Low Water 16" x 16" Oil

 

Just covering an old painting and it started to look like low tide at Blakeney. I shall quite likely paint over it again tomorrow.

Stan - more progress

 

I only got an hour of painting today, and spent it fiddling with a small brush and tiny scrapeings of paint! Oh well...tomorrow the masterpiece.

Stan 20" x 16" Oil Progress

Tiddling ...again.

Tiddled this, but not finished as I've run out of fixative. I love working with charcoal, rubbing, scraping, scratching, layer upon layer, until I get the desired result.

So I blocked in the next project, a portrait of Stan, who happens to be the husband of the previous lady, Merle.  Not good....yet!

 



Put Your Hat On Sketches 24" x 18" Charcoal

Day Out 20" x 16" Oil

WA - Carry on from last week.

Sharon, after Sargents' Lady Agnew wip

Roy, after Sargents' The Earl of Dalhousie wip

 

I started to paint these to go in the dining room of my Victorian house....we have lived here for 4+ years! They don't quite fit a 1960 bungalow in the same way!

Anyway, I still want to finish them and made good headway today, with the likenesses. Me and my man when we were young...seems like yesterday.



Relative Thought 16" x 12" Graphite

WA - Summer Holiday

 

Brancaster Day Out   10" x 12"  Oil

 

I don't think we wore our Sunday best dresses to go to the seaside. I only remember the adult size, stretchy when wet, blue swimsuit I had. We would set up camp for the day right up under the cliffs, eat sand sandwiches, and NOT appreciate the beauty surrounding us. Now I now that Brancaster is awesome! 

JOHN Graphite In Progress

 

I had an urge to be neat and tidy, today. Several times I had to reign it in........but we shall see where this goes! This is...or will be.....my wonderful brother-in-law, a golf freak. 

Houghton Hall

 Today I went to Houghton Hall. They have put together an exhibition to show exactly how the house would have looked when it was built, from 1722, for Sir Robert Walpole  . Paintings have been borrowed back from the Hermitage Collection.

While I was exclaiming 'wow' at every painting, Roy was inspecting the doors, frames and furniture. And the floorboards.

I have a particular interest in Grinling Gibbons carving, and there was one piece on show in the rooms of the exhibition. His portrait above a fireplace had the most amazing decorative surround, an intricate wreath of flowers, bugs, etc. Too bad you couldn't really get close enough to appreciate it, and someone had gilded it!....bet Grinling is turning in his grave.

 Not allowed to take photos inside I found a few things of interest outside. The avenue stretching as far as the eye could see.

 The deer in the park.

 An idea for my own garden! Love sculpture.

 It was way too hot to seek  out all the sculptures, which was the plan, but this fascinated me. WATERFLAME  by  Jeppe Hein. How?

 

Loved it all! Do go, if you get the chance, there really is something for everyone.

Life! 16" x 20" Oil

WA - Wimbledon

 

What else! I remember deciding months ago, that I would only work in watercolours on Wednesday afternoons. That went out the window very quickly, with a difficult subject. I find watercolour difficult because you have to get into a completely different way of working or the painting very soon becomes mud! I have enjoyed toying with them again in the past two weeks but next week the subject is Summer Holiday....oils, I think!

 



Tiddling

I went to Hertford for the life drawing on Saturday and had a wonderful day, as usual. I was not happy with the days' work, however, so spent an hour today just doodling. Feel happier with these now. Go here to see how these looked this morning.