Traigh Eais means ‘Beach of the Waterfall’ in Gaelic. This is a wonderful beach on Barra. It is difficult to put into words what I feel about the beach so hopefully my painting speaks for me. I did this study for a larger studio piece that I plan to do soon.
I got some Sennelier oil pastels and this was my first painting to try them out. This is based on an autumn picture and I used a bit of imagination as to what it would look like snow covered.
This is the painting I did for a workshop at Winchburgh Art Club. I enjoyed the opportunity to share with this group of artists.
Yesterday was a lovely sunny day. I took a walk in the fields near where I live armed with my sketch book and gloves. I have found the fingerless gloves invaluable when it comes to sketching in the cold. My fingers are free to move while sketching. I liked the views you could see around this lovely old tree. The sun was helping to keep me warm.
These two pictures are from my Thursday evening life drawing class. The exercise was using powdered charcoal and slightly toned paper and no tools except one finger! This was an interesting (ever so messy) study of tones, light against dark.
After going to the framers in Broughty Ferry I did some sketches by the waterfront. As the sun was starting to set the wind seemed to be getting stronger and the gulls were getting blown about. I did the sketch with neocolour watersoluble crayons then added water when I got home. Once that dried I added oil pastels to bring out some of the lights and darks.
Just finished painting in the studio when I noticed how beautiful the sky was looking. I grabbed some blue Canson paper and a box of pastels so as I could paint the view. I used charcoal for the darks to get this very quick 15 min sketch done. It was amazing how fleeting the sky was. When I had finished it had completely changed and there was very little pinky orange to the sky.
This is the painting that I completed at Stirling Art Club demonstration. The Art Club is friendly and made me feel very welcome, I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!
Stirling Art Club have invited me to do a painting demonstration tomorrow evening. I have done a study in colour and one in black and white, I am doing the painting with a limited range of pastel colours. The colours I plan to use are in the mixed chart on the left hand side. In the middle is the outlined sketch for the demonstration.
I have recently finished this portrait as a commission. It is mostly conte with just a touch of soft pastels in the final strokes.