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A still life and a plein air in oil;

Yesterday was cold and grey and it was unpleasant being outside, so a still life was my choice of duty. I felt much better after completion of the still life; Not sure whether it is was the fact that I painted, ot the bright yellow of the suflowers. Probably a good mix of both.

Two sunflowers

oil on board, 20X15cm

sunflowers

 °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Two chairs

oil on board, 35X24cm

two chairs

Today was sunny and warm and pleasant. No question. A plein air was on the the to-do-list. The garden is in a state of neglect with us working on the house and the cottage the last few months. I think the painting perfectly reflects the charotic character of my unkempt garden of late.

à bientôt

Ronell

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Roses in the garden.

Painting flowers doesn’t come natural to me. But I never realized how much I will enjoy it. Especially when I can do it outside. Painting outside just has some magic to it, which only a plein air artist will understand. My plein air work is always much better than my atelier work, more intuitive, more spontaneous. My biggest problem is leaving the painting as it is AFTER I have returned to the atelier. I forget that I am an artist and I turn into a plastic surgeon. I see a little something that needs “lifting” and so I begin to I nip and tuck this beautiful plein air work up to a point here it becomes totally unrecognizable. I lose that fresh plein air touch and I end up with tired and overbotoxed painting. Sigh…

Generosa carmeline

oil on linen, 33x47cm

This is the completed painting I carried from the garden to the atelier. I was happy.

rose-generosa-carmeline-004

Roses 1: The first steps – getting in the shapes and the darks for shadows. A white canvas always threatens me, paralyzes me. This is a perfect way for me to lose that fear of the white surface I have to fill.

rose-generosa-carmeline-001

Roses 2: Almost done

rose-generosa-carmeline-002

Roses 3: Painting completed.

rose-generosa-carmeline-003

Roses 4: Back in the studio, the artist got kidnapped by the plastic surgeon and the painting transformed completely. All my hard work in the garden, my lovely strokes, the depth in my blooms…all gone.

rose-generosa-carmeline

And so another painting had been a lesson learnt the hard way.  Studio painting is studio painting and plein air painting is plein air painting, basta.

à bientôt.

Ronell

 

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Yellow and red nasturtiums in oil.

My garden is starting to run empty of flowers. A few roses and the nasturtiums are still hanging on though. We had  a sudden spurt of cold and rain last week which gave the nasturtiums quite a knock and I hastily had to pick them before I had nothing left. So, painting was done in the atelier…not the same as painting sur le motif in the garden.

Yellow nasturtiums

oil on linen, 30x50cm

nasturtiums-in-yellow-and-red-001

nasturtiums-in-yellow-and-red

Red Nasturtiums

oil on linen, 30x30cm

cappuncine-rouges

nasturtiums-in-yellow-and-red-002

à bientôt

Ronell

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Late season hydrangeas in oil.

It feels so great to work in oils again! It is and will always be my first love. I neglect it far too much. In fact, there a lot of things I neglect too much. Anyway…

My hydrangeas are at the end of their summer colour. they were beautifully white and I had dark pinks. The whites turned to greens and the pinks to this beautifully seductive deep burgundy. Some really suffered from the hat and drought of August and crumpled into brown and black splotches among the greens and magentas. I love these colors…rich and old and weathered.

hydrangeas set-up in atelier

hydrangeas-in-oil-004

Hydrangeas 1

oil on linen, 55x45cm

hydrangeas-in-oil-001

 

halfway through hydrangeas 1

hydrangeas-in-oil

Hydrangeas 2

oil on linen, 45x33cm

hydrangeas-in-oil-003

halfway through hydrangeas 2

I am more impressed with the halfway through hydrangeas 2 than with the completed painting. At this stage I wanted to stop, but just wanted to do a touch more to the surrounding greens. Before I could stop myself, I added touches all over and the painting completely changed. So much for being happy with the painting before adding touches..

hydrangeas-in-oil-002

Until next time

Ronell

 

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Watercolour for Sunflowers.

Some subject are painted again and again and they never look the same, like sunflowers. I have done sunflowers in 2007, then in 2010, 2011, 2014 and now again. they are just wondeful to paint/sketch…the colour alone gives me huge kick when slapping it onto the paper. Sometimes my painting/sketching didn’t work, but I enjoyed painting sunflowers every time. So, before the season runs out, I need to get some sunflowers done in oil…looking forward to that.

Sunflower 1: Watercolour and pen,  watercolour block, 30x30cm

sunflowers 2016

Sunflower 2: Watercolour and pen, watercolour block, 3030cm

sunflowers 20160001

à bientôt

Ronell

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Agapanthus in watercolour.

The agapanthus in my garden are blooming profusely and beautiful in their blues ad whites. To my amazement I realized yesterday i haven’t painted any agapanthus yet. I gave it three attempts. The first attempt is probably still the best , even though it is not what I am after. Most of the time that I try two or more attempts of the same subject, I find that the first attempt is the best.I have experienced it so many times. I think it is probably an instinctive reaction to what you see for the first time in front of you..in order to capture that is…and as we all know… first, spontaneous  reactions are always instinctive.

Agapanthus 1: Not great composition, but the first attempt and probably the best of three.

Agapanthus -001

Agapanthus 2: The values way too dark and the overall effect too messy.

Agapanthus

Agapanthus 3: Third attempt and I think it turned out the second best of the three efforts. I quite like the lightness of the blooms, but the overall effect is a bit stiff.

Agapanthus -002

Until next time

Ronell

 

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Resketch the gargoyle and fountain.

I wasn’t satisfied with the gargoyle sketch 2 posts ago and even leaving it to the art fairy didn’t help. In fact the more I looked at it, the worse it got. So today I decided to redo it. I am still not in heaven about the sketch, but at least it is a bit better and I am tired of that spot in the garden. I suppose you can’t win all the time.And now I have to move on.

Gargoyle fountain

watercolour and dip pen with black ink in daler rowney sketchbook, 21X29.7cm

gargoyle and fontain