Having painted now over six weeks, I have worked on a series of pictures exploring local and not so local beaches. I have painted from photographs mostly, but now I can see a definite style emerging.
Acrylic allows for mistakes and change, and I am constantly lightening areas and repainting. Altogether I love seeeing how colours react to one another.
Keeping the brush stroke in a single movement defines the angle and layers the process.
Now I just want to explore more in this semi- abstract method. I’m hooked and it is changing how I view things. I’m constantly observing patches of colour, shapes and light.
Foam glistens Iridescent, Blown on the