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.

Sketching in a train

View from a Train

Gouache on paper  2011

I travelled by train to London in September and spent some of the journey trying to sketch landscapes seen through the window. It was a bit frantic I suppose - trying to remember what I'd just seen and getting it down as quickly as possible in either pencil or watercolour. Luckily I was beside an empty seat!

I've now been working with the sketches as a resource, using gouache on paper, to see if one of them might work as an oil painting.

Out with the bling.

Bling is the right word - being ostentatious, flashy, flamboyant. At least that's how I describe my animal print shoes. I like to do a bit of bling now and again - a sort of minor rebellion against being this age and seeing me turning into mother in the mirror- and my way is with shoes. I must add that my wee mum was the most delightful of women who "blinged" in her own quiet way.

 But sometimes bling can be painful and that's the way with these stiletto heel shoes. So they're off to the charity shop. But I had to draw them before I bid them goodbye as a reminder that I once owned such a pair.

So they've been sketched in pencil and painted in gouache and maybe they'll appear in oil one day.

Maybe next time!

The unfinished watercolour

View of Ailsa Craig at Culzean

watercolour/pencil sketch

My attempt at practising a gouache painting turned out to be a bit of a non-event. I've gone painting before without water, without thinners, without coffee but never before without paints - well, the gouache paint anyway. 

So it became a watercolour practice instead. I've absolutely no confidence in using watercolour apart from in a sketchbook. I'm still too impatient to wait the time for washes to dry and past attempts have ended in dull, overworked disasters.

However this watercolour, though unfinished, is my best attempt to date. Maybe using gouache that watery way is a good place to start. 

Why use gouache?

                           

I recently bought a painting by Archie Sutter-Watt. I've loved his work for such a long time and its a great privilege to have it hanging on the wall, to be able to look at it whenever I want, to see his brushwork and his added pencil lines to show form.

                                                     You can view more of his works at

                                                 http://www.archiesutterwatt.co.uk/gallery/

I've long had the notion to paint with gouache for several reasons. Its easier to take it outside to use than oils - less messy to clean up - no thinners etc just water - no awkward canvas or painting boards to carry

 about - and cheaper framing !!

I also like the effect that you can produce with gouache and that it can be painted over to rectify mistakes - or so I thought.

But its not that simple. The problem I'm finding is that when you put paint on top of paint it seems to rewet the underlying layer and the whole thing gets muddy and dull as the colours then mix together. 

So its a time to practice and read "How tos" especially blogs such as Martin's, a fellow Sketcherciser.

                                                          http://www.draw-a-tree.com/

But no matter what I read or am told the only way to learn is to get out the paper and paints and do it! So put the gouache kit into the car, and as the sun is shining, off to Culzean Castle grounds to follow my own advice and "keep practising"