Plein air painting
Nature is always at its best, but in autumn it is simply majestic.
A hazy day
oil on board, 23x34cm
On the hill.
oil on board, 40×31 cm
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.
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.
Roses 2: Almost done
Roses 3: Painting completed.
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.
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
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 1
oil on linen, 55x45cm
halfway through hydrangeas 1
Hydrangeas 2
oil on linen, 45x33cm
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..
Until next time
Ronell
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 2: The values way too dark and the overall effect too messy.
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.
Until next time
Ronell
La Dordogne and a walnut grove: catching autumn colours 4.
The Dordogne is such a beautiful river and with the walnut groves just beside it makes for magnificent scenery, especially in October with its multitude of colour.
I am still doing landscapes “the new way”;, although I am beginning to think it isn’t the real me. My sketches are much more loose and more spontaneous, albeit not always pretty and correct. But it is me. The landscape sketches I am doing lately feels more like small paintings done in sketchbooks. They are much more detailed and take much longer than my usual way of sketching. I am still enjoying it though. Maybe I will find that golden median between sketching like this and my usual style..
..la Dordogne in October
watercolour and pencil in A4 sketchbook
..walnut grove..
watercolour and pencil in A4 sketchbook
..à la prochaine..
Ronelle
A vinyeard and a valley..catching autumn colours 3.
I am having so much fun with these landscape sketches. Making a lot of mistakes, but every now and then, there is a successful stroke or a colour or a line and then I can burst with excitement. Most of these sketches are greens. Our hills are very green and at the moment, all shades of greens and yellows. the moire I sketch, the moire I experiment with green and the more confident I become in mixing greens. where I have always mixed my greens on the paper, I have now switched to mixing puddles of greens on my palette…as I say…I am just having fun!
..Puy d’Arnac..
watercolour and pencil in sketchbook A4
..vineyard in Nonard..
watercolour and pencil in sketchbook A4
à la prochaine
Ronelle
Landscape sketches, catching autum colours 2.
I am working hard on landscapes in watercolour. And October is just getting more and more beautiful by the day. I am almost hyperventilating, fearing that I won’t be able to gt enough sketches and paintings done before autumn moves into winter.
Les vaches
watercolor and pencil in watercolour sketchbook21X29.7cm
wood ferns
watercolor and pencil in watercolour sketchbook21X29.7cm
Until next time
Ronelle
