Flushed with success

After the rush to my head of my last BIG painting i thought I had better have another go, especially as I had a similar blank canvas in the cupboard.

On this occasion mum and I had been dabbling with pastel on a subject that has been lurking around my 'got to paint that one day' because it was a lovely photograph, taken on the way back home after a great day on the slopes in a neighbouring ski area.

Here is my rough pastel sketch, which quite picked up the moody misty evening

This is a smallish (10x12") sketch in pastel on Ingres paper, done mainly to prove to my Mum that Ingres paper really is quite a satisfactory substrate for working in pastel:

This is the final oil version, 70x 50cms Oils on canvas
Misty evening Val d'Arly.
It looks more blue in the photo than it really is, I need to photograph it again in a better light.

Cold Feet

Its been a quiet winter from a plein air painting point of view.  I hate being cold, and I must have thin blood, so I have been doing indoor activities, namely finishing off a big painting that I started last winter but didn't know where to go with it.  A kindly visitor said they liked it in its unfinished state so I figured that was a sign that I really had to knuckle down.
I went back for another look at the scene, to refresh my senses, and soon got going.
This is the end result:

It is quite big (for me) at 70 x 50 cms.
Oils on Canvas, 'The last run home'

I thought you may be interested to see the progress of this one, unusually I had recorded some of it.
I started with an on site watercolour sketch.  I had gone up on my skis, and sat on the cold snow, balancing my sketchbook on my feet for an easel:

 When I got home, I mapped it out on my canvas and started the blocking in.  Because it was such a cold subject I used a warm coloured ground.  This is my initial block in, which I did in acrylics.

The next phase was where I left it for 12 months, and the version that my friend liked, which spurred me on to finish it.

I was now getting a bit more comfortable with oil paint, and preferring the thicker layers that oils let you apply, so here is the finished version as a comparison.  You can't really see the thickness of the paint, but I can assure you there is plenty on there.

Notre Dame des Neiges

This tiny chapel of Our Lady of the Snows at Novaz sits dwarfed by the enormous mountains behind it. In the depths of winter it gets no more than a few minutes of sunshine each day, but as winter melds into spring the sun gets to rest on the roof, the skeletal trees stand out against the darkness of the mountain pines and light illuminates the snowy plain.

Notre Dame des Neiges at Novaz
Acrylics on canvas covered board. 26 x 20 cms

All my paintings are for sale. If you are interested please email me.

Winter works

It has been a while since I have posted; time has been taken up by other (glassy) creative adventures and the irresistible charms of snow sports. However the lure of the scenery called and I have mangaged another couple of paintings, this time in acrylics. I love the vibrancy of the colours and the texture of the canvas.
Both are subjects I found in the summer, and look totally different cloaked in snow.
It has been too cold to work outdoors, so in both cases I took my sketchbook and tiny tin of watercolours together with my camera. When the sun shines there is enough warm time to do small watercolour sketches (croquis in French I think) take lots of photos and then work the sketches up into finished works in the warmth of the chalet.

Hameau de Cholliere.
Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 cms

All my paintings are for sale. If you are interested please email me.