Studio Tour

Garden Transformation

We had a bit of a storm!

We have been living at Mulberry House for over 35 years now and have made a lot of changes to the garden. There weren't a lot of trees when we moved in but these conifers were here and are/were over 100 years old.
Over the years we have lost two and then when the storm hit, another went down. We were lucky the it didn't do any damage to the building behind or to the wall. You can see that it wasn't very deep rooted. We made the decision to have the other three conifers taken down as they too were in danger of falling. You can see the prop we put in after the previous storm as the tree leaned quite a bit
afterwards

6th February

The storm strikes

 18th March

They have to go

First one comes down

You can see from the stump how far from the wall first to come down was. We have never been able to grow any thing in that area as it's always so dry. This was then a good opportunity to redesign this area of the garden. To be honest, it couldn't of come at a better time as we are in lockdown and there were no excuses not to get on with it

21st March

Bit of clearing up to do

Clearing the site took longer than we had thought possible.
We were lucky in our timing that we were able to visit a local nursery before total lockdown. We ordered some trees to go along the wall to break it up plus two ornamental trees to give a bit of height to the new area.

We had a delivery date so - no slacking!!

25th March

Clear - now what?

Once the area was clear , we were surprised at the extra space we had gained. We hadn't moved any plants or shrubs, it was just a dead area. Looking at it we decided to sweep the lawn in a bit more to reduce the width. We were at this point, in the picture above, waiting to get some turf.

29th March

Trees go in 

The trees arrived. Five 'Pyrus callryana Chanticleer' in 60ltr bags approx 16 feet tall. They took some getting in. We couldn't enlist any help because of isolating but we managed. 

The dogs, I have to say, were not a lot of help!. The ground was very dry so the stakes took a bit of hammering in, that I left entity to Frank although I did helpfully hold it still while he bashed it.

30th March

Trees planted 

Nathan had taken up some slabs from his old house and stored them at work. Having asked Jo if she needed them first, we brought them back to build a patio to re-site an existing arbour. While I painted the arbour with some paint I'd bought for another job,  Frank laid the patio. We had enough slabs to make a path weaving through the border to the seat.

Planted up path to seating area

Gedney Bulb Company produce a wonderful range of perennials, some of which we sell in our spring season at Gee Tee, I phoned Phil up and he delivered almost 100 plants to our warehouse. A lot of the order were alpine and low growing paints to soften the edges of path and patio.

8th April

Arbour in place

Once the arbour was in place the planting began. we started to move some more established shrubs and also some larger shrubs that we had in pots. Having got those in place it was time to fill in the gaps with Lupins, Delphiniums, Scabious and Rudbeckia  (from Phil) as well as the dahlias and seedlings I'd had growing in the greenhouse. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed we don't get a frost.

Frank came up with the idea of putting trellis on the wall. Great - that meant I could grow clematis and other climbers. Not sure whose idea it was but it seemed a good one at the time - we painted them black. It looks stunning but not a job I would recommend

12th May

Black trellis

14th May

Filling up

 14th May

Looking Better

There are still a few plants to go in and we are at this point we are waitting for the peony and lupins to flower. The Dahlias are pushing their way through the soiled making good progress too.

13th May

View from the arbour

Windmill & Mulberry tree from the seat

It is a joy now to sit and enjoy the view of our garden from a different angle. Of course - it wouldn't be the same without a well earned glass of chilled white wine, after all I think we deserve it - Cheers

Finishing the Flower challenge

Well, I made it to the end of the challenge to paint 20 flower pictures in 30 days. The thing about this challenge was, unlike other daily challenges, you could take a day or two off. This I did do and kind of lost track of where I was.
in my last post, I'd got up to painting 14 so, here is

15 of 20

Double & Fringed Tulips

I found this double tulip incredibly hard to paint, it probably looks more like a Camellia. It was a good exercise in mixing pinks, Michael Harding's 'Brilliant Pink' came into it's own here. The fringed tulips look a bit dull but I didn't want to overplay them. In hindsight, I should probably just have painted the double.

16 of 20

Lily flowering Viridiflora

MMM!  probably the less said about this the better.!  Roos Schuring uses Gouache for a lot of her flower paintings and they look amazing. so, I invested in a few tubes.. First, I tried to use them like oils, then I tried adding water but used too much. They dried quicker than I expected them to as well. The frustrating thing for me was that the lights dried darker and the darks dried lighter. Definitely need more practice at this.
 I was encouraged to read in Roos' blog that she did not dare post her first efforts - (maybe this shouldn't be here?)

