hot asparagus

Just back from Scotland... where I finally tracked down these green spears...

the red line kind of jumps forward but I quite like it.

inspiration to paint asparagus against cornflower blue came from Jeff Mahorney of '120 paintings' I still like his best, Wanna swap Jeff??! Also I promised to say hello to Olivia, a talented young artist herself. ;-)

30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas 140€

zesty

hot limes, acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 cm €100

butcher's apron

Lemons from Menton (near Monaco) and my old apron from art school days (Aberdeen, Scotland) that I wore in 'Under the Hammer' - a wine bar that I used to work in to keep me in art materials!

something old, something new...

Butcher's Apron is SOLD

flowers from Jo

the flowers and the painting cheered me up!

27 x 35 cm acrylic on canvas 160€

who needs a camera?

http://jelainefaunce.blogspot.com

I have just come from this blog, awestruck by the perfection of this painter, amazing!

The earl grey, tea pots and eggs are quite stunning.

this is a conté chalk pastel drawing of mine a few years back. I think this is the closest I can get to realism.

Red Bowl is SOLD

jilly's chillies

daily painting, 'chillies in love' or maybe I just liked the play on words because of my name because it looks like the chilli peppers are not talking to one another...

want to get back to the big painting but too many things to do today!

70€ 12 x 18 cm acrylic on canvas

irises from Castellar

no time to continue the big painting today, so finished this little oil of irises started in the village of Castellar.

(the greens don't look right in the photo, too blue)

'castellar irises' 20 x 20 cm oil on canvas €100

a place to think

9 hours of painting yesterday. hope to finish in the next couple of days. I love the age of my building (1905) and the high ceilings. Did I mention the light? An artist couldn't ask for more. 

'A place to think' 100 x 100cm acrylic on canvas

out and about

following the painting in my last post I decided to keep the same style for this scene of menton's old town. It's interestingly when out painting with my student, this week, that it's not me who chooses the subject matter. The last time I painted boats and harbours was probably when I was a teenager on holiday with my parents on the french atlantic coast. The best part has to be being out in the sunshine in 'plein air' and away from my studio. The windows make me think of L.S. Lowry, though the colours are far from the industrial north of england...

clinking halyards

early morning at the port of Garavan looking towards Italy, whilst Jane painted a view towards Menton, (her best so far of the week's course) of the Eglise St. Michel. Like the simplicity of this one.

just a moment

Finished this when I was last in Scotland, the words in the background are from a Robert Burns poem.

"But pleasures are like poppies spread, you seize the flower, its bloom is shed. Or like the snow falls in the river, a moment white then melts forever..."

 

towers in the sky

8 hours of sunshine, summer has really kicked in today.

We settled on a view of Menton's old town, dominated by the tower of the 'Eglise St Michel'

Quite hard to concentrate with all the passers by who want to chat.

think Jane and I are both happy with our day's work.

hard edge pepper

more and more graphic in the detail...

but all this should change today, a student of mine has arrived for a weeks painting course and so in half an hour we will be out there in 'plein air' with our oils and canvas, into the action and bustle of Menton's fruit and vegetable market, with the turquoise med sea and the azur skies behind us. She has a much freer style than I so I hope this will rub off, who says the student can't teach the teacher anything?

What a beautiful day.

an apple a day

trying hard to be more 'painterly' but always tend towards the graphic...