In the doghouse

This morning I decided to do a painting of my daughter's dog as it was stopping with us. Now I know I said I don't do pet portraits but I do paint our own animals now and again.
The cocker spaniel bitch is getting on and is quite a character. Anyway we were going to the gym at 10 o'clock so I had time to put a ground of burnt umber on the board before we went. I was dressed for the gym but I am not a messy painter quite the opposite in fact. I even have carpet in my studio. So I did the ground but naturally got carried away and before I knew it Alex was calling me and I had drawn the head with a brush and started the under painting. Aghhh! It was then I noticed the paint on my track suit! Its a good thing Alex doesn't read my blogs!

The painting is above is as far as I got before the gym. I will post the completed work tomorrow.

Errant Dog

The above is a watercolour and pencil sketch of one of our grandchildren. It was a quick work and could have been better. Today I finished packing the work for Picton Castle Exhibition, walked the dog and went shopping.
This afternoon Alex and I took Jac and our daughter's dog (actually bitch and in fact Jac's mother) for a walk. We are temporarily looking after the dog which is the smallest cocker spaniel you will probably see.
We got near a pond and she shot into it and swam around in it barking merrily. No amount of calling or whistling would drag her out. Alex and I were running around from one side of the pond to the other calling her name as she swam backwards and forwards. None of it guaranteed to help the heart or stress levels. Jac just looked on bemused.
After 20 minutes she came out of her own accord. They say never work with children or animals!

Her next walk will be nowhere near water.

Scottish Links

The painting above is of my Great Grandfather who was Scottish but opened a drapers in Woodstock. I did the painting from photographic references, (quite obviously as he was born in 1838!).

I am quite interested in my family history and have a number of characters in the background.
I was talking to my mother in law about her (Alex's grandfather)  father who was at Dunkirk, Italy and Iceland during the war. She told me that when there was an air raid warning her father's unit would raid the American Forces billets for provisions while the Americans took shelter. Sounds a bit risky to me, but I suppose you would get a bit fatalistic about these things. Anyway I can sympathise as I am always pinching bits from the kitchen.

I spent a few hours re-reading "Colour" by Edith Anderson Feisner today. A must really for any serious artist. A lot to take in but I have read it several times and every so often do a quick recap there is always something I have missed or forgotten. It is a very technical treatise but worth the effort.

Anyway my link for today could have been "Woodstock " by Mathew Southern Comfort but I went for something else! I know my father liked anything swing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoM0qQL6mE

Celia Beaux

Now as far as I can recall I haven't seen any of Celia Beaux's work in real life. I have only the images on line and in books to go by. But I have to say I like what I see. An American artist who trained in France and kept to her own principles and ideals. A realist painter who concentrated on portraits of the American Social Elite. In many respects I find it hard to differentiate her work from John Singer Sergeant whose work I have seen in real life. Perhaps his work is more fluid and hers more considered? Anyway I like them both and am always interested in portraits. I haven't done any myself for a while maybe I will set aside some  time and do a couple of the family this year?

"The painting above is called portrait of a man with a cat." (WYSIWYG) by Celia Beaux (1855-1942)

Chaffinch

It was a beautiful morning yesterday and I was out with Jac just after 6am. In fact Mal Pope on Radio Wales even asked Alex where I was when she asked for a request. On the way back down the hill there was a chaffinch on a telephone pole greeting the day and I thought for such a common little bird he has the most wonderful happy song. He matched my mood. So there he is above.

Later I went to the gym and took two of our granddaughters to drop off in gymnastics. Now I have interviewed pretty well every type of person from rogue to the very worst of mankind and generally not many got the better of me. My one year old granddaughter however got to the gymnasium and refused point blank to go in. She had the wrong top on! It was a waste of time arguing with her it was "No!" Despite all my powers of persuasion I was bettered by a four year old! I had to turn around and take her home.

We are nearly ready for the next exhibition so no panic there just need to catalogue and pack the paintings now.

Before I went out Mal Pope played a great track by Dave Grusin. I have Catrin Finch's version but here is the piano version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiWY8naGyNI

Cattle after the Rain

I had this painting lying around for a while and picked it up yesterday. I said to Alex," I think I can do something with this."
She replied,"Yes . Have you got any black bin bags?"
I thought that was somewhat hurtful. It was a painting I quite liked. It was bordering on abstraction and I agree the palette was pretty sombre. If Alex doesn't like something you can pretty well bet it won't sell. Nevertheless I picked it up and worked up the shapes and contrast to produce more realism. I showed it to Alex again and this time she said.... nothing. Oh well.

So there it is. I still like it, although it may never adorn anybodies wall.

Walking a dog on the beach

I finished the above painting this week. It shows a couple walking their dog on Llansteffan Beach.
It would appear that this activity may be further restricted in future. I note there are moves afoot to place further banning notices on beaches in Carmarthenshire.

Like most people I hate it when dog owners don't clean up after their dogs on the beach or park... However in my experience this is in fact a minority. I appreciate the Council are in a difficult position and I can quite understand having "different areas" of a beach where dogs are banned. This seems to me to be a sensible position. But a total ban as is the case in some other areas is both short sighted (as it will adversely affect tourism) and disproportionate in my view. So here's hoping we have sensible compromises.