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
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
Sunflower 2: Watercolour and pen, watercolour block, 3030cm
à bientôt
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
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
Landscape sketches..catching October colour.
I am in the mood to do landscape paintings in watercolour, which is a challenge for me, because I paint corners of landscapes, not full, wide scapes. so I set off this week with a collection of sketchbooks in different sizes and pages and a whole arm full of mediums and I went sketching. I just sketched. Again and again. Some little sketches are awful, others not too bad. I do find it difficult, so I still have a lot of sketching landscapes to do. So. Voiilà. A few of my landscape sketches. In a next post I will show some more and embroider with more détail on my experiences.
I did this sketch at the bottom, after I decided that I didn’t like the one I did above. Then I liked this one even less. but by this time I was fairly tired, so I think the mood and energy to do a decent little sketch, left me.
At home, I just scribbled a few things around me, while we were at the barbecue. they wer done in graphite and a little charcoal here abd tghere.
à bientôt
Ronelle
Sketches from Beaulieu and Les Jardins Marquessac.
My artist friend Sarah visited and we visited les jardins Marquessac.I am totally inspired to finish my garden here at Coin Perdu, not to mention painting! I worked in different sketchbooks and I am considering going back to Moleskine, all three sizes.
..a sketch done in Beaulieu while waiting for my physiotherapy appointment..
pencil, pilot prera pen and aquarelle in LANA watercolour sketchbook, 14x22cm(this is a lovely sketchbook with 300g paper, 25 pages and a great size, with the only drawback being the spiral back.)
..a sketch of a street in Beaulieu..
watercolour in Daler & Rowney Ebony sketchbook, 14.9X21 cm(this paper still buckles a lot with washes, but it is not too disturbing. I like the hardback so it makes working across 2 pages quite easy.)
..the marketplace in St Céré..
watercolour and prera pen in Daler & Rowney graduate sketchbook,22X14.9cm(this is suitable only for drawing…a nightmare for washes..but it was all I had in my bag.)
..Jardins Marquessac..
watercolour and prera pen in Daler & Rowney Ebony sketchbook, 14.9X21 cm
à bientôt
Ronelle
