Beauty of the Beach...

On a cold looking drizzly November Monday morning nothing feels less fun than dragging oneself out of the comfort of the warm into the outside world.  

However if you have two young and lively dogs like me then you have no choice!

And thank goddness for that - for I would have missed a beautiful sea this morning on the south east coast of England.

Living by the sea really does lift your spirits. 

I am so lucky to be able to walk along the front every day and enjoy all that it provides.

This morning was no exception. It was cold - yes. And drizzly - yes. But after a short while the drizzle stopped and the sun came out.

The sea was very  very calm. The tide flowed gently in and out as if not in a rush. The small ripples seemed to be happy to land on the beach. The stones were still wet from the earlier rain.  The soft quite white foam seemed to contrast against the pebbles.

What is enjoyable to see is other people just stopping and looking at the ocean.  Just taking a few moments out of their day to gaze across the water - enjoying the view of the sun occasionally shining onto the sea. 

The clouds not moving much as there was little wind but the watery November sun still managed to come in and out of the clouds revealing welcome bright sunshine.

Painting the sea has always been a joy for me and remains one of my favourite subjects.

When it is fierce and strong this is when it inspires me most.

However for today the sea was slow and calm and well worth going out for.

thank you for reading my latest BLOG

hope you have enjoyed it

Vicky :-)

Autumnal colours.

I am starting to write this on a gloriously sunny November morning. My dogs and I have just been for a walk along the seafront and the sea is very calm. The sun was bouncing off the sea and one could have been fooled into thinking it was summer.

That's what I like about autumn - the contrasting days. One day you feel like winter has arrived the next it's back to sungasses. (If you are lucky)

Being a painter that draws inspiration from nature in this season I feel very lucky. Nature offers so much to the artist and photographer alike.

Of course the unarguably best part of autumn is how the temperature changes nature.  The leaves have got to be one of the marvels of the natural world.

A gorgeous palette of rich and changing colours to inspire anyone. Russets mix with ochres. Mustard mixes with mocha and caramels. Burgundy and bright poppy red mixes with sap green. Yellows and golds mixing with earthier greens and umber.  

Natures own colour wheel.

I feel that autumn really does make you feel alive! If you can let your senses take you for  journey. Go to a local park or woodland area, or even a field or hedgerow. Use all of your senses to fully enjoy autumn. Look at the different shades around.  Hear the wind whip up the fallen twigs.  Touch the chestnuts and pine cones dropped on the floor.  And breathe in the changing air that autumn brings with it.

I hope you have enjoyed this short BLOG.

Thank you for reading.

More paintings next time!

time you enjoy wasting was not wasted

Vicky :-)

September Sun & Sunflowers

September - does it count as Summer or Autumn? The month rolls in with strong bright sunlight - plenty of hours of daylight and promises of a lovely end of the Summer - yet by the end it feels definitely more autumnal.

Meteorologists state that Autumn starts when the equinox starts. So I guess that is my answer.

In September though there are still many sights of Summer around including beautiful sunflowers.  These strong and bold flowers stand tall and proud and offer colour and vibrancy for a long time.

A few years ago I happened upon a field of sunflowers in East Sussex. I was out dog walking in the countryside when decided to go over  a small bridge that led into a huge field on the edge of someones land. It was full of sunflowers - in full bloom. It truly was a beautiful sight. Very inspiring. That was a glorious end of summer day and the welcome sunflowers seemed to delight in the fact that summer was still there in full force!

I have over the years painted sunflowers many times. Sometimes they have been a focal point and sometimes in with other flowers. However I feel they sit better when painted on their own - being the centre of the pictures attention.
For Van Gogh they represented happiness - the colour yellow for him was the emblem of happiness and as Sunflowers exude yellow it all different shades what a good choice of flower.

With watercolours I love the way the colours drift and mix in with each other.  Cadmium yellow mixing with lemon yellow.  And unusually using ochres and browns mixed in there. The effect of the watercolours blending together produce unique colours.

I've tried something different with these small original paintings - by painting on the actual border. The flowers seems to flow over and I am pleased with the effect. I am hoping to paint more of these with the border being painted as well. 
If you are interested in buying any they are very reasonable for an original painting. Just contact me.

