Wednesday 25 February 2015

A Place in the Sun



oil on wood panel 20x20cms

This is one of my cats napping in his favourite sunny spot outside the kitchen door.  Purrrrfect!

Sunday 15 February 2015

Sketchbook Sunday






I sketched these little fishing boats for a 'sketch swap' with the Italian urban sketchers.  I've sent it off to it's secret (for now) new owner and all I have to do now is wait for the postman to bring mine (hopefully) from an unknown person somewhere in Italy.

I have still been continuing with my look at black and have had a go at drawing in charcoal...it's not easy to do without smudging!


I also compared black watercolour paint to mixing my own darks.


On the left are my Schminke watercolours
Permanent carmine + phtalo green (didn't work too well)
Ultramarine + sepia brown
Indigo + burnt sienna

On the right are Maimeri watercolours, which I use a lot more and know which work well.
Red magenta + phtalo green
ultramarine + sepia
Indigo + burnt umber

As you can see none were as dark as the black paint.


Sunday 8 February 2015

Sketchbook Sunday






Last Saturday was the 46° Urban sketchers sketch crawl, although it was absolutely pouring with rain a few keen sketchers turned out.  We originally planned to sketch outside but due to the terrible weather we took refuge in the Gallery of Modern art and sat on some steps to sketch the inner courtyard of the antique Palazzo St. Anna.
Most museums and galleries in Palermo are in historical buildings, this one used to be a convent and originally dates right back from 1480.
I managed three sketches  but the third was binned as the subject moved, well I'll paint over it anyway.


Here we are sitting on very cold steps but at least we were dry.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Hot Soup, Cold Day





Oil on board 20x20 cms


I have little backlog of paintings to photograph and upload, which doesn't happen very often.
I get immersed in the painting part and forget the rest !
This little oil painting is from a freezing day in the UK and we stopped for something hot to eat in a little cafè  but many other people had the same idea.
It was chock-a-block with coats, bags and bodies and I tried to capture the atmosphere.  This woman was enjoying some hot soup.....I had a sausage sandwich.