SKETCHES OF THE SEYCHELLES

Here are a few sketches I did on the Seychelles.  I tried to capture a little of the atmosphere and colours.  Sketching could only be done early in the morning as the heat was unbearable later in the day.

SEYCHELLES

I have just returned from a two week holiday on the beautiful Seychelles Islands.  The first week was spent on the island of La Digue.  We chose self-catering which is perhaps not the best option as groceries are very very expensive on the island.  

The colours are an artist's dream - tropical plants in many shades of green, coconuts on the trees.  They are a glowing orange.  The sea has shades of blues and greens to challenge the most experienced painter.  The light shining through the turqoise water on the breaking waves was stunning.  

My first visit to an artist's studio was on La Digue.  It had a thatched roof and was open on both sides of the area where the artist worked. She is an English lady called Barbara Jenson.  She has been living on the island for the past 17 years and produces lively acrylics with bright colours. You can pay a virtual visit to her studio at www.BarbaraJensonStudio.com  

The second studio I visited was the George Camille Gallery - a wonderful artist who is a great colourist and whose work sells very well.  www.georgecammille.sc   It is worth taking a look.

The next two artists were as different as two artists could be.  Gerard Devoud has his gallery in a beautiful, colonial house with excellent hanging facilities. Huge, colourful works expensively framed tempted the would be buyer.  I met the artist and he was excitable, an excellent salesman and totally enamoured with his work and himself.  It was a lot of fun meeting him.

Not far down the road was a sign to the gallery of Mr. Donald.  We rattled along a bumpy track in our rented car until we came to a broken down shack with a rusty old car chassis in the front garden.  The little Creole man had one or two paintings on the wall, very simplistic and a sad attempt to copy the style of Devoud.  His right hand was crippled with gout and we felt so sorry for him.  We gave him a donation and said it was a in appreciation of his showing us his studio.  We felt that helped him to maintain his pride.

It is a tough life trying to make a living out of art.  Good marketing and a gallery that encourages and helps its artists like that of Jason Horejs at Xanadu is what all artists need.  I am a coward when it comes to marketing myself and I know there are many artists out there who feel the same way.

My painting , 'My big fat Red Umbrella' which is on this blog was sold whilst I was away on holiday.  What a lovely surprise it was.  I now belong to an Art Association and we have exhibitions at various venues.  There is a committee that does a great job with advertising and promoting these exhibitions so the 20% commission they take on sales is worth it to the artist.

I will scan a few of my sketches done on the Seychelles and put them on the blog within a day or two.  Sketching was difficult as the heat and humidity made it possible only in the very early morning.  

TIP   It is well worth taking water colour sticks on holiday with you.  Great way to pick up colour quickly.  They are easy to store in a plastic zip bag.  I also take brush pens in three sizes which I fill with water so no need to lug around a jar of water and a number of brushes.  I do a lot of pen and wash in my sketch book so a good water-resistant pen like my sepia Rotrings are an essential part of my holiday sketching kit.  I never use a pencil or a rubber as I like the challenge of not being able to rub out lines and get too precious about drawings.  I prefer the odd mistake and the lively work that results.

I'M READY FOR LOVE

This is my second 'red' painting for an exhibition.  I think Peacocks are incredibly beautiful creatures (apart from their voices of course)!!  I would like to share first of all my peacock with its natural ,exquisite plumage and secondly my slightly surrealistic bird.  It was certainly a challenge finding all the shades of red.  

 

MY BIG FAT RED UMBRELLA

Sometimes a painting just comes together.  I have taken so many walks through forests with my little dog Muffin (who is sadly no longer around to enjoy the snow).  

I belong to an artists club near my home and they have two theme exhibitions a year.  The theme for this February is the colour ' RED '.  I thought of various possibilities and suddenly I thought 'red umbrella' and the painting just grew from there. 

I used a limited palette namely, indigo, burnt umber, white, a touch of raw sienna on the dog and of course several reds in the boots and umbrella. It is a large painting 80cms x 60 cms which I feel gives the trees their height and depth. I use Liquitex acrylics which I love for their covering ability and wonderful colours.  I experimented with a painting knife to add texture to the snow and the trees.

 I hope you like this  one. I am happy with the outcome.  Here it is.

MY TIP FOR THE DAY

I receive a lot of brochures etc. in the mail and I normally send them off to be
recycled.  I also wash away a lot of residue paint on my palette.  I decided to use up the paint and cover the pages of a nice quality thick-papered brochure with this paint.  I now have a really useful 'sketchbook' with different coloured pages to try out thumbnails before painting.  It is also interesting to see how different colours react on different backgrounds.

