Jilly Ballantyne in the Sunday Times

Hello!

Long time no blog!

The Sunday Times today put a link to this blog in an article about me and my painting holidays and I haven't posted here since 2009! So if you have come here via that source and are looking for more info try my facebook page that I update nearly every day and my website

http://www.paintingriviera.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jilly-Ballantyne-Artist-and-Art-Tutor/363978665515?ref=ts

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7139963.ece

old Nice

I love the colours of the buildings in Old Nice. Quick sketch, watercolour wash. Valbonne contemporary Art Fair private view tomorrow and then 3-6th September

Promenade des Anglais Nice

I wonder how many times this angle of Nice has been painted? quick sketch watercolour wash by me.

Summer Sketchbook

Lavender fields, Provence.

Been away from the blog for a long time, been using my website and facebook more. Anyway here I am again with some summer watercolour sketches. More new work can be found on http://www.paintingriviera.com/Site/My_Work/My_Work.html where I also have some mini art for today's budget from €60.

Antibes

turquoise and jade seas

Plage de la Garoupe, Cap d'Antibes, France

Isle of Harris

I love the space on a Scottish beach. We complain about the climate but would places like this be as beautiful and tranquil if the climate was Mediterranean?

Long time no art!

Life has been getting in the way for too long.

Nice to be back.

Easing myself in with some small chalk drawings done on travels to Scotland and last week in France- sunny Antibes... I am remembering what is so great about living in the South of France.

Here comes Summer.

January Painting holiday SALE

Painting Riviera is having a sale for January.

Come and stay in Matisse's Villa and Paint in his Garden.

Prices are frozen at November exchange rates, save up to £90 per person, per week

see details on www.paintingriviera.com

Artist's SALE!

My friend Jeff Mahorney (click on his name in my artist list on the right) is having a clearance sale of all his unsold work, 50% off, to make way for the new paintings in 2009, such a great idea, I must do the same thing as I am moving house and could do with some down sizing! First of course I will have to go and put prices on my work!
The other thing he told me was that if you have a blog, picassa automatically has an album of all the pics you have posted... big brother is indeed watching, I found my album here

http://picasaweb.google.com/JillyPics67/ArtyFranceJillyBallantyne?authkey=PGKayNAZh38#

above is the painting I bought from Jeff, simplicity itself. I love it!
Please visit his blog 120 Paintings, and support the Arts (... his gambling debts and help his illegitimate children :-)

been a while since i posted.

life has been throwing some hard punches my way.

I was recently sent this article clipping and thought I'd post it.

In the next few months I will be moving house, decorating, and setting up a new workspace...

But I have a lot of paintings in my head (or is it heart? where do the future works get stored?) and hope that 2009 will be a good year.

Best wishes from France

Jilly

taking care of (art) business

I just love how happy people are when they have purchased a painting! I met some really lovely folks at the opening of my exhibition last friday on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Buyers or browsers all such interested and interesting individuals. I hope to get photos of the exhibition to post soon but meanwhile, back in France I have just delivered a commission to some Danish clients who intend taking 'The View from Here' home to Denmark to remind them of their holidays in the south of France.

John Dyer an artist friend who is living down here for a year (though busy in the UK at the moment as the Tall Ships artist in residence in Falmouth, Cornwall) once said that in order to not feel sad when parting with a sold painting he liked to think of the collector 'just taking care of it' for him.

Works for me!

Nice to think of my work being taken care of in Copenhagen, Monaco, San Francisco, London, Edinburgh, Nice, Hamburg and Chicago... not to mention lesser known locations (anyone heard of Auchtermuchty, Biot or Sospel!?) Note to self: don't stop until you have a painting in every continent...

charles rennie mackintosh 1868 - 1928

Still paying heavily, pun intended, for that cream scone and wondering if I'll ever paint again... but then all summer/school holidays have been the same for the last 14 years. September is coming and I'm excited about that, ah, the smell of oil paint will be once more in the air, not so much back to school but back to the drawing board. And then I musn't forget my one woman show on the Scottish Island of Arran, at the Burnside Gallery on the 12th of Sept.