17 of 20

Narcissus in gouache 2

Narcissus in gouache 1 

Not one to be defeated by a tube of bl***y paint, I thought i'd give it another try. Same subject, different backgrounds. Slightly more pleased , particularly with the one on the right - third try lucky?

18 of 20

Marigolds & Orange

Back to the oils - phew!!
I was very pleased with this little painting.  At least I knew what I was doing

19 of 20

Helebores

 Slightly cheating here as I'd already painted this previously. The thing is, I'd learnt so much since then that I repainted areas that I could see I could improve on. Much more pleased with it now

20 of 20

Lysianthus 

Not sure if I spelt that right but you know what I mean
Final painting. Playing with background and texture. The aim was to graduate the colour . I painted over an old painting that was on a textured board. To be honest I think I prefer a smoother surface


It's been an interesting experience for me as I don't consider myself to be a flower painter but, having said that, I do include them a lot in my still life paintings. I'm now continually eying up flowers in my garden with a view to painting them.
Although I didn't take the paid challenge (whereby you got feedback and help from Roos) I feel I've learned a lot. Certainly, looking on Instagram at the #30days20 I can see a massive improvement in everybody's work as the days have gone by. So a big thank you to Roos Schuring.
I'll be looking out for more challenges in the future to keep me on my toes

#30days20 A Flower Challenge

I'm still keeping up with the flower painting challenge set by Roos Schuring. I feel also that I am making progress, I certainly feel more confident when I start the painting.

No. 10 of 20

Single white daffodil  8"x 6"

Believe it or not white is one of the hardest things I find to paint, there are so many subtle colours if you look really hard. I used a pallet knife to create more interest in the background. It was painted over an old painting which has given more texture to the painting.

No. 11 of 20

White Tulips  12"x 12"

Still playing with white flowers I moved onto the tulips, I was more pleased with this. I love this little jug that I bought at a street market in France. I think now I am getting to grips with backgrounds too.

No. 12 of 20

WIP

Frank brought a load of tulips back from work, they were nearly past their best so I had to work quickly on this. I spent three hours getting the form and colour of the tulips down but now need to work on the back and foreground. I have put it to one side for now and hope to return to it with fresh eyes and enthusiasm.

No. 13 of 20

Red Parrot Tulips  12"x 12"

These beauties were fully blown and begging to be painted. Boy, did I enjoy this, I think it shows too. I completed it in just over an hour. I was concentrating more on the flower than the background, In hindsight , it could have been more considered. I still love it though

No. 14 of 20

Pheasant Eye & Bluebells  14"x10"

Another quickie, I set myself a strict time limit to avoid any fiddling. Painted over an old painting, I used dark glazes in the background to throw out the brilliance of the flower. I used large brushes for most of the picture to help keep it simple. I am particularly pleased with the glass. Old Holland Violet Grey was the perfect colour to use for the Bluebells, I used it again in the shadows of the narcissus. This was completed in less than an hour, I could have carried on but I'm pleased I didn't.

#30in20 Flower challenge

The best thing about this challenge is, that you don't have to paint every day, although I am trying to, I don't feel guilty when I spend a day gardening. Always a dilemma at this time of year as there is so much to do out there but at the same time, all those beautiful tulips and daffodils are calling to be painted.

5 of 20

Yellow Daffodils

Having painted this I have decided that it looks rather stiff, the foreground cloth is a bit severe too. I quite like the complimentary colour of the background. I will be revisiting this one once it has dried a bit

6 0f 20

Pink Camellia

I've been tempted every year to have a crack at painting my Camillia. It puts on a fantastic show every year but I always seem to find something else to do Ha ha. (coward)
I know I have to push myself so, here it is. I wanted to add the tube of Micheal Harding 'Brilliant Pink' for added interest.

7 of 20

Pink Camellia 2

Wanted to try this one again but with different background and different highlight colours

8 of 20

Pink Camellia 3

Got it!! It needed a darker background and softer edges. I like the way the light comes through he jar. I think I'll put this one away for now and try something different tomorrow

9 of 20

Pansies & Primroses

detail

Well, I said I'd try something different!  I stood in the garden for this. Painted over two days as the sun moved too quickly. I really enjoyed this. I did struggle with getting highlights on the pansies. The addition of white just killed the brilliance of the violet. I resorted to Kings Blue Light and Old Holland violet Grey.in the end. Still some experimenting to be done there me thinks.

