"Lundy Lovers" back to the easel.

After a month of design work sat at the computer, it was a joy to be back at the easel today, painting this wedding day commission . 24 x 10 inches oil on canvas.

 

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"Honeymoon" oil painting step by step with Steve PP.

Had a busy week breaking out the oil paints again after a spell of design work on the computer over the last month.
This was a commission from a new collector. So, I thought that I would share a few stages of it's process with you. First was a call to the friendly team over at Fine Art Canvases, based here in North Devon, they make the most beautiful, high quality custom canvases. I'm not kidding when I say that these are the best that I have ever painted on. The build quality is superb, with solid timber frames connected with an adjustable allen key system, just brilliant!
First came a primer undercoat of a pale crimson was laid on to lift the warmth of the finished light effect, a request from the collector to give an overall feel of pinks and purples.

Next came the light sky colours, ultramarine blue, titanium white, alizarin crimson and a tiny amount of phthalocyanine green.

After the sky, I concentrated on the greys and dominant colours in the sea, agin, a combination of ultramarine blue, a.crimson and t.white, mixing in small amounts of the sky mixes to keep a harmony throughout.

Adding more pinks to the grey mixed from a.crimson, cad red light, t.white and cad yellow pale, gave a glow to the reflected light on the sea, not forgetting to add some to the sky.

A good juicy dark mix of u.blue , a.crimson and p.green was added to give weight and definition to the waves and then reflected light was added onto that from all corners of the palette to finish off the highlights.

By now , you can work out that I have a pretty limited palette, really just those five or six colours can give you a wealth of mixes. A couple of blues , a couple of reds a yellow and white will serve you well.

I use Sansodor low odour solvent to clean up with and Liquin to thin the oil down and speed up the drying time of the thin layers. W&N Griffin Alkyd Quick Drying Oils are also a bonus as they let you work on thin dry layers a day later. I was pleased with the finished painting and happily so were the new collectors. The cost of this painting was spread out over a few months to help with the purchase, so if you were thinking of purchasing a painting or commissioning one, I am always happy to spread payments out to make this possible and affordable! just get in touch and we can have a chat about it. You can see more  of my work and all of my available and latest paintings on my Fine Art website here.

Well, it was great to get messy with the oils again, but the stink from them is hard to live with now that the Winter is setting in and opening the studio windows and doors is not always possible, so I think it will be back to the watercolours for a while.

Have a great day!

Steve PP.

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Plein air painting on Barricane Beach,Woolacombe, Devon

 There is something so calming about setting your painting kit up on the beach. Lisa Igo was booked in for a one day painting workshop, so we chose the secluded location of Barricane Beach in Woolacombe , Devon for our day's painting.

 We started out with a quick exercise in Notan sketching in oil, literally a few minutes quick sketching in a dark mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson. A great way to assess the the masses and dark and light in your composition.

Next we pre-mixed a swatch of the various colours and tones from our setting, using the limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cad Red Light, Cad Yellow Light , Phthalo Green and Titanium White, this proved really helpful as the light continued to change throughout the day, and our palettes got more and more worked on., we could refer back to the swatches for colour matching.

 The first two studies that we painted in the morning were painted onto a dark almost black undertone that I had prepared the night before. This gave a useful step along from the Notan studies allowing us to block in colour and light , leaving the dark masses as undertone.

 After a beach lunch of pasty and tea, we worked on a set time limit of approx 45 minutes to capture the next study of sunlight breaking through the clouds and lighting up the sea in front of us.
We used a different format panel and an orangey brown undertone , to help capture the warmth that the afternoon light brought. These were great fun to do and the resulting little oil studies were loose and vibrant.

A great day painting plein air at the beach that we both enjoyed!

As Winter draws in we were lucky to get such a pleasant and calm day. I look forward to sneaking a few more such days in when Mother Nature chooses to share them with us.

Have a great day!

Low Tide Croyde

24 x 24 inches oil on canvas

This through the bushes classic, was commissioned by Croyde Surf Club for their long serving treasurer, Martin Purchase. Thanks to The Little Pink Shop Croyde , for the reference.