I have just finished and delivered this commission. It is fun to paint on the Slate. Each slate is intrinsically different which gives a lot of originality to the finished work. I am in need of restocking my supply of slate for future paintings!
This is a study for a larger painting I intend to do. I have not decided what medium I will use yet. The grasses always surprise me how tall they are. I love the sand dunes on The West Sands St Andrews. They always inspire paintings.
This is the second attempt at this painting. The first one has been painted over, which is quite satisfying as I wasn’t happy with it. This second one is larger and painted on different pastel card. I used Clairefontaine Pastelmat which I am still trying to get to grips with. I did the drawing first then added pastel on top. The ground really grab’s the pastel which is a plus point. However it is not so forgiving when you make mistakes. It is a joy to see children at the beach completely captivated in what they are doing. I hope I captured the mood of the painting.
Working on a textured ground I did this seascape painting, using Sennelier 38ml large oil pastels. I bought them recently and I am experimenting with them. Normally I use the smaller less chunky version. However I really liked the larger version as you can push the oil pastel around more easily. They felt comfortable in my hand. I love the strength of colour you can achieve with these oil pastels.
I have just purchased a new watercolour square format sketch pad. As you can see it has a small square window on the front revealing a little bit of the painting. My first study in the book is of a collection of finds from the beach in St Andrews. I just love strolling around beach combing and listening to the waves.
I thought I would post my 15min sketch of the red squirrel. This is from my sketch book. I always like to do a study in preparation for a painting. It helps me to remember what my first impression and feeling was about the subject. Sometimes when it is difficult to get motivated these little sketches can be stepping stones to future paintings!
This little squirrel visits our garden ever so often (especially when there is a fresh supply of nuts). He or she is a delight to watch and very cheeky. I couldn’t resist doing this painting.
At the last class at St Andrew’s Art Club. I set up a still life with these colourful baubles. I did this painting using mostly tertiary colours.
For this exercise I used pastels that were as close as possible to the 6 colour wheel tertiary colours. I arranged them as they would fall on the wheel. For the painting below I used these colours plus some black, light blue and cream. It was good working with these chosen colours.
Last Wednesday after my pastel class in St Andrews I headed down to the West Sands. I decided to do a sketch from the car park. It was so windy my sketch pad was blown out of my hand onto the beach below. I had no choice but to rush to rescue it. Fortunately it had landed on damp sand and not in a wet puddle. It made me realise how attached I am to my sketch pads. Each sketch in the book evokes great memories, sights, sounds, weather etc. I love to refer to them when I need to inject some inspiration into my work. The sketch above is the view from where I found my book.