Greece Is The Word 1

This week, as I appeared to have exhausted most of my Tenby photos, I turned to one I took on holiday in Greece some time ago.  I have used it to have a practice go at seascapes with sunsets, and it all looks quite colourful so far.  I found it difficult to get the sky smooth, and it might take another go to get it looking right.  Next, I need to complete the stones that come up out of the sea.

At art group, Sue was working on another small dog picture, and Gill had completed a view of the Peak District with some standing stones, and purple flowers around them.  Karen put forward the idea of a parrot project, which seems to have caught the interest of the other members.  Elizabeth was busy completing her Scottish painting, by adding flowers to the foreground.  She had brought in a framed pencil drawing of a landscape she’d done several years ago.

We are beginning to think about our Easter exhibition now, and I have been wondering which paintings I will show this time, as well as which ones will look best as greetings cards.  It can be difficult to sell original artwork (think about how often in your life you have bought a painting), but almost everyone needs a greetings card from time to time.  Cards are therefore an important part of my display and that of many the others too. 

I will be helping Elizabeth get some of her paintings ready for display by wrapping them in cellophane (she has arthritis so it is difficult to cut mounts and it is expensive have paintings framed).  I will do the same with some of mine that I haven’t got frames for.  Karen’s mum, Madge, was a member of the art group until she died last year (I did a tribute post to her at the time), and Karen will be setting up a small display of her paintings at the exhibition in her memory.  I will give this a mention in our group’s pamphlet, which it is also my job to draft.  I also have to let about 3 local newspapers know about the exhibition, which does not take long or cost anything and just means e-mailing their “what’s on” pages.

Fairholmes

Scrambling up the steps

I sometimes get out and about for a stroll with the family at the weekend, and last week was no exception, as we visited Fairholmes, at the Derwent Reservoir in the Hope Valley.  This has begun since we visited Rufford and I noticed that nobody walking around the park seemed to be overweight.  My nearest and dearest suddenly decided that getting out of the house for some exercise must therefore be a “good thing” that should take place regularly.  Often this sort of trip can be good for finding artistic inspiration too.  The Peak District is still a beautiful area in spite of manmade interventions.  Even if it looks pretty, I know from past experience that it is usually colder than where we live, even if it is in the same county, so we took hats and gloves with us. 

Kevin and Barbara at the art group had told me a few months ago that the Derwent looked a bit on the low side, but when we visited, the overflow (which I would guess is about 100 feet high) was flowing quite nicely.  There were one or two traces of snow, and some thawing ice on the quieter parts of the river.  There’s a visitor centre at the car park where you can buy food or drink (including for the ducks) or hire a bike, but there isn’t all that much to see unless you want to go all the way around the edge of the water.  There is some coniferous woodland with paths and small animal and plant sculptures.

We visited this place once or twice when we lived in Sheffield, which is nearer, including on the day we got engaged.  We had a celebratory meal at the Strines Inn which is within easy driving distance.  That time we had been on our own but this time, a few years on, we had our small son with us.  On a previous visit when he was a baby, he’d had to be carried up the many steps at the side of the overflow, but this time he managed to get up all the steps himself.  Just as well, as he is too heavy to carry now.

This small bridge leads into the wooded area.  The brown and green tones of the foliage contrast well with the stones of the bridge, and the white silver birch bark on one side.  I’ve photographed it in case I want to paint it some time.

If you want to know more about walking in this area, this site has more details: http://www.trekkingbritain.com/derwentedgefromfairholmes.htm

Caldey Island Monastery

I have produced another Tenby area drawing this weekend, this time of the monastery on Caldey Island, off the coast of Tenby.  The journey to this small island was memorable, mainly because of the difficulty of boarding and landing passengers at both ends.  The boat from Tenby beach had a long ramp and tractor to enable people to reach it on foot.  About 100 yards from Caldey Island, passengers were transferred an amphibious vehicle which ferried us through the shallow waters to the island. 

Once there, the island had a peaceful atmosphere and a timeless feel.  The monastery itself was a building of great character with outdoor staircases, turrets and high windows.  The lower floor was hidden by a high wall and greenery.  In the right foreground, you can see one of the small group of tourist orientated buildings.  There was a post office (with museum), where I bought some special stamps from the island.   These were in addition to the normal Post Office ones and posting from the island ensured franking with the words “delayed by storm” or something similar.  There was a cafe (with play area) and a souvenir and perfume shop, although nothing on sale was to my taste.  A long footpath at one side took us uphill to an ancient chapel with a leaning tower at one end, and a quadrangle of old farm buildings around it.  There was also a ruined watermill, and a privately run chocolate bar shop selling milk and plain souvenir bars, which you could see being produced as you queued to be served. 

There were also separate buildings at the opposite end of the island to the monastery, where religious retreats took place.  And that was about all there was to the island – enough to fill half a day.  I made a special journey back to photograph the monastery, which I did from the other side of the small duck pond, so that the greenery (palms etc.) gave the foreground extra interest.  The overall effect was not particularly colourful, it seemed a good subject for a drawing.

At art group, milder weather saw the return of some recently absent members, eager to see what hardier individuals had been up to in their absence.  Karen continued with her large tiger painting, while Kevin and Barbara were both producing drawings of countryside scenes.  Sue was working on one of her small dog, Rosie, a “Lancashire Heeler”.  This breed was traditionally used to round up cattle, biting them on the ankles to move them along.  Kevin and Barbara told us about their holiday in Dublin, particularly how different it was from this country, even though it is so close geographically.  There were many souvenir shops selling green-coloured knick-knacks, none of which appealed to Kevin.

Rufford Park Gallery

I went to Rufford Park with the family last weekend, which gave me the opportunity of visiting the art gallery there.  You may remember that exactly a month ago, I mentioned in my blog that I’d applied to take part in the Creative Greenhouse exhibition.  I had been encouraged to apply when I met a couple of potters who had successfully exhibited there.  In fact, there were over 50 entrants for a space roughly about 60’ x about 20’ so they could never have fitted us all in, and I was one of the many who got turned down.

Visiting last weekend reminded me of one of my trips to of the new gallery at Worksop Library last year as, like Worksop Library, there was a display of work by people with a learning disability.  The two part “Surface Tension” project was by Random Line www.randomline.co.uk and a video played on a continuous loop, with a low pitched sound in the background.

There was also a display of images of Nottinghamshire, which was being added to by visitors to the gallery – or indeed anyone who wants to submit a photo.  It seems they only wanted images of Nottinghamshire, and not anywhere outside the area.  The website gives more details: http://mappingnottinghamshire.tumblr.com/#about

If you want to know more about Rufford itself, follow this link to their website.   Rufford is a family friendly park, with the remains of a monastery, a lake and plenty of walks, wildlife.  Admission is free and you pay only for car parking, which is free during the winter.   There are two shops and a café.  http://www3.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/enjoying/countryside/countryparks/rufford/.

Carew Castle 2

As last week’s drawing of the island at Tenby was so quick to do, I decided to do this week’s project, Carew Castle, as a drawing rather than a painting as originally planned.

As well as printing off an A4 size photo to work from, I also used a 6x4 photo I’d taken and had printed by Snapfish.  On this, the colours were richer and the photo showed the foreground grass in more detail, which was a help.

There has been a castle on this spot for over 1,000 years, and it has obviously been altered considerably over the centuries and now stands as a ruin.  The millpond in front was actually not particularly still, as millponds are meant to be, but was rippled by the wind blowing across it.  I have shown this on my drawing.  There is a tidal mill to the side of the castle and I remember buying some soda bread mix from the shop there.  I made it up into individual buns that evening, which smelled delicious but were high fibre to say the least.   If you want to read more about Carew Castle, this website has more information.  http://www.castlewales.com/carew.html 

Others in the group were progressing with their drawings:  Kevin with his North Yorkshire scene, Gill with some coiled rope and Karen with a blue tit.  She’d added a bit of colour to it here and there, which was needed to show what type of bird it actually was.

The only problem with being able to produce something so quickly seems to be that I need to decide all too soon what I am going to be doing next.  I now have three Tenby (and near Tenby) scenes, so perhaps there will be one more before I call it a day.

Carew Castle 1

Whilst reading other people’s art blogs, I came across someone who’d done a test on the Art Institute of Vancouver’s website to see whether the left or right side of her brain was dominant (apparently the right side is the more creative half).  Her results showed that she did use that side more, side and she was indeed creative, so no surprises there. The article contained a link to the test, and, without further ado, I clicked through to it and gave it a try.  http://mindmedia.com/cgi-bin/site/jump.cgi?ID=6489

The test generates a short report on how you are using different aspects of your brain, with the option of generating a longer report if you wish to pay for it.  According to the test, I am not particularly creative, but more the sort of person who would be good at science, law or perhaps make a good librarian.  I would be good at the more visual aspects of maths such as geometry but would find things like algebra more difficult.   So much for that. 

Creative or not, then, on with the next project, and this week I have been going through some photos of Carew castle, near Tenby, to see which one would be the best subject for a painting.   This one (above) with the reflection looks the most likely.  We visited the castle on a sunny day and, as luck would have, it I have lots of blue paint to use up at the moment.

St Catherine's Island, Tenby

I have begun my Tenby St Catherine’s Island scene in pencil.  I am using A3 cartridge paper and a range of different soft and hard pencils.  It took a bit of experimentation to get the size and placement of the island correct, and I then shaded parts of the sky lightly and added details to the island.  It was bitterly cold today, with snow later on, but there was still a good turnout at art group and we more or less managed to keep warm.  Some of the other members had begun their drawing project too, with Barbara drawing a stork (baby not included) and Kevin a cottage and stream, with trees at the back, from a photo he took in North Yorkshire.

I did feel that the flowers in the foreground needed some colour to do them justice, so I used pencil crayons, but then they seemed to detract from the island, so I added colour to that, plus a bit to the sky, sea and beach.  I am not sure how much more I can do to this drawing now – it looks more or less finished.  To be honest, it seems to me that this subject would be best done as a painting rather than a pencil drawing.

Next week, I will probably start something new, which could well be another one of Tenby, but perhaps Carew Castle this time.  I visited the castle on a sunny day and the castle looked majestic, and was reflected in the lake at the side.  The stone walls might look good in chalk pastel, to help give it texture.

Tenby Harbour 6 - and St Catherine's Island

First of all, apologies that I am a day late with updating my blog this week, but  there has been a problem with our internet service provider, and I have been forced off line for a few days.  Normal service has now resumed.   I’ve completed the Tenby Harbour picture by adding some railings to part of the harbour wall, and completed some other small details in that part of the painting.  Now, I have made a start on a new picture – this will be a pencil drawing of a small island on Tenby beach, known as St Catherine’s Island.  This small limestone island is cut off from the mainland by tides, and has a 19^th century fort standing on it.   It is many years since it has been occupied, but the island still makes an interesting addition to the coastline.

I decided to make this quite a large picture, to enable me to get some detail into it.  There are flowers in the foreground, which seem to be the sort of subject that needs a bit of colour, so I am considering adding some, but I want to keep it delicate.

The photo the painting will be based on

While I have been offline, I took the opportunity of viewing a DVD of “Tamara Drewe” that I bought last year after reading the Posy Simmonds book of the same title.  Although the film is based on the book, and although the director, Stephen Frears in interview said that he’d kept the storyline the same, a lot of it seemed to me quite different.  Without wanting to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, the ending was happier than I remember in the book.  I wonder whether this was because so much of the film is light entertainment, and they wanted to avoid too much tragedy in order to keep it that way.   I would have liked to have seen the writers featured a bit more, especially the Scottish one, who seemed quite a character. The actress who plays Beth was better looking than expected, and the American writer was thinner.  Roger Allam was Nicholas to a tee, as was Gemma Arterton as Tamara.  The Buff Orpingtons (chickens) got a mention, but I was disappointed that they left out the bit about the male and female goats being introduced, which I found so entertaining in the book. In spite of these differences, it is a well made film and worth watching.  My advice is: if you are in a hurry, watch the film, but if you have time, read the book, and if you are a real fan, do both.

Tenby Harbour 5

I am more or less at the end of my Tenby Harbour scene now, after adding some boats and the front wall with foreground detail, plus a few more leaves to the tree.

I took lots of photos while I was there.  The next painting might be St Catherine’s Island, which is off the Tenby coast, and this will be done in pencil with perhaps crayon to add some colour.  This is because the art group’s next project will be pencil drawing – occasionally we have a project that involves using a particular medium rather than on a particular subject.  For example, in the past, we have had pastels.  I hope to have at least two Tenby paintings ready for the Easter exhibition, and will also be adding this one to my art website (link at top of page) to sell for about £35.  This next one should be done fairly quickly, as I find pencil is a fast medium to use, partly because it is so controllable and also you do not have to wait for it to dry.

The other group members continued to progress with their work this week, Karen, her large tiger painting, John his Irish terrier, and Elizabeth, a Scottish loch scene.  Sue has plenty of bird photos as her husband is a keen birdwatcher (the feathered variety) and likes photographing them.  She was working on a painting of an owl with a border.