A postcard to Katherine

This is the postcard I sent to Katherine 

 (MAKING A MARK) in London. It shows part of the Topiary garden at Chateau Dumas where I recently spent a week with Joan Lawson and her painting school.

Sketching in France.

Have just returned from a painting trip with friends at the Chateau Dumas in south west France. The weather was glorious, the food amazing, the Chateau beautiful, the company wonderful. Here are some pages from my sketchbook done in and around the Chateau.

The Chateau

Hopefully some may end up as painting subjects.

Coffee in the Title!

I find it difficult sometimes to think of a title but  "Coffee in Cluny" is how I remember this place on a very hot day during a trip to France.

Paisley Art Institute annual exhibition starts soon and today is "handing in' day. Its been another rush - always seems to be the way with me - and so I'm submitting two dampish oil paintings. But being framed under glass helps. As they're both oil on board there is less chance of paint adhering to the glass as once happened when the work was wet and on canvas and the canvas can't have been taught enough. 

Oil on board

Bridget Hunter 2011

The image here is of a work based on sketchbook notes done while sipping coffee in the shade.

 The colour  of walls and shutters were the appeal for me - as was the delicious coffee sold in this cafe. I've included my sketchy sketch - and looking at it again I've adjusted the image perhaps more than I should have - left out a background umbrella etc and not sure now if it was the right thing to do.

Les Charrieres with Blue Shutters.

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Acrylic on board 12 x 10"  .

Bridget Hunter 2010

This painting was done plein air in Burgundy, using acrylic which, even though I was working in shade, was drying very fast and needed fast working - I much prefer working into wet paint! Les Charriers was a beautiful old house where we stayed for 4 nights run by Florence and her artist husband. Everywhere, inside and outside, there were painting subjects. I've tried to capture the shabby chic Frenchness of the building which I found so appealing. But I have only included part of the front of the house. I've got some photos of the interior and would like to try using them as source material for other paintings.This painting is in the exhibition but I adjusted the angle of the stairs, after this photo was taken and before it was framed, realising it wasn't quite right !!

Sold

Landscape in Burgundy with vines.

Oil on board  30 x 24"

Bridget Hunter 2010

The exhibition opening on Saturday looms closer and I want to take all my works back and try again!

I think of Van Gogh saying  "Just dash something down if you see a blank canvas staring at you with a certain imbecility. You don't know how paralyzing it is, that staring of a blank canvas which says to the painter : you don't know anything." That's what it felt like knowing I needed all these paintings by a certain date- dashing it down. This work was framed while still damp ! But luckily its a Scottish habit to frame under glass .

The Loire in July

Oil on board  28 x 24"
Bridget Hunter  2010

The exhibition - Six Ayrshire Artists - starts this Saturday in The McLaurin Galleries, Ayr. We six were asked to illustrate a business calendar 3 years ago with  paintings. This led to great friendships, which has, in turn,  led to a joint exhibition featuring 10/12  paintings each. Having just recently returned from a trip to France the whole thing has been a frantic painting and framing experience. The others have been far better organised! But I always put myself under this kind of pressure. Will I never learn? However, France has given me new source material and the painting above is going into the exhibition. The Loire valley was vast and parts of it had grain fields which stretched way into the horizon. The impression was a deep yellow under a bright blue sky. I was able to do some watercolour sketching and used these as references. Tomorrow the paintings go to the gallery where we'll meet, try to instill each other with confidence and then have much wine for lunch. Its a scary business, exhibiting!

France!

Did it! Drove 3168 miles round France. Memories - good wine, great coffee, picking and eating fruit from trees, sunflowers, painting in the shade, being made welcome, long lazy meals with great conversations, being lost, finding wonderful shabby chic small hotels, glad of having a car with airconditioning, diverse landscapes.