Thank you for ready my BLOG.
make it a sunny day
Vicky :-)

For the love of dogs

In Great Britain we are apparently a nation of dog lovers. There are roughly 8.5 million dogs in Britain and I am definitely one of those being the proud owner of two lively dogs. I have grown up with dogs and couldn't envisage my life without them. They are very much inspirational for me to paint, and more recently lurchers are.
They seem full of grace and emotion and being able to capture them on paper is a joy.
Sometimes I may see one of my dogs in a particular pose that I want to capture - other times I may reading a magazine and a stunning photo of a dog may pop out at me and require drawing. It can come from anywhere.

This is Mack.
He was inspired by two grey dogs I saw a while ago walking along the seafront. They were mixed breed but looked very solid. Unsure of their names I named this one Mack.

This is Monty.

He came along whist I was flicking through a magazine article about basset hounds. The expression on his face feels very moving to me. I quite like painting this one as he is actually brown. Most of my dogs aren't always so realistically painted!  Prints of Monty are available in a range of mounts.

His name came from my social media page. I asked people to name this little fellow and that is how Montys' name came about.

Ahhhh. Larry!

He came about during my 'lurcher phase'. He is mostly whippet with maybe something else added in the mixture as well.  The different shades of browns used in this painting went well together. Full of poise and grace is Larry - although his name hints at his more excitable part of him too.

Now this young man is one of my favourites - probably because the pose comes from my boy. He hasn't been named yet as I've not found the right name that fits him.

I started this one by sketching a rough pencil drawing of him and then gently and lightly adding delicate watercolours. Watercolours are an unforgiving medium so gentle strokes are best with them. Too much paint and it's very tricky to correct.

Lovely delicate Doris.

When I started painting her I didn't expect her to be looking so sad. Sometimes I have in mind the finished look but in this case I didn't. I personally love the colours in this painting. The hues of violet, correleum blue and a touch of ultramarine all blend well together. 

I hope you have enjoyed that little journey through some of my watercolour dogs.  

Thank you for reading my BLOG. 

whoever said diamonds are a girls best friend never owned a dog.
Vicky :-)

Buttercups & daisies.

BRITISH SUMMER TIME has officially begun. No longer is Springwatch on the tv in the evenings and it has started to rain. So it must be summer!  I did always wonder why Springwatch was on in June and when , in my mind, summer had begun. Now I know.

Summer for me brings to mind many things.  One of my favourite  is the way that after some fresh rain everything starts to blossom and bloom quite vigorously.  Lush green shoots start to come up and all of the plants and flowers that we have been patiently waiting for start to come into full bloom. Colour and life everywhere!

And of course by the roadside and in country fields we have the gorgeous buttercups and daisies. Two of my favourite flowers. Along the roadsides and in the fields there is an abundance of grasses and wild flowers blooming at the moment. The reeds from the riverbed grow higher and higher as do the tall grasses. These are injected with small bursts of bright yellow in the form of buttercups and of pale white from the wild daisies. They for me are just crying out to be painted.

BUTTERCUPS & DAISIES BEING ADDED TO THIS PIECE

If you listen carefully when walking past you may be lucky enough to hear a little rusell coming from within the riverbed. This could be anything from a tiny little dormouse to a bird hiding in the grasses from predators - or maybe just being scared away by the wet and curios snouts of my two dogs!  They like nothing better than sniffing in amongst the foliage to see what they can smell.

Despite it being sunny and clear somehow the one tiny puddle that is on our journey my dogs are able to find them - and of course jump in as well.

Capturing these lovely natural sights are something that I really enjoy doing. The feeling of warmth on the back of your neck whilst I take photos to bring home and sketch from and being relaxed and not hurried by the elements make the walk much more enjoyable.

COUNTRYSIDE WALK WITH MY TWO

Once home I will compile the photos I have and start composing a big canvas painting of the day. This more recently has been daisies and buttercups in grasses. I love working with acrylics at the moment - and experimenting to see what different greens I can invent by carefully mixing together two shades. Sage green of course is one of my favourites but mixing say a cobalt green with a light yellow is fun to see what results. Building up the layers and creating depth of colour is essential for my paintings. the canvas is just crying out for it!

So if you will excuse me I'm off again to take the hounds into the countryside and see what delights of nature we can discover!

