Work-in-progress: Oil paintings

I have two oil paintings in progress at the moment. One is a ‘normal’ scene with moored boats and little going on. The other is action-packed.

Oil painting 1: Salcombe Harbour

This first oil painting is a Salcombe Harbour scene taking in Cliff House through to the Ferry Inn as seen from the Venus Cafe on the East Portlemouth side of the estuary.

This is one of my source photos, showing the grid pattern I set up for my composition.

This photo also reveals which craft were present when I took the photo, and which ones made it on to the canvas. Notice that the yacht on the right of the photo is on the left in my painting. Also, notice that I’ve introduced some other smaller craft to my composition, to create balance.

The source photo above is one of many photos I took that day, in changeable weather: some with cloud cover; some with the sun breaking through. I’ve tried to capture sunshine on the scene – and that colouration will have come from my other source photos, not shown here.

In all, for anyone painting, I may have a dozen or more photos to inspire me. I draw from as many of them as necessary to arrive at the composition and my palette of colours.

Oil painting 2: Merlins racing up Salcombe estuary

This is the other work-in-progress oil painting – four Merlins racing up the estuary.

My source photo for this one included a view of the Venus Cafe umbrellas, which I decided were a distraction, as I wanted to focus on the action on the water.

Notice that I changed the relative position of the boats, and eliminated one. My aim was to capture the sense of speed through the water. I maintained the colour of the spinnakers, but only because they worked in this combination.

These two paintings should be completed in time for the 2019 exhibition at Salcombe Art Club and will keep me busy during the dark days of winter.

New card designs

Apart from painting, one of the tasks over the winter is to select new card designs.

Usually, rectangular ones are cropped to create a square. For the Salcombe Harbour image, we might have two cards. Which do you prefer?