Mid summer's night

Mid Summer's Night
acrylic on paper 12x16cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

I knew there was a moon painting on it's way...

Poppy pair

 

Poppy I
acrylic on paper 53x53cm
©Lisa Le Quelenec 2011



Poppy II
acrylic on paper 53x53cm

©Lisa Le Quelenec 2011

  

I've been having fun over the last week or so painting these. Whilst I've painted poppies before I haven't painted them on such a big scale. It's been good to loosen up a little with larger areas of more fluid paint. I wanted to keep the background minimal so the entire focus is centred on the fiery forms of the petals.

 

detail

 

detail





The seed heads were plotted in early on by scratching in to the first layer of paint with the end of the brush. This made linear ridges of paint that I could dry brush over to build up the form. I've purposely kept them in a softer focus with no detail to suggest depth. As subsequent layers of glaze were added this helped to push them back. I painted the centres in by first adding in the dark veins in the petals and then glazing the reds on top. The flower centres were the last thing to be added which whilst they might look detailed in the picture are really quite loosely painted.

Summer Storm



Summer Storm Study
acrylic on paper 15x15cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec


The forecast says it'll be better this weekend.......... where ever you are, have a good one.

Wet Sand and Emerald Seas

Wet Sand and Emerald Seas
acrylic on canvas board 20x20cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

I thought I'd show you a picture of the painting with the things from my collections that inspired the colours. (For some reason that I can't fathom I separate the sea glass that I find into colours - I hate to see them mixed up. It's a bit like arranging colour pencils in a tin ;o)

©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Trees For Life

A little while back whilst reading a post on Jeanette Jobson's blog Illustrated Life she spoke about a charity fundraiser for Trees For Life who work to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland. A fellow Canadian artist now based in Scotland, Trevor Jones , was organising an exhibition to raise money for the charity by asking for donations from artists. So I emailed Trevor to find out more.

Trevor was looking for 140 artists from all over the world to join him in contributing an original artwork or signed, limited edition photo print in 6”x9” format, each of which will be sold for £45 either online or during an exhibition to be held in Edinburgh in November 2011. So far just over 100 artists have answered the call. You can find out more at Trevor’s blog , the deadline has now been extended until 15th August and there is still time to contact him for details about contributing. All the work is available to view and purchase here.

Below is my contribution, a mixed media piece. The trunks have been mono printed with an oil based paint, giving a slight texture to the bark and then worked back into with pencil. The land and sky began with a watercolour wash which the mono print resisted and then layers of colour pencil added which has given a more diffused effect. My aim was to make the background soft and less focused to give full emphasis to the trees.

It's inspired by one of my favourite areas of the New Forest. I love birch trees which at first glance look like their trunks are straight and true, I find the more I look the more I notice how uneven they are with their ridges and textures. I've enjoyed trying to capture the subtle differences in colour from one tree to the other.



Standing Guard
6x9inch mixed media
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

A poppy sketchbook page

A3 sketchbook page - poppies
FW acrylic ink
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

The poppies have finished now but the above is a sketchbook page I did back in May when they were in all their glory. I think with a bit of tweaking I could make three paintings out of this page, it would be a lovely change from all the blue I paint. Acrylic ink is nice to play with too, such intense colours when used neat and almost like watercolour when diluted. So many paintings are flowing through my head at the moment...

Evening Descends

Evening Descends
acrylic on paper 25x17cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

I've tried but failed miserably to capture the colours in the photograph of this painting. In truth the whites are not so white and the dark in the top of the sky isn't quite so dark. Oh and in the painting the horizon is straight...( I really need to work on my camera skills).

My aim was to get the magical clean blue the sky is at this time of day. I think I've got very close using azure and indanthrene mixes on top of a parchment base. There may be a new moon painting in the not too distant future...

Ocean blue

colour notes notebook

I've been working on this painting on and off for a few weeks now. There have been many, many layers of glaze, some just whispers of colour to gradually build depth. I had the painting in mind for some time and had been working on different colour combinations in my notebook. This page on the right was my initial colour concept but as always it developed as the painting evolved.

To start with I made an under painting of buff titanium on a gessoed piece of MDF, just to block in a vague idea of the main shapes and tones. It's a lovely neutral colour with just a touch of warmth which I wanted to glow through the layers of blue to come.



At this second stage with the basics worked into the sea, I felt that I needed to lighten up the area of sky closest to the horizon which I did with layers of a colour called parchment by Liquitex - a very neutral and cooler cream. Once that was done I could build up the depth in the upper portion of sky. I've used indanthrene blue, indigo and azure in separate glazes varying the intensities as I worked up from the horizon. Rather than applying the glaze in even strokes I thought I'd try being a little more random in the brushstrokes and letting them show to make more of a mesh of colour.

To contrast with all the lightness the passage of water behind the foam had to be very dark. In reality it is often much darker than you at first think it would be. This area is made of combinations of the same colours used in the sky and touches of phthalo turquoise. This method of building up the dark of a wave before putting in the light of the crest and foam works well for me and means I can get flecks of the dark peeping through much more realistically than if I was to add them in on top of the light. The foam is painted with a very scrubby brush and dry paint with a lot of variation in the thickness. The top line of the foam is much more broken up in the painting than the photo shows, showing the direction of the breeze as it catches the lightest parts blowing them across the bay.





Ocean blue
acrylic on board 44x44cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

 

The painting feels more or less finished to me now but I will put it away for a while and sneak up on it in a few weeks to look at it with fresh eyes. In the meantime any thoughts or comments, as always, would be welcome.

Feather studies

I've been busy today adding some small observational studies of feathers that I've done in watercolours to my Etsy shop. My poor shop has been very neglected, I opened it in October and then with all the exhibitions that I've been involved in I'd only managed to add a few paintings to it. These are the studies that are available to buy individually in store here .

Feather Studies
watercolour on paper individual size 11x15cm approx
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec 

The paper I used is made by Aquari in Spain and is absolutely beautiful to work on. It has a lovely texture to it and I really like the deckle edge. I'd bought a small pack when I was travelling quite some time ago and had been saving it for something special.

My home is full of little collections of things picked up, stowed in a pocket and carried home. Feathers, shells, bits of sea worn china and jars filled with sea glass, driftwood, pine cones and pebbles. They all come in useful for observation studies which I really enjoy. Sometimes when thinking about what colours to choose for a particular painting I'll turn to some of these objects and use them for palette inspiration.

Shimmering Sands

Shimmering Sands
acrylic on board 11x16cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Holiday memories of sun baked sand and pebbles crunching underfoot whilst the tide rolled in. The muted cry of gulls drifted on a salty breeze scented with a faint tang of seaweed.

La Rocco Tower and skies - Jersey

You may remember this post from February where I accepted the challenged posed by Loriann and tried a painting purely from memory of  La Rocco Tower. On this trip I took a photo from the other side of the bay from the causeway that leads to Corbiere lighthouse.  (The viewpoint of the painting from the February's post was from the beach behind.) I think I may have to paint the tower from this angle too.

In truly British fashion I thought I'd show a couple of examples of the weather from the trip. This sketchbook page was done on the ferry at the start of the journey in watercolour. 

Fortunately the rest of the time was spent with skies like this;


Summer Skies
acrylic on board 11x16cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec



Eric Young Orchid Foundation - Jersey

Well now....... where exactly did June go? I can't believe it's July already. This last week I've been visiting my folks in Jersey, having long walks on the beautiful beaches there and having trips to some of the local tourist spots. One of the places I visited was the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, somewhere I hadn't been for years. I love sketching the structures of orchids.