Pulpit rock

The coastal feature that is Pulpit Rock was cut away by quarry men at Bill quarry on the island of Portland in the 1870's. Some brave souls climb to the top of the stack - I've never fancied it myself, not having a head for heights. The stone is a beautiful mellow yellowish grey and the shadow colours that fall on it a delicious blue violet. This sketch was done with inktense pencils, sepia waterproof pen and a white gel pen. I tried to capture the moment inbetween heavy showers where the sun shines through lighting up the wet rock and making strong tonal contrasts.

After all the excitement of exhibitions I'm feeling a little flat so I'm going to be taking a mini break from blogging for a week or so whilst I spend some time out sketching on location and researching some new ideas for my next series of paintings. When I'm back I will have some exciting material to share, until then I wish everyone a wonderfully creative week.

A quiet evening

A Quiet Evening
acrylic on board 13x20cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Some evenings feel so quiet and still. This is another painting inspired by the view from Southbourne beach with Hengistbury Head peeking through the haze. I've used lots of glazes again, whispers of colour that gradually build up layer upon layer.

A silent tide

A Silent Tide
acrylic on board 20x13cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Back to the beach and unusually for me a landscape format. I really enjoyed switching to these muted colours after working with the strong greens and siennas of the last two paintings. The colours are more subtle than this photo shows, there's not quite so much contrast. I used titanium buff, parchment, cadmium yellow medium, indanthrene blue, naphthol crimson and ivory black. I've been quite scared of using black but ivory black is very transparent and more like a charcoal grey to my mind, it's been lovely to use in the mixes in this painting.

4ART at the Hayloft

  

A couple of shots of the exhibition at the Hayloft Gallery in Christchurch. The exhibition opened on Friday and continues until the 16th June. The artists exhibiting are; Morag Dixon, Dennis Male, Sylvia Musk, Linda Patterson and myself. There's a lovely mix of work so if you're in the area do pop in and have a look.

 

A Boat Load Of Trouble
oil on canvas
© Dennis Male 2011



Mixing it up a bit

 

This is another experiment using monoprints, on the left I'd added watercolour which resisted the ink of the monoprint. There wasn't very much bare paper in the top area so really the change was nominal. My intention was to slightly refine the drawing and beef up the colour in some areas whilst still keeping lots of the mark making of the print.

On the right is a picture of the same piece with added colour pencil (Derwent). This toned down some clumsy areas where the ink had been too thick but flattened out the light in the tops of the reeds.

To gain back light and get in even more colour I worked back in with pastel. Believe it or not there is still quite a bit of the original monoprint visible. I've added a detail of the painting which shows the amount of colour more truly, the photo of the whole has flattened it somewhat.

Working into river monoprints

Remember the monoprints from the beginning of the month? Well following a suggestion from Vivien  (thank you :o) )I've been working back into them with soft pastel. Initially I was thinking of using watercolour with them as the prints were made with oil based paint and so would work as a resist. Pastel has given some really interesting results. I particularly like the way the pastel marks are broken up by the texture of the oil. I've got lots more prints to work with so will try the initial plan using watercolour next. (after getting all the exhibition work together I'm really enjoying having some time out to play with materials, these experiments are suggesting fresh new ways forward.)

 

Above are the original monoprints, the process I used to make them is  here

Spring on the river

Spring on the River
acrylic on canvas 25x25cm
©Lisa Le Quelenec

I'm having a few problems getting online at the moment as my laptop is being temperamental in starting up and unfortunately big pooter is too. They have both been conspiring against me. I have been getting lots of work done though. Hopefully I'll be able to get the problem fixed soon and can get back to posting more regularly. I've really missed popping over to everyone elses blogs to see what they've been up to. I've not finished catching up yet but if you've a minute to spare have a look here to have a peek at Jeanette Jobson's latest painting. I love the way she's captured the silky smoothness of the flowing water.

In Spring on the River I've added darker areas to indicate the movement of the water. I've also played up the red/brown in the reeds (thanks Roger) which was much more subtle before. I'm really enjoying these river paintings as the nature and colour of the water is so different to painting seascapes, it's quite a different challenge.

The colour of river water?

This painting is turning out to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated. How to describe the colour of the water? It's blue with the reflection from the sky, green from the foliage and there is a definite warmth from the river bed. What do you think? Am I getting there? I'm in two minds as to whether I need some darker ripples in the foreground to add perspective.

Down by the riverside

I've squeezed a bit of time in to paint today before I go to Christchurch to help hang the Hayloft exhibition. This is the beginning of the next painting in my river series. All the beautiful fresh greens of the new growth are inspiring. Tomorrow I will have time to work on the water, I can't wait!

The painting is 10x10 inch and I'm using azure blue, cadmium yellow light, raw and burnt sienna and deep violet. There's a dash of burnt umber in the watermark of the reeds.

Sketches of Hengistbury Head

There just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment, exhibitions are fast approaching and I'm sure the packing, labelling, mounting, framing.... etc takes as long as making the work. I've only a sketch of Hengistbury Head from the cliff top as I took a break to blow the cobwebs away.