You can also experiment with various techniques and mixed media.  

Best of all it cost me nothing!!
 

NEW YEAR'S CREATIVE RESOLUTIONS

Here we go again making all those lovely positive resolutions which I, for one, never seem to maintain.

Here are my creative resolutions for 2015.  I hope some of my artist friends will join me.  If you have any that you would like to share , please share them with me on my blog.  You could be inspiring me or other readers too.

1.  I will clean up my studio and with great courage attempt to get rid of some of the reference materials, photos and umpteen dried out paint tubes.

2.  I will go through my discarded and disastrous paintings and attempt to do something with them.  Perhaps I will try a new medium or brighten up all the colours - perhaps cut a section out of a painting that actually looks rather nice and develop it further.  How about cutting some them up for collage and mixed media works.  The possibilities are endless.   

3.  I will do a drawing or a painting a day.  Miniatures count too.  No, I am not copping out.  Miniature paintings are a huge challenge in themselves.  

4.  I intend doing at least one or two paintings using a time restriction.  Half an hour or one hour. This will help me to only paint what is necessary rather than getting bogged down with the details.  This is going to be a hard one for me because I love painting all those little whiskers and hairs.   Nothing wrong with that of course but I feel I need to relax more and get some nice juicy brush work going on my canvases.

5.  I will try out a new medium.  Who knows , it may be the beginning of a wonderful love relationship with for instance , oils or pastels.  Worth a try!
It will be like an exciting , rather scary blind date.

6.  I will get out in the fresh air (at the moment we have sleet - ughhh!) and paint more plein aire works.  

7.  I will not allow curious spectators to disturb me so that I shut my sketch book and rush off to the nearest café for a relaxing cup of coffee.  I hate people watching me sketch or paint and this is a huge hurdle for me to overcome.

8.  I will be more organised and lay out the paints I need for a particular work rather than rushing off to my drawers hunting for the necessary colour I need during the painting processs.  Bad, bad, bad!!!

9.  I will work on a series of paintings for exhibition with an interesting theme.   I want to do a number of paintings of the Algäu which is the area of Bavaria, Germany in which I live.  It is very beautiful here and certainly lends itself to wonderful landscapes and buildings.

10. If I manage all of these, I will be extremely delighted with myself and can only improve as an artist.  


I WISH ALL THOSE WHO READ MY BLOG A WONDERFUL, HEALTHY, CREATIVE AND DISCIPLINED  2015.  I WISH THIS FOR MYSELF TOO.

This is what is known as being the most positive of thinkers.  He really believed he could get that stick through the front door.

I did this work with Polychromo Coloured Pencils on Bristol Board. These are my favourite coloured pencils with a great range of colours and really good coverage.

FUR COATS - WHY ? WHY? WHY?

WHY? WHY? WHY? do people still wear animal fur collars, on their boots, hats, gloves etc.  There are the most amazing artificial furs on the market . I admire one of our German designers Guido Maria Kretchmer who never uses animal fur in his beautiful creations.  He is adamantly against the slaughter of animals for purely vanity purposes.

Here are one or two animals I have painted who deserve to keep their fur on!!!

These are acrylic paintings and here are a few tips for painting animals.

   Try to do the background first and always integrate the hair into the 
   background so that the animal does not look cut out and pasted.

   In my opinion I feel one should give the background at least a semblance 
   of the environment in which the animal lives.

   The eyes are the most important of all.  The reveal the soul and character 
   of the subject.   


I WOULD APPEAL TO YOU TO PAINT FUR - DON'T WEAR IT.

GAY FRIEND

A girl needs a gay friend.  Most of my life since being a teenager, I have had a gay male friend. The first was when I was seventeen.  His name was Lukas and he came from a very conservative background.  He was an apprentice hairdresser.  I remember when he 'came out', the despair and pain he suffered when his family completely rejected him. Today he has several salons and although he never reconciled with his Dad, he and his Mum and two siblings are a very close family unit.

A gay friend is one who is always there for you through disappoínting love affairs, shopping sprees (always honest) and someone with whom to share a good weepy romantic film. 

I still have gay friends but they are far away.  Well I now have several new ones.  Who would have thought that I would enjoy their friendship in Luxembourg and Bavaria.  Lucky me.

My husband and I are of the opinion that tolerance and acceptance are absolute criteria in a world so full of hatred and bias.  

Keep smiling and don't forget to give someone a good hug today.