Tuesday 18 September 2012

Holiday Plein Air

Arrived back from a week in Javea, Spain on Saturday, having had a brilliant time with my Dad, two sons and their girlfriends (hubby too!!), have eaten and drunk to our hearts content and now coming back to reality of eating healthily and cutting out all the overindulgence. The weather has been beautiful and we had returned to a villa which we hired last year called "Casa Flores"..... really lovely, sleeps 8, well equipped, private, in a very smart well appointed development just outside Javea.

I had taken my paints with the intention of painting plein air and am happy to say I actually managed a few.

This is taken from the grounds of the villa looking onto the veranda which was nicely shaded and where we ate all our meals...... we had a selection of food as well as eating out, paella, tapas, chicken stuffed with chorizo... both my sons (and girlfriends) are fantastic cooks and both also seem to really enjoy so we are not stupid when inviting them to join us, we can be assured of top class food!!!

This was at the side of the veranda and I have to admit I decided not to paint the 2 easy chairs and sofa which are here as I didn't fancy all that drawing so the space looks a bit bare now!!! But this too is a lovely shaded, comfortable area where you can escape the strong midday sun though the weather while we were there was perfect and non of us needed to sit here.

The villa is surrounded by bougainvillea so couldn't leave without a quick sketch of the flower heads.....

All these sketches have been done really small, postcard size and I have learned quite a lot from doing them, not least of which is drawing small, I tend to draw big and this is really good practice for drawing in proportion with perspective, things in the distance always end up too large in my paintings so this has been a really good earning experience for me and I will certainly do more in the future.

The idea to go small is down to Maggie Latham who has a blog and has also started a  facebook group  devoted to exploring the possibilities when working in this way... to look at using new techniques and possibly try different media (hmm not sure I will be dragged away from my watercolours but we'll see!!!) and I can see the merits of working small... it is easy to experiment on a small piece and not as unnerving seeing a tiny piece of paper as looking at a piece of full imperial!!!

Am now working very hard trying to finish off all my pieces for the Exhibition from the 25th to 29th September,  am paying them a visit tomorrow so will be able to see from this weeks' artists how many paintings I'm going to need to fill the space.... should have about 25 framed and a few more mounted so fingers crossed that will be enough!!!

My house is in a state of disarray with paintings, frames, mounts, cellophane, bubble wrap all over the place

I have now spread from my art room to the spare bedroom, to the sitting room and finally to the dining room..... the word tidy doesn't seem to be in my vocabulary but hopefully will all be straight and back to normal after I deliver them at the weekend and am hoping to not be bringing them all back again!!!  My husband has taken to hanging them all in our house but as I now have another 12 we will be running out of walls!!!

If you are in the area, do try and visit the exhibition, it is running for 8 weeks, Tuesday to Saturday, with a change over of artists every Tuesday.  I think there will be a really interesting mix of work, judging from the synopses of the artists, covering a wide variety of media and subjects.

13 comments:

  1. My my... Judith you are on fire :)
    I'm really glad to know you had a good vacation at Spain-I always wanted to visit Spain, some day... The weather in south Europe now days is indeed perfect; not too hot, but still summer-ish (seems that I have forgot what a south summer really means hmmm). The paintings are great! I love the veranda!!
    The exhibition's paintings are magnificent!! They seem even more -if that's possible- gorgeous than the photos on your blog and facebook page!! I'm soo exited... can't wait to see them filling your space!
    Hugs.

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    1. Thanks you so much Tina, I am getting excited too, am visiting the studio today to help them paint a sign and hopefully organise a website!! My son works in that field but is just too busy to build me one and the guys at the studio are doing a very good deal for artists at the moment.

      Southern Summer in September sounds beautiful... hope you have setted back in to life at home and lovely to hear from you!!

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  2. Excited for you Judith, great to see your work framed, they look fabulous- good luck

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  3. Thanks Lorraine, they all do look better framed but doesn't mean any will sell!!!! I have a wider range of price for this exhibition than the previous ones so am hoping that might sway things n my favour for one or two sales.... well one would be good!!! Fingers crossed!!! At least my work will be seen for 5 days instead of just an afternoon so there will be more exposure.

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  4. Your paintings look amazing framed (do you do it yourself?) I love the doggy peeping over the table.

    The holiday sounds fabulous and I love that you did all that painting sketching outside. Welcome back :)

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  5. Yes I have framed these myself Carmen, too many to get done professionally... need to sell some first, had a quote for the large flower one in the middle.... £129.00!!! But am pleased with how they are looking... also have a few mounted as well and hoping to have some cards printed too....

    Yes Spain was fab...good family time and a good break for my sons and partners... they all work and play hard so I think they enjoyed the break as well.

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  6. Good luck with the exhibition Judith 00 really hope it goes well.
    Sue x

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  7. Thanks Sue... looking forward to it!!! x

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  8. Hello Judith:) Could have been my kitchen table: looks exactly the same:)
    Love your bougainvillea. Beautiful painted! Your displayed paintings look fab. The exhibition must be a succes!

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    1. Thanks you so much Renate.... my hubbie and I have spent 4 hours today hanging them all and I have to say it's looking quite good!!! Am hoping to get the house back to normal now and also maybe get some painting done, have been getting withdrawal symptons!!!

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  9. I hope your exhibition goes well, Judith, the frames you have chosen look great with the paintings (my favourite frames are the white ones). Framing them probably takes nearly as long again as painting them, doesn't it! I also frame them myself (that is, my husband does most of them!), as it is so much cheaper that way.

    Lovely to see your sketches from your holiday, they are so much more personal than photos. Looks like you had a fantastic time. x

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    1. Thanks Elise, I have actually got 29 framed paintings on display and about another 12 mounted!!! Was quite shocked when I realised how many there were and goodness now what I'm going to do with them if they all come back!! I think the framing has actually taken longer than the painting.... so many decisions to make, which paintings to frame, which frame for which painting, what size mount.... it just goes on!! Anyway am finished now and looking forward to the preview tomorrow...

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  10. Oh Judith I didn't get to see your part of the exhibition after all - but really hope it was a success and that you sold some. I hope you've taken some photos of them in situ for us to see in your next blog post - still need to meet up for that coffee!

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