World Earth Day 2017

World Earth day today......

Here is my contribution for today's thought.  The world is in turmoil and on the brink of utter madness. I think enough said...in the meantime "life" goes on.....

There are more examples of World Earthday prints further down the blog....click here to view post and slideshow

Abattoir Bressuire

 Sketching and Improvement

Last year I promised myself that I would do more sketching and develop sketch books that I could be proud of.  I also joined a few of the Craftsy sketching courses run by various artists (see here) which helped me so much to see things so differently…and I think that I have made great moves forward now. What do you think?

Here are a few of my latest all now done in one of my homemade sketchbooks.

Theatre Bressuire

Bisschopsmolen, Maastricht

Although I love painting loosely and printing in an almost abstract way I do love the working out and the “maths” of architectural drawing and adding colour. Although I regard myself a real beginner on perspective but love it when it works.

I am trying to be more disciplined in both regularity of drawing and in using my sketchbooks correctly

I also visited Maastricht, the oldest city in Holland, a couple of weeks ago and was completely blown away.  It was beautiful.  Artsy, quirky, old, interesting, colourful…I loved it.  Holland is very much bicycle culture and that was very apparent as soon as I crossed the border and drove along the river Maas.  Bikes everywhere...very daunting at first but eventually I even cycled into town with my daughter on the last day too.. Great fun!

Bonnefantum Art Museum

There was so much to see and experience, that a few days was certainly not enough time to absorb it all.  I will be back.

Matisse Museum

On my way there I stayed in a small town in northern France,  Le Cateau-Cambrésis on the Belgian border that houses the Museum and Gallery of Henri Matisse...WOW  what an experience.  I loved it.  So inspirational.  Well worth the visit

I even had time to sketch in the garden too!

Everyday in March Portrait sketching group

In March I also signed up to the Everyday in March group...mainly because the theme was portraits and each day you were given a type of person to paint....i.e.  scientist, male, female, male movie star, leader etc.  

I think its a bit like learning perspective...its such a thrill to get a likeness.  Oh what fun...Just my kind of thing (at that time)....so I did as many as I possibly could.  I think that I reached 20....

For slideshow click here 

If you have never joined a group like this I thoroughly recommend it.  Its a great motivator and fun too, with the added bonus, that you learn something everyday. 

Arty

Thats pretty much it for now..other to say that Arty our lovely cat is now growing up and moulting madly to get ready for the summer and is having great fun with the appearance of lots of lizards and mice...

He's the best ever addition to Bandouille...

More again soon

Bx

Sketching in Lanzerote April 2016

Just a quick post to show that I still paint!  Of course that is something that I would never give up.

Having just been to Lanzerote I brought my faithful paints and brushes with me together with a couple sketchbooks.

I am still at a loss though with sketchbooks and will finally decide on the right one for me!  But at the moment just have some basic watercolour ones and a couple cartiridge paper ones which I like the effect of but not the buckling of the paper when wet.  I am also in the process of making my own sketchbooks, but that will have to be another post in the near future!

So here are some of my sketches.

The aim was no longer than 20 minutes and try and get some different heights going to exercise my perspective lessons.

Also bear in mind I was painting by the pool and the beach only in a bikini.....so I didnt want to hang around cooking only one side of me!!!!

Having just joined on a online perspective sketching course with Stephanie Bower (Craftsy - great value) I was determined to test some theories and was pleased with the results.

These are by no means works of art that are wall worthy or sale-able but did what they needed to do and that was to give me more confidence in recording what I was seeing and having a "reasonable" entry in my sketchbook.

All advice received gratefully on urban sketching and keeping a "good" sketchbook.  Its what I am striving towards, so that when I finally do more travelling I can record in fab detail the things that stir me!

So if you you didn't know we do Art Holidays visit www.francepaintingholiday.com and book a week with us where we can go out sketching and come back to do the painting from the sketch in the afternoon.

We still have places left on Jane Minters workshop which I am really looking forward to this year so contact me now if you want to reserve a place.   You wont be disappointed!

Till nextime

Bx