Painting in the Algarve

A Villa Garden 

Sketch - charcoal, watercolour, oil pastel - 4x6"

I've just returned from a 5 day painting course with Emily Ball in Portugal.

I've lots of sketches and a couple of paintings and some photographs to 

try to recapture a sense of place to inspire future works.

The sketches were done using charcoal, watercolour, oil pastels and pencil and was a messy process

but babywipes came in handy for knocking back marks and cleaning up after.

Mostly my sketches were done near the villa amongst the palm trees and unfamiliar plant shapes.

I was also trying to capture the movement of the foliage due to it being rather breezy.

There were many great ideas generated during the time there but one that I 

hope I'll remember, and which affected my work was to

think of the marks I was making as adjectives and each one therefore had a distinct value.

www.emilyballatseawhite.co.uk/

And the dog came too !

My home with the Open Studios Banner and a visitor at the door.

It's been a week since our Open Studios event and I think I'm still recovering from all the painting and tidying and welcoming and talking.

It was extremely busy and I think most people had a successful time .

Here are a few photos of inside my house though they don't feature the studio which is up a few stairs and was also open for browsing thfough. 

Most works are oil paintings though there are a few gouache too.

I didn't have greeting cards ready nor prints as I ran out of time and realise this was 

something I should have organised.

Ah well, note to self for next year.