Although I am still not entirely pleased with anything yet, I do feel that I have learned a lot. Also looking at all the work by the other artists taking part, I can see how many of them too have learned a lot.

This flower challenge is created by Roos Schuring
You can see all the other artists' work HERE

Artist in lockdown

 Now wouldn't you think that now we are confined to our homes, that I would have all the time in the world to paint? Nope!! I seem to be constantly busy and, to be perfectly honest, very happy about it.
I'm being very resourceful and creating meals from things in the store cupboard, making my own bread, using flour from the windmill next door, making pasta with special flour I have in my larder (ok, so the flour there is a bit out of date) and making lots of cakes. I must say too that I am definitely giving the scales a wide berth at the moment.
We are also very busy in the garden having lost three rather large conifer trees. This has opened up a whole new area of the garden. I will do a separate post on that later.

So, painting, yes, I must do more.
I needed a bit of motivation so I signed up to an online challenge set by Roos Schuring, a dutch artist. The challenge is to paint 20 flower paintings in 30 days. There is so much coming into flower in our garden right now that I thought I'd give it a go. Because of course, once you publicly commit you feel obliged to carry it through.

Narcissus 'Mondragon'

Day 1

This was the first effort, I enjoyed painting the flower and thought it needed a dark background to make it stand out. On reflection maybe a complimentary colour would have worked just as well.

Contre Jour

Day 2

This second painting in the studio was set so that the sun was behind the subject. I was trying to capture 'that' light. Still not happy with the background. I feel there is not enough colour in the picture.

Narcissus 'Geranium' and paint tube

Day 3
This one I was more pleased with. I wanted to make it not just about the flowers  but also to part of the studio so, I included a tube of paint used in the picture and my turps container. The tube echoes the colours in the flowers.

Yellow & White Daffodils

Day 4
Here I set myself a strict time limit (40 minutes) I wanted to make sure I didn't fiddle. My aim was for pure colour, complimentary background and soft edges. On the whole, I am quite pleased with the result.

If you want to see more paintings in the Roos Schuring challenge you can head over to Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/30days20/

I will be back with a update in a couple of days.

Self Imposed Isolation

Two weeks after our return from Vietnam, the country is in virtual lock down because of the Corona Virus. Hotels we stayed at in Vietnam have closed. two weeks later and I think we would have had a very different holiday. Still, best not to dwell on that but just to hope that it doesn't knock those lovely people too hard, same goes for the rest of the world.

Meanwhile we are advised to keep social distancing and to avoid unnecessary travel. Now this is where being an artist is an advantage. We can easily work from home or find an isolated spot to go and paint.

I have decided to use this time to try and get to grips with water soluble oils. I have had some that I was given ages ago. When I first got them I topped up with my favourite colours and gave them a go. Couldn't get on at all, so, put them on the shelf to gather dust.
Recently I have become more concerned about the use of solvents and also have been inspired by the lovely paintings by my friend Valerie Pirlot who only uses ws oils. so, I have dusted them off and been playing .
The main thing I've had to bear in mind is that I am playing, not trying to produce masterpieces -(mind you, it would be good if it happened)

This is the first effort. I set up a still life using a lovely colourful pot that I bought on holiday. Was actually quiet pleased with this. I found that I had all the colours I needed too

This picture was taken from a photo taken on the beach at Hoi An. The beach was a stone's throw from our hotel, I only got the chance to walk there on the last morning as we'd been so busy. I could have spent the whole week painting there if I wasn't with Frank & friends (didn't take paints for that reason)
Got on quiet well with the mixing here too

One of the highlights of the holiday was a three day cruise on Halong bay. Again this was taken from a photograph. I am finding that the paints are not drying as quickly as my regular paints so started using a drying medium. This is fine when I remembered to use it but I found that it does make the paint a bit slippery. Even using softer brushes I couldn't layer up the paint so I resorted to using a pallet knife. I like the effect it has given.
The little junk with red sails was a real gift

This 12" x 12" painting I really did struggle with. It started off ok with thin layers but as I built up the thickness, I could not get the effect I wanted on the daffodils. The paint got very slippery. The yellows I have are not opaque so added white which wasn't the colour I needed. I also couldn't get the light shining through the trumpet of the right hand daffodil because adding white flattened the colour too much.










I shall persevere as Valerie did say it took her quite a few paintings before she got used to them. Meanwhile, I shall just have fun and not worry too much about the results. Click here to check out Valeries' materials list if you are interested in trying them. Her website has  some useful information as well as showing her lovely paintings