Trafalgar Square in happier times

Every so often, I scroll through my photos to see what inspires to paint. In this time of being almost cut off from the outside world, it's wonderful to remember visits to crowded places such as this one.

I expect we are still weeks away from being released from our isolation and I am thankful that we are still allowed out for daily exercise, which gives us the opportunity to connect with our surroundings.

Early spring walks

We have now had almost a week of lockdown in the most beautiful weather. This is a view of one of our local reservoir lakes where I have been walking every day, while we are still allowed outside. Almost all the bays are occupied by fishermen who make the most of their enforced leisure time.

It seems to me that the air smells fresher now than before the lockdown. It calls to mind holidays in the mountains. As there are hardly any planes going overhead, the air quality must be better now than in normal times.

The three birds in the sky are a late addition to the painting: I noticed a splash of paint there and turned it into a bird and then gave it two more companions.

Making art in the time of Corona

This is my second week at home because of the Corona virus  lockdown. I am lucky that painting is a hobby that is still possible to do in isolation, and with access to photos of past holidays, I am finding plenty of inspiration and they remind me of happier times.

I hope you all find something to keep you busy and free from worrying if you are in a similar situation. The introverts amongst us are probably finding this enforced isolation easier to cope with.

I am glad that I have open spaces near me that I can reach on foot while we are still allowed outside for physical exercise. Walks in nature are calming and keep me in touch with the seasonal changes around me.

Horse statue

This is based on the stables courtyard of Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust property in England. I just loved the horse statue (by Edgar Boehm), which looks so full of vitality and energy.

Some of the proportions and architectural details are not accurate but I think it works as a painting nonetheless. I also changed the white of the sun umbrella to blue, as I thought it suited the overall colour scheme better.

Waddesdon Manor is a very elegant property, which emulates the architecture of a French chateau, and is well worth a visit.

North Yorkshire Moor

I was walking the moors in August on a day that started clear but with the mist rolling in fast, which made the landscape look quite autumnal. 

At first, we spotted just the occasional grouse, but the further we walked, the more birds scuttled out of bushes and ran away from us. They are quite well camouflaged. I wonder if you can spot the one in this painting?

Thoughts on achieving a likeness

This is the portrait of a chocolate labrador I painted towards the end of the summer and I am pleased with how it turned out. 

People who know the dog have commented that it is a good likeness and particularly referred to the eyes as a true reflection of the dog's character. 

On a practical level, when trying to achieve a likeness, it is not enough to focus on just painting the eyes correctly. Instead, the same attention must be paid to the attitude of the dog and all the apparently less important parts of the head, as they all contribute to an eventual likeness. This is why I finish the eyes last in my painting process (be it in humans or animals). 

Portraits need reference photos with good lighting to be successful and I find natural light without strong shadows the most pleasing.

Inspired by Sorolla

Before visiting the National Gallery Exhibition of paintings by the Spanish impressionist painter Sorolla, I knew nothing about this artist. I gather he is particularly popular in the United States and his home country. I loved his light-filled oil paintings of beach scenes and gardens and his painting style reminded me of John Singer Sargent, his contemporary.

The lesson I took away from his garden paintings is not to worry too much about a finished look to a painting, as his quite often had areas that were not fully developed. In the same way, my own painting of a fountain in Bridge End Gardens (Saffron Walden) has a background that is just floated in wet-in-wet and left fairly vague, so as not to compete with the foreground.