Thank you for reading my BLOG

Daisies are like sunshine on the ground

Vicky :-)

Kingfisher

Where I live in East Sussex near to me there is a lovely park where wildlife live abundantly - Egerton Park.  My friend has seen a kingfisher there a few times but despite many many attempts to view this small delicate bird I still haven't been lucky. I've sat on the bench nearby with my two dogs - asking them to be patient and quite, so they sit there with me but still no sightings. The park has an area of water within  it and in the middle of one pond is a small island that looks like a castle for the wildfowl! 
Quite often this serene area is invaded by pigeons and of course seagulls. But mostly there are ducks a plenty and other wildfowl.

Apparently the little kingfisher perches itself  on the stone castle and waits looking in the water for it's feed. Kingfishers fly quite rapidly and  low over water. 

I painted a Kingfisher whilst 

 watching the tv programme Countryfile a while ago. That programme really can inspire me! There was a beautiful episode that was shot alongside a river and the presenter was lucky enough to be able to see a couple of kingfishers. It showed it dipping in and out of the river stream with the golden sunlight dancing off the water. I think that's why I named it Dipper! 

These two paintings are done in a slightly different style - using more pen work. I firstly lightly sketched the outline of the kingfisher and then used ceruleun blue and a dark blue watercolour and very loosely danced the brush over the pencil sketch.
Carefully adding the bright yellow as this can become muddy quite quickly. The bright orange colour added a bright blast of energy to the little bird.
Finishing it off carefully with the fine black pen work finally makes it come to life.
I like the way it seems to be in mid flight. The orange on their feathers really compliment the dark blues.

I love painting and depicting British wildlife and nature in my own way.  Watercolour captures the subject in a different way to my acrylic paintings. Both ways capture the beauty of nature and the two different ways also reflect my emotions when painting them. I am either in a 'watercolour' mood or an 'acrylic' mood! 
I hope you will carry on reading about my painting journey with nature, along with my two dogs, and enjoy my work.

Thank you again for reading this BLOG.
Art , undeniably is conducive to happiness
Vicky :-)

Beautiful Botanicals.

Beautiful Botanicals seem to be 'in' at the moment. If you flick through glossy magazines or search particular social media sites you can find an array of ideas and suggestions of how to make your home have the botanical look. This is a 'look' that I have always had as I simply adore having plants and nature indoors. It just seems to make sense to me to try to fill my home with wonderful oxygen giving life in the shape of indoor plants. They may be a dracaena palm, ivy and many a fern.

In the midst of this greenery it gave me inspiration to explore a painting using natural resources. Whilst out on a walk with my two dogs there were plenty of ferns growing wild in the countryside. I studied them and they gave me an idea.

I wanted to not just paint them in my own way but actually use and involve them in the painting. My watercolour paint palettes came out, my favourite watercolour brush and plenty of water.

Studying the leaf I then placed it on the piece of watercolour paper in the position I wanted it to be in.

Then carefully pressing the leaves down I soaked my brush with a mixture of prussian blue and hookers green I delicately painted over each leaf.

I had to be very careful not to move the fern or else the picture would not pick up the intricate details of the leaves and each individual frond. 

The result was very pleasing to the eye. I love the random way the paint captured some of the leaves but left some of them more blurry.

Then my brain started ticking and I wondered what would the effect be like on a slightly more challenging surface such as a canvas. Ordinarily acrylics go better on canvas but I wanted to experiment by using watercolours.

So I gathered another fern and placed it on the canvas repeating the same procedure this time leaving each individual fern to dry before applying the next one.  I had to use much more water on my brush this time as it was on canvas.

For this particular piece of work I used several different shades of green and blue to contrast with each other.  The overall effect I am very pleased with. (Who says blue & green should never be seen?!) 

I am wondering what different colours such as maybe pinks and purples would look like together in this form? Maybe I will experiment with that too. 

I hope you enjoy the finished effect as much as I do. It is fun to keep experimenting with nature to create art.

RE-THINK - RE-BRANDING

So I've been thinking, as you do, and decided to re think my BLOG to what comes naturally to me. Which is painting & nature & dogs & wellies etc etc

So from now on my BLOG will mainly feature those items rather than crafty bits.

 I'm hoping to launch my own Etsy shop in the near future so if you are interested in buying any of my work I show on here then you will hopefully be able to more easily. 

Hope you have enjoyed my botanical Blog.

Nature just is.

Vicky :-)