The Breakfast room at Adare Manor

This is from a photo taken by the lovely and talented Hector Van Der Walt. I am led to understand that this is the breakfast room at Adare Manor , Ireland. How I would love to take breakfast in this wonderful setting!

His glamorous job, at which he is terribly good, takes him around the world . He takes pity on us left behind and posts gorgeous photos. His eye for design shows in his photos and I frequently beg to paint them or use them as reference. Thank you for being so generous and keep posting photos.

I very rarely paint interiors, buildings etc, as I believe you need to be able to draw to do so......but I gave it a bash anyhow! People often ask me if I draw too...and I disappoint them by telling them I paint because I cannot draw!!!

It seems strange to not have a person in this view but I think it adds to that feeling of solitude. The empty breakfast room.
It is school holidays, my house is filled with children at all times, often many more than I actually claim blood-ties to, so solitude is something I crave right now. An empty breakfast room is the antithesis of my daily experience..more like a frantic kitchen!!!
One day, when they are all grown up and gone I will miss the madness !!!

Sheep admiring the sunset...yeah,right!

Sorry, clearly I am a bit silly at the moment. This was from an art class a few weeks back where I wiped THIS canvas clean about 3 times before I painted this scene. Frankly, the air was blue and my irritation levels at my own lack of focuswas on Defcon 9 . Then a watercolourist (such even mild,even tempered people!!) by the name of Karen let me look at some of her reference photos of sheep and this happened.

Not great, but not bad either.
The colour looks strange in the foreground( might be the photographer!) , not as dark in real life ,but the sky is about right.

Keira in The Blue Dress

This is Keira. Her mom , the photographer, is the very talented Melissa. She has a wonderfull blog about her very creative life in sunny Nelson, New Zealand.

I saw this wonderfull photo ofKeira and used it for inspiration.

She looks like she's hunting for something lost deep in her pocket! I loved that action and I hope she is happy with this painting.

Distraction central

I am supposed to be painting. Clearly, I am not...I am painting everything BUT a canvas. I painted these chairs a few days ago......funky little things.You like? I do!

Now I am trying to figure out how to access the wireless internet connection...and I have forgotten the username and password and cannot navigate my way round my PC to find it. I need a 12 year old!!!!!!!!!! Technology...sigh.

I want to paint a suitcase in a similar fashion(great place to put all the games etc)..so that's what I am going to do today.Bah humbug to the housework and washing.

Going to my art cave to get distracted....or is that engaged ..or reinteracted...or undistracted(focus,Jennie!)

Psycho cows and other things

I painted some cows....my monochromatic friends were black and white. I was not excited about them. Then I introduced a good idea(colour) but went a little crazy and hence,psycho cows are on the canvas. I like the idea but I will rework it from beginning with the colour in mind and be more carefull with the placement of paint. But, here they are in anycase....


And then, I painted this for my friend Helene. Well, I painted this with her in mind.

It is not massive, 25cmx50cm, but I really like it's warmth, much like Helene herself!

This is a detail of the painting.

I am on a mission to paint small for a while, not miniatures, but small enough that I have to THINK about my brushstrokes and the paint application as a one stroke exercise, not a three stroke mess!

It's spring!

We went skiing last week, hence the silence. Our family does an annual spring ski and we lasted for 5 days with spectacular weather...blue skies and sunshine all the way. By day 5 I was a bit over it and spent a lot of time gazing at the snow and the rocks and wishing I had my paints with me!
Day 5 coincided with me being bowled over by a novice snowboarder which re broke my rib just as it was healing. I took that as a sign! Off the mountain for me!!Anyhow, it was fun and the kids loved it.That's what it's all about.

Whilst away I celebrated a birthday and I received two of Carol Marine's books on her small paintings. These are gems and I absolutely love her work. Anyhow, I poured over them with glee and good intentions to learn from her. On our return home I discovered, via her blog ,that she and her family were badly affected by the fires in Texas and have lost their home, her brand new studio and all her private art collection.I have to say, I was quite devastated on her behalf. It made me reflect on what I would try and grab if a fire whipped through out home, and, to be honest, it would be other peoples paintings, not my own, that I would rescue. I have a wonderful collection of my fathers paintings, some from friends and family...all are priceless.But then again, if the kids are in the house I better take them first !!!

With that in mind, I studied her two books with great care and endeavoured to do a small painting...a still life. New for me and I enjoyed the process. These are my little glass salt and pepper shakers from Stellenbosch.

Browsers....again!

 I reworked the idea of Charles reading in the bookstore, omitted some of the distracting detail and did not add white to my palette till late in the piece.And the result is that I much prefer this rendition.

I shall work on his face(so to speak) at a later date, as I am not very good with that detail when the paint is very wet and thick, as it is now.

And that is all I have to say about that.