The 2008 summer tour did include some artistic highlights, a visit to the Glasgow School of Art, whose building was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. A delightful tea with my girls in his Willow Tea Rooms. (more info on the Glasgow school of art's website http//www.gsa.ac.uk/gsa.cfm?pid=46 )

More locally we paid a visit to the retrospective exhibition in Menton of Edouard Goerg, Jean Cocteau's summer exhibiton also in Menton. Still on my must see list is the 'Marc Chagall un peintre à la fenetre' at the Chagall museum in Nice. There should still be time for that one, as it's on until the 13th of October.

Vive La Rentrée!

over the sea to... arran

This is me going to Arran (an island off the west coast of Scotland) to the gallery that represents my work. Until my new show on the 12th of September, I am wondering how many times I will do this crossing, after how many flights from France, carrying as many paintings as I can in my luggage! The large paintings will be sent by courier, but if anyone wants to offer the use of their private jet I'd be very grateful, just drop me a line!

What a beautiful place it is though, so what if it is a little inaccessible!

September Exhibition

Sorry for the lack of painting posts, after the exhibition down here in Nice, I went on holiday (- St Tropez, dahling!) with my family and what with one thing and another not a brush has been lifted. The time to do so is now though, a commission to finish for August and now another exhibition date,  in Scotland this time, on the Isle of Arran, at the Burnside Gallery, 12th Sept to 8th Oct.

off to paint, bubble wrap, box and ship...

à bientot et bonnes vacances

thanks for these pics Georgio!

Exhibition, Nice, France

I so enjoyed the private view held on the 27th June. Thanks to all the friends, family, and art lovers who made it out to the opening in the sweltering heat! The show is still on until the 23rd of July

freedom diptych

both together (well almost, I couldn't get the easels to sit properly!)

illusion of freedom

'illusion of freedom' 80 x 80 cm acrylic on canvas, part of diptych

bid for freedom

'bid for freedom' 80 x 80 cm acrylic on canvas part of diptych

anyone for more aubergine?

a smaller painting of an aubergine, today i will be painting doves...

'aubergine' 30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas

www.paintingriviera.com

further on aubergines

oooops I forgot to paint the top of the jug in the last posting ...

Still Life with Aubergines

Finished! (thanks 'On Painting' for your encouragement!) going to lie down in a dark room!

80 x 80 cm acrylic on canvas

Still Life with Aubergines

aubergines continued...

still life with aubergines

purple and stripes seem to be my thing at the moment... posting this work-in-progress as motivation to finish and post the finished result by the end of the day! (If any of my students are reading this post... I know, I know! i always say background first! next I'll be painting emerald coloured plants!)

Chaise Longue

100 x 100 cm acrylic on canvas. for sale on 27th June 2008, 6pm at one man show, Toco d'Azur 455, Promenade des Anglais, Nice, France 

henri's chair

Henri's Chair is finished... or is it? I will decide tomorrow and sign it.

sorry about the photo, the sky has darkened, here in France its now nearly 8pm.

www.paintingriviera.com

art holidays on the cote d'azur france, hosted in Henri Matisse's former Villa

email me for details

henri's chair 2

It's coming along! I really like the remaining red parts but I'm not sure how much red to leave... any suggestions?

I was so into this that I clean forgot the time and my art class students arrived, me still with brush in hand!

Hope to finish tomorrow...

Jilly

painting holidays in the south of france, hosted in Matisse's former villa

www.paintingriviera.com

Henri's Chair

started a new big one today (100 x 100 cm) and I am so into it I have to post it already! getting up at 6 tomorrow to paint, how keen am I?!

Homage, of course, to Matisse and his wonderful chairs. You can almost feel his presence in his former Villa, where I host painting courses, or is that just my over-active imagination?

www.paintingriviera.com

this painting will be for Sale from 27th June (Solo Show, in Nice, on for one month)

a place to think

Finally finished!

'A place to think'

100 x 100 cm Acrylic on canvas

not for sale until exhibition.

No more daily paintings for a while, as I am working on bigger pieces for a solo show in Nice, on the Promenade des Anglais, Friday the 27th June at 7pm. Come and join me for a glass of wine! I will post an invite nearer the time.

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.