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.

Going by the Arran Ferry.

Victoria's Shoes.

Oil on board  10 x 12"

Bridget Hunter 2011

A painting being collected tomorrow by Lesley, the manager of Arran Art Gallery, to hang in the lovely island gallery there. Its based on some gouache sketches I did recently. Hope, for Lesley's sake,  the Arran ferry's back on schedule after the gales we've been having.

A Painting for the Raffle Prize.

Ballet Shoes

Oil on canvas  

Bridget Hunter 2011

A painting done for the raffle prize at the Save the Children 2011 Exhibition.

The first ever oil.

Just a bowl of Cherries

Oil on board 10x12'

Bridget Hunter  1996

I'm needing a 10 x 12" frame for a new painting and hoped to reuse one. I'd forgotten this painting hanging on the stair wall and the frame was just the thing. I then realised that it was probably one of the first ever oil paintings I did way back in 1996. Looking at it now I think there are too many hard edges and why did I make that diagonal of blue? I remember trying so hard to get the ellipse right - I hate painting ellipses. And there's a rash of blue highlights going on!

Its been interesting to see how my work has changed, though obviously I've always been inspired by colour!  I think people are right when they advise us to keep old work and sometimes look back to see the changes. 

A Postcard for August

This was the August postcard I sent to Desiree     http://desireesdesigns.blogspot.com/     in California. It"s done in acrylic on watercolour paper and shows a cornfield at Culzean Castle. It's one of my favourite places to sketch and paint and also to take the grandchildren for an outing.

 www.culzeanexperience.org

/

A sketching place

 One of my favourite sketching places is the nearby fishing village of Dunure.

There's a great little icecream shop there too.

But amongst the stories of Dunure castle there's the gruesome tale of the Abbot of Crossraguel Abbey who was roasted alive in the castle dungeons in an attempt to procure Abbey lands. Happily he was rescued and seemingly lived well into his 80's !

Dunure Castle & Mary, Queen of Scots

Pictures for an Exhibition.

Winter Grasses Loch Doon Coffee at Cluny The Sheep Track Loch Doon Sold Ayr Sketch Club Annual Exhibition 2011

The annual exhibition in the Maclaurin Galleries is from 24 July till 21 Aug 2011 See you there if you can manage.  The gallery can be found at the following address. The Maclaurin Galleries Rozelle Park Monument Road Ayr KA7 4NQ http://www.themaclaurin.org.uk I have the 3 paintings above in the Ayr Sketch Club 110th Annual Exhibition.

A Postcard for July

A bit of my Garden

Acrylic on Watercolour Paper   5 x 7"

Bridget Hunter 2011

Our Sketchercise group continue to send postcards from around the world.  I've a lovely collection so far and all so varied. This month my postcard to Ronelle Africantapestry in France shows part of my garden.

Postcard from my Walk

Painting over a painting!

The Sheep Track, Loch Doon

Bridget Hunter 2011

Oil on canvas 24 x 20"

I had a painting in an exhibition in February and from the moment it was on the Gallery wall I was desperate to scrape off areas and try again to get my initial response to the place back. I've quoted Richard Diebenken 's words on my Blog - about being terribly disappointed with a painting and struggling to the point of "destroying it partially or wholly".

So now the painting's back home that's what I've done. It's out of the frame and paint's been wiped off, scraped off, sanded even and new paint's been added with fingers, rags, brushes, knife. I think this is more like the place - or at least how I saw it. Think, though,  I'd best turn it to the wall before I touch another thing and I'll away and hit a golf ball !

The first version.

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.

Brushes and Paints.

Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12

Bridget Hunter 2009

 Now, I'm the first to admit that for me, arranging a still life composition is not something that comes easily . Unless I keep to just a few items I spend ages moving things and adding and taking away. Sometimes I just give up before I lift a brush. `

Today I was struggling to base a still life around an amazing white Carltonware bowl with red lobster feet that cries out to be part of a painting. But in the end nothing I tried was pleasing. Then I remembered a small painting I'd done of paints and brushes lying about on a table. Its not really finished but at the time I was reasonably pleased with the composition. It was simple but I felt it worked.So maybe that's the way to go. Forget about complicated arranging and just spend the time markmaking with the paint.

I like Kurt Anderson's words -

"When I paint a still life, I want it to be anything but still. I want it to shimmer with light. I want it to rustle with movement."

My lobster bowl

Smudge, the reluctant model.

Pen, watercolour HP paper

Pen, cartridge paper

2B/4B pencil, cartridge paper

watercolour, gouache, cartridge paper

I've finally managed to form a working relationship with Smudge the Cat. He no longer moves away whenever I get close with the sketching kit. So here are more studies - not paintings yet - though I hope to develop some into oil or gouache works.

Never work with Animals?

Smudge the kitten, 2010

Watercolour, sketchbook

Smudge the cat, 2011

2B pencil

I'd brought paints to Wales in the hope of working. But its rained - practically the whole time. So I've been trying to sketch the house cat here. But he's not co-operating and languidly changes position each time I try to capture his image. How did Gwen John ever do her wonderful cat studies? Here are my attempts so far.

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" 

Lost in Translation!

What do you do when you've made a sketch and think you've captured a sense of place and now want to  translate that into a  painting. How do you capture that initial response? Its worked in the sketchbook, using watercolour, with the view there in front of you. But sometimes the liveliness of the sketch gets lost in translation and the attempt to get the same atmosphere eludes you. 

I'd like to try gouache but decide to use oil paints as I don't seem able yet to capture those brights that were there using gouache. I know its a question of practice to gain the skills. But I'm being impatient and want to paint the painting while my memories of Aird are still fresh. At the same time I'm very wary of starting. It was so green there, that lovely fresh green of May and the seas so blue when the sun actually shone. And that's what I want to paint - those colours with the white houses dotted about the hill. perhaps now I've done this attempt I might feel freer about trying a large version in gouache.

This is the resulting painting, using oil on a 10 x 12" board.

Village of Aird, Skye

Bridget Hunter 2011

A Postcard to Albrecht in Germany

A postcard from the Island of Sky

Today I received a beautiful postcard from an area which is still on my list ofplaces I would like to visit in my lifetime. Great, many thanks Bridget! I guess you have painted the postcard with acrylic. A few strokes of a pen are visible. Bridgetwrote: "I've spent the last week on the Island of Skye. Though it frequently rainednothing could spoil the dramatic landscape, the Black Cuillin Mountains plunginginto the sea. Its history is also full of drama too - the remains of abandoned crafts(small stonehouses) when the crofters were forced to leave their land to makeway for sheep, many having to emigrate and the stories of Bonnie Prince Charliewho took refuge here. This view is off the shore at ARDVASAR, on the southernpart of the island.«
I of course immediately asked at Wikipedia about the unfortunate Charles EdwardStuart. When I come to Rome next time I will visit his tomb in St. Peter's.
One more time: Thank you so much Bridget for this gem in my collection of postcards!

I'm glad this postcard arrived safely in Germany as did the one sent to Alison in London.I'd sent my earlier cards in envelopes but I thought I'd try sending it as a piece of mailart. I used thick watercolour paper and acrylic,

sketching on site but admit to adding a few pen marks and finer brushwork later.

Its so exciting to receive cards from the other members of the group and not just to see the images on the computer.

Sketching in Skye

The sketching kit

Village of Aird

Aird Church is now a gallery

Shore cattle

Holiday house

Shoreline- Ardvasar