The ‘art season’ of 2019 is now over for me and it’s time to take a break, relax and recharge the batteries before we embark on 2020.
Anne and I are looking forward to spending the Christmas and New Year period with family and friends down under.
So, I won’t be blogging again until after my return – sometime in February.
Meantime: festive greetings to you.
The final excursion of 2019, with my affordable art, will be at the Christmas Fayre at Burton Farm.
Anne Rossiter and her team have hired a marque. So, there will be lots of Stalls, a Grand Raffle …
Santa’s Grotto, Mulled Wine and Mince Pies, Entertainment, Food and much to do for children … like pet the Christmas lambs …
23 November, 11am until 3pm
Father Christmas arrives at 11.30am!
Galmpton, nr Hope Cove, TQ7 3EY Kingsbridge. Click here for more information, and directions.
As with all my appearances at local events, this is to raise funds for a worthwhile charity: and on Saturday 23 November, it’s the turn of the Triangle Centre, Kingsbridge.
All proceeds from the hire of stalls, and the raffle go to the Triangle Centre.
Each stall holder donates a prize, as do many other local businesses and kind individuals. My contribution is a cushion, value £20.
As well as the many other stall holders, all with gift ideas for Christmas, I shall have a selection from my affordable range.
Newest item available: spiral notebooks! Many designs to choose from. Click here for more details.
That Saturday, 23 November, is also the last date I can take orders and collection of your order needs to be by Saturday 30 November
The Gallery then closes for the winter … and we reopen on 24 February, in time to set up an exhibition of my work at Kingsbridge Library for the month of March.
PS I’m attending an art class all that weekend, so my beautiful assistant, Anne, will be there to serve you.
Anne and I visited Cobourg, on Lake Ontario in Canada recently, partly to attend the 90th birthday of my cousin, but also to have a couple of weeks holiday with my family out there.
We’ve been once before, two years ago and didn’t expect to go again. We couldn’t refuse the invitation to celebrate a 90th birthday though.
After the many outings with the SOS (sketching outside) group this year, it was a delight to be out and about, in the sunshine, in Canada while back home the weather was more inclement.
Sketching en plein air could be said to be best, the quickest, route to mastering an understanding of painting. Whatever the subject, it’s all about learning to ‘see’ it. Think mood. Think atmosphere!
Many books are dedicated to the skills required to create a useful summary – a sketch – of what you are trying to record. The basic sketch, whether indoors or outside, needs to capture the artist’s place and time of day – wet or dry!
There are also two magazines which continually inspire me: The Artist and Leisure Painter. Both are published by The Artists’ publishing company. for more information, go to their website: www.painters-online.co.uk.
Sketching is not an impossible challenge in these days. With the support of the iPhone or iPad, the four sides of the screen instantly help the eye to sort out perspective, and light and shade of the subject. In addition to electronic gizmos, the humble ruler is an elementary tool.
With weight restrictions for overseas travel, I packed only a minimal watercolour kit. See the featured image above. My smallest paint box has twelve basic colours, a very small water bottle, a foldaway palette, a tiny sponge and and equally small brush. It’s very light and suits my purpose.
I spent many hours recording the various sights near where we were staying. This is me perched on a bench, alongside a walkway at the edge of Cobourg marina. Many walkers took a keen interest in my progress.
The big motorboat in the background belongs to my cousin and I wanted to capture this setting as a reminder of our time aboard Colonel Ken.
This photo had me with a more comfortable seating. A whole picnic table to myself in the ground of the Cobourg Yacht Club.
It was a hot day and the paint dried quickly on the page so I decided to stick to pencil sketching from this direction.
This post is one of my POSTCARD series, sharing all things ART with you when I go travelling. My previous postcard was from FROM MILTON KEYNES: WOUGHTON HOUSE. – a hotel Anne and I have stayed in while visiting her family.