Happy New Year!

 

Well December ran away with me in a rollercoaster of child illnesses, Christmas preparations and travelling. 

The ferry over was a little bumpy with a 'bit of a swell' and as we came around by Corbiere on the journey to Jersey. I took advantage of the slow progress the ferry was making. I whipped out my sketchbook and little pouch of pencils AKA my emergency sketch kit and tried to capture the wind whipped sea and the lighthouse.

La Corbiere Lighthouse - ferry view detail   pencil sketch A6 sketchbook   ©2023LisaLeQuelenec

The sketchbook is an A6 Stillman & Birn Nova with grey toned paper. The pencils are the tiny left over nubs that have been replaced for studio work, but as they are the most used colours and as they are only used for firing off quick notes and ideas they are adequate for short periods of use and my hands don't complain too much.

La Corbiere Lighthouse - ferry view and sketch kit   pencil sketch A6 sketchbook   ©2023LisaLeQuelenec

The weather continued to bluster and blow whilst we were there but beautiful beachy moments were there for capturing. Even better was the time spent with family making up for the Christmas's missed during lockdowns.

Toward Green Island - Jersey ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

 

Green Island - Jersey ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Green Island - Jersey ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

And now.....back to work where I am sure lots of these inspiring views will be put to good use.

I hope everyone has enjoyed a break and is looking forward to a happy, healthy and successful (whatever that means to you) 2023. Best wishes.

A trip home....and refilling the inspiration well

I have just come back from a trip home (I call it home even though I haven't actually lived there for nearly thirty years..) to Jersey. It had been far too long. My last stay had been pre-covid.  It was lovely to catch up with my folks and walk along the beaches which are so different to the ones in Dorset. For a start there is a much, much wider tidal ranges so interesting treasures are waiting to be found that are left by the tide. Also my eyes were opened to just how much litter is unfortunately left on the beach in Bournemouth during the summer, which is a sad observation to make. Jersey beaches are immaculately clean at any time of day or evening.

Anyway I thought I would bore you with some holiday snaps ;o)

Along the beach   photos ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

So many colours, shapes and textures.. I think a lifetimes work could be made just within these nine photos.

Whilst on the way to visit the Maritime Museum I was fascinated by the reflection patterns in the marina. The museum is absolutely wonderful and I would definitely recommend a visit.

We fitted in two castles and La Hougue Bie Museum too. The passage grave at La Hougue Bie is thought to be one of the ten oldest buildings in the world! It was lovely and cool to walk doubled over and crablike through the tunnel on what was a very hot day.

Sketchbook pages of water reflections in the marina ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Marina reflections photograph ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Unfortunately we came across this compass jellyfish left by the tide on one of our beach walks. Such a beautiful pattern of markings, I think I will be revisiting this page in the not too distant future.

Compass jellyfish and sketchbook pages   ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

As you can see someone else enjoyed her first visit too, especially the paddling and extra treats from Nanny and Grumpy.

So lots of new inspiration and ideas are now whizzing through head and waiting to emerge from my brushes.

Three seaweed studies in watercolour

Three Seaweeds    each 30x21cm approx watercolour on paper   ©2017LisaLeQuelenec

The latest additions to my 'Little Treasures' series to add to the shells, feathers and other nature finds.

I love the colours, shapes and variety of seaweeds. These are painted from sketches that I did in Jersey and are seaweeds found in the rockpools there. Next time I must remember to collect some samples in jars for studying. I have collected them in the past and pressed them in sketchbook pages but they dry out and become brittle so quickly and it does make a change to paint from living samples. I really wanted to catch the sense of how they flow in the water in these studies.

These three seaweed studies are available at Seaside Studios UK on Etsy

A trip to Jersey

Snaps from a quick break in Jersey   ©2017LisaLeQuelenec

There is nothing like taking a break from a big project and coming back refreshed. A quick trip to Jersey has done this for me and now I am ready for the home run of finishing up the loose ends. I can't wait to share this one with you.

I have competition for finding treasure on the beach now as someone has started his own collection ;o)  . New wellies were put to the test as we explored the rockpools at Green Island finding shrimp, crabs, a blenny and tickling sea anenomes. Holes were dug, castles built and destroyed; shells, stones, seaglass and seaweed collected - that was just me.... I didn't do any sketching at all and only opened a sketchbook to press some seaweed inbetween the pages. As a result I have a lovely damp, beach smelling sketchbook - ah well inspiration takes many forms....

Now back to work.

Beach study

Beach finds colour palette

A walk on the beach in Jersey to see my folks turned up these lovely finds. Such an inspiring collection of colours and textures.

St. Aubins Bay - Jersey Channel Islands   ©2015Lisa Le Quelenec

De La Croix

 'I never know a moment's boredom when I have a brush in my hand.'    De La Croix

I haven't had much time to paint or sketch lately. A certain little someone has been keeping me on my toes. I have been taking little snatches of time to finish a book that I started back on maternity leave though - The journal of Eugene De La Croix  ISBN9780714833590. I have a shortened version but it is still a long read. It is however, absolutely fascinating with many insightful observations not only on art and painting but also on human nature.

One quote in particular has given me food for thought;

'As a rule marine artists do not paint the sea well.... they make portraits of waves...They are not sufficiently concerned with the effect of imagination which, by multiplicity of details - too minutely described even when they are true - is distracted from the main theme, the vastness or depth which art is capable of expressing.'     De La Croix

On The Coast   photograph ©2014Vicky Le Quelenec

I don't have too much left of the book and am wondering if anyone could recommend another for me to start on a similar vein. What is your favourite book written by an artist?

