BARNES POND UNDER ICE

I've painted Barnes Pond several times before. This little picture (24cm x 30) was painted from a photo, over the weekend. I like the composition, in particular the strong shadow to the right of the building which reflects across the ice. It seems to tie the buildings and their reflections together. I regret including the ducks/gulls!!!! I do like the pointillies, or taches (the dotty and dashy strokes). This is the painting style I want to develop further, quite loose, pointilles, taches, some sharp palette knife edges and lines and some nice flat palette knife smudges... 

ROUGH WATER

For this commission I threw away my usual painting style and thought of the great American sailing painter Willard Bond. I wanted to portray the dynamism of the sport and the eccentricity of the water (if only I could create waves like Gary Long!). All in all a neat piece which the client was pleased with.

LIFE DRAWING AT THE RA

From January to March I'm doing a two hour class at the RA, once a week. The photo below shows the beautiful Victorian custom designed life drawing studio in which the class takes place. We do four, ten to fifteen minute poses, then a 45 minute one. The 45 minute sessions from the past four weeks are shown below. Unfortunately in week four, the model didn't turn up, so we all drew (or in my case painted) the horse. Unfortunately I got the least pleasant view! ;-(

STUDIO CORNER

As it's been so cold over the past couple of days I've been holed out in my studio, the old air-raid shelter. When I renovated it I left one tiny corner, near the door, untouched, so exactly as it was during World War II. Below is a little painting I did of the old corner, together with some of the odds and ends I didn't have the heart to throw away!

SNOW INITIATION

Snowy barn, Petersham meadow 24cm x 30cm

I know I can never be taken seriously as a plein air painter without a lot of snow painting experience. Today I had a chance to have a go, and it was great fun. It took me a long time to find a spot with any colour. I visited one of my favourite locations, Petersham meadow. At first all I saw was white and grey, but eventually found this little scene, which made a decent composition. Will definitely be out as soon as the next snow arrives.