Month: January 2010

Some colour to cheer us up


I’ve been working on these jewel coloured flowers. The colours of these anemones remind me of summer warmth. Their leaves are just starting to come up in the garden despite the continuing cold. I was working from photos I took last year. Their strong colours require a nice dark background.

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Snowy stream. Another snow event inspired painting


Here is photo which a very nice student let me have to paint from.

I like the stream snaking through and the wonderful contrast between the snow and the dark browny grey water.
There is a sense of distance with a wooded area in the background. I try to emphasise this sense of depth in my painting and I also simplify the foreground trees. (Sometimes when you attempt to simplify a photo, you can’t see the woods for the trees, literally!)
If you want to know more about how I achieved the effects in the painting, get in touch!

Let it Snow…


Here is the photo I used for the painting you can see below. I love the light in it and the cast shadows but I needed to add more foreground interest and so put in the hedge and tree on the right. I shall be using this project in my first workshop of the year in February. See the painting below.


Happy New Year to all! It’s been wonderful to have so many opportunities to stare at snow covered landscapes and trees frosted with freshly fallen snow as if sprinkled with icing sugar. The contrasts are amazing in a snow covered scene. Shapes become simpler and easy to read…the monochrome effect helping you to understand the relationships between dark and light. I’ve not been brave enough to go out there and paint in it but the snow has inspired some painting indoors.

I painted from photos but I had the brilliant scene outside the window to inspire me and to help me check out tones and shadow patterns. Here is one of the paintings and I’ve included the photo I used for reference so you can see how I changed and edited it to make a better composition.