Ocean Breeze

Ocean Breeze   watercolour 15x21cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Inspired by a recent trip to Jersey to see my folks. I love the beaches there...

Riding along the shore WIP part 2

Taking a photo and reducing it to black and white is a helpful tool that I use when I'm close to finishing a painting. It helps me to give a last check on the tonal composition. I wanted to make sure that the horse and rider were tonally integrated enough with the rest of the painting. A few colour adjustment glazes later and I was ready to call this painting done.

Comparing the size of the waves on the right to the size of the horse and rider has helped set the sense of scale of the beach. I set the direction of the cloud to help emphasize the depth of field and lead in to the main event of the sun silhouetting the figures.

As you can see from this wip quite a lot of time can pass between initial inspiration and concept to completion of a painting. Sometimes this is due to time constraints and the natural order of things as painting ideas pile up waiting to be explored. Often it's because, for me, time needs to pass before the idea becomes fully formed. The little will-o-the-wisp of an idea will fleetingly tease my memory for a while before fully exposing itself and developing into a fully fledged painting. My sketchbooks are invaluable tools for me to be able to work in this way.

Riding along the shore acrylic on board 20x50cm ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Riding along the shore WIP part 1

I selected a piece of board 20x50cm for this painting, not too big and not too small, the ratio feels 'right' for the sense of space that I want to portray. (There is no reason in particular for this size it just feels instinctively right and is proportionate to some of the preparation sketches that I had done.)

I began the under painting on a warm neutral ground and very loosely blocked in the main shapes of sky, sea and sand. The second stage in this painting was about setting my darkest tone in. I did this early on using ivory black in the dark masses of the water. I knew I wouldn't end up seeing the black after the layers of blue were painted on top  but they would quickly give the depth of the shadow that I wanted in this area.

Now the darks were in place I could easily judge how light the lights needed to be. More often I paint the other way around and put my lighter ranges in first but the painting was willing me to work in reverse. I thought I would go with it and let the painting dictate the way it wanted to be painted.

By the end of stage 3 you can see pretty much all of the black has been painted over. (As a side note ivory black mixed with buff titanium is a very useful colour for sand shadow in evening light. - you can see my old fear of tube black has pretty much disappeared over the last year. ;o) ) As usual I have used a number of blues; coeruleum, cobalt, ultramarine (a blue that I very rarely use) and indigo.

Riding along the shore - sketchbook preparation for a painting

I thought I'd share a work in progress as it has been a while since the last one. In the past I have shown a stage by stage progression of the actual painting starting with the under painting and working my way through to the final stage. This time I thought I would show the progression from initial concept.

This piece started back at Christmas, on Boxing Day to be exact, with a walk on the beach at St. Aubin's Bay in Jersey. When I was a child we lived very close but in the last twenty years it has become almost unrecogniseable when you look toward the town side as much land has been reclaimed from the sea and the harbor extended.

The photograph makes it look like a really dull and grey day but it was a beautiful morning and warm, it didn't feel like December. The bright sun reflected in the wet sand has over exposed the photo making it look very dark in comparison to how it was. There was hardly anyone on the beach at all, it felt like His Nibbs and I had the whole bay to ourselves. As we walked halfway around the bay a rider was exercising her horse at the waters edge and the reflections they made in the wet sand were catching my eye. On a large expanse of beach even a large horse can look miniscule.  I took some photos and watched intently trying to memorise what I was seeing as I had come out without a sketchbook.....

Sketchbook studies ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

It was the sense of scale in particular that I wanted to explore and after sketching square format compositions I thought I would try out a couple of panoramic shapes. It was this format that I decided to focus my attentions on.

You can see that very early on in these planning stages that I have decided to leave out any reference to the actual place. I could have included the shapes of the land or St. Aubin's Fort in the right of the bay or Elizabeth Castle on the right. The reason for this is that by omitting it the painting becomes at once more universal, it could be any beach and the rider could be anyone. I hope for the viewer to be able to put themselves in my paintings with their own memories and experiences.

I practiced getting the shape of the horse and rider, who I planned on showing only in silhouette, first in pencil, paying particular attention to the negative shapes made by the horses legs. (The photographs that I had taken came in very handy here.) Once I felt a little more confident I tried just drawing them with a brush in as few strokes as possible and to the scale that I would need in the painting.

The collage of images above is made from tiny sketches that were originally just a few inches big. Each time a new thumbnail is drawn, the plan for the painting develops, sometimes there are blind alleys but on the whole it is a very useful process for me in developing the essence of a piece. Better to adjust an element in a small thumbnail than to have to adjust something crucial in a large canvas. With preparation done it is time to get on with the painting....

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. 

Memory paintings at Loriann's and a trip to Jersey

At the end of yesterday's post I wrote about the challenge Loriann had set about painting from memory. Well today she's posted paintings by artists that took up the challenge. There's a beautiful mix of work and it's interesting to see how everyone reacted to the challenge. Pop on over and take a peek.

Below is the memory sketch I sent Loriann, it's in pastel pencil just under A5 in size and is of one of my favourite places in the world. It's St. Ouens Bay in Jersey (Channel Islands - 14 miles off the coast of France although part of Great Britain) it's the island where I was born and raised. In the bay is a martello tower called La Rocco Tower, of which there are a number around the island that were used as defences.

The reflections of the tower in the wet sand are something that I've sketched and painted many times. This particular day stands out in my mind it was December and was really cold, all the colour had washed out and the beach was empty. Even though this is a place that I feel very connected to and a place that I have experienced a large number of times it was still very challenging to attempt to capture it with no references - not even a sketch.

Thank you Loriann for starting this challenge it's been really good fun.