parents bought some strawberries from me two years ago when their son was born and so wanted to give their daughter a painting too. The peaches were lovely to paint (and later to eat).
We visited Paris for a few days at half term which was fantastic. It was the first time my daughters (11 and 9 yrs) had been. We walked for miles and explored most of the central areas. I was negotiated down to two museums (Pompidou and Musee d’Orsay) but they were fabulous. I took my watercolours, here is a sketch of the street we were staying in and a sketch made in the Musee d’Orsay.
We have moved house in the past few weeks which is why I have not been blogging as often as I might. Here is a picture of my new studio – a lovely room that gets afternoon sun. Toastie, the dog is fully acclimatised and snoozing in her bed. The house needs a lot of work – in my studio the posters are strategically placed over the peeling walls! The studio is very low on the pecking order of rooms to be redecorated which suits me fine.
You can just see on the easel, the first painting I’ve made in the new house, an oil sketch of some freesias in a green glass.
My lovely neighbour, Yvette, lent me her gourds to paint last week. The patterns and colours of gourds are so vibrant and feel so Autumnal, they were a delight to paint. I prepared the canvas with a yellow ground and decided to leave some of it showing. I also purposefully composed the still life so that part of the gourds were ‘off canvas’ so that it didn’t look too neat and tidy.
This is the second in my series of paintings from Costa Rica. The mangroves were so still yet so full of life and lush foliage.
We took our first big adventurous family holiday this year to Costa Rica. It was so exciting to take the children somewhere so different from the UK and see such an array of fabulous animals (sloths consistently winning the ‘best animal seen today prize’). I was really inspired by the vibrant colours of the jungle and made several watercolours and took many photographs of the flora. I now plan to work on a series of Jungle paintings. Here is a step by step record of my first one.
I’m making the most of peonies being in season and have used three glass vases here to explore the different play of light on different shapes of glass. The painting is not currently framed but I am going to frame it in a moulded pale grey frame with a white slip.
Today is my last day in Sprout Arts. It’s been a fantastic 10 days in this lovely gallery.
Many thanks to all those who have come to the exhibition.
This is one of the paintings on display in my exhibition at Sprout Arts in Furzedown. It is so lovely that peonies are back in season, my favourite flower.
Pink and white peonies in enamel jug, 60x80cm framed, £850