This weekend I was present on a local Castle Fair. This castle is only about 300 meters away from my studio and it has a beautiful garden with large chestnut trees. We had the perfect weather and lovely conversations with visitors and colleagues.
So at the beginning of this week I am organizing the studio again, for my own Open Studio this Friday (11-16 hours). I have some new paintings to frame and photograph and some cards to restock.
Wishing you a good week!
Some years ago I made a painting of Nectarines, with acrylics on paper. And I looked at it closely recently and I just like the dry brush method I used. I do like adding texture or painting texture of clothing, curtains or whatever.
So I painted the old table with its painted and used surface. On a lightgrey background, I used a dry brush and white paint to express the structure. Using these techniques, by trial and error..., make it interesting for me.
What you see here is a part of the painting.
After several heatwaves and 6 weeks of no rainfall at all, I was wondering how the heather would cope. Midway August the heather blooms on a patch near our house, so I made an evening walk to have a look. And yes there it was: heather in bloom! But also large copper coloured patches of brown heather, probably heather which suffered last year. I made pictures and one of them inspired me to paint:
Another sketchbook page, using markers and one colour. The pencil was red but turned out to be more orange. It was not a favorite colour for me, not very happy with how it turned out...
A page with a few snippets glued on was waiting in my sketchbook to be put to use. I used a Derwent Inktense pencil to draw this still-life. When you concentrate on the composition and dimensions you forget about the snippets until you see the end-result :).
It is a nice way to get unexpected results.
Have a good week! We have had some rain finally, which changes nature immediately, so I need to do some gardening work, especially since the apples are falling of the trees.
I made a drawing of a young woman, looking outside the window. A painted background adds surprises, I like that. I have prepared some sketchbook-pages with colour, and when I find an interesting face or pose I draw it. And so my sketchbook fills up.
I have made a series of charcoal portraits in the same way, you can find them in my Etsy-shop. Have a nice week, here in Europe it is going to be another one with hot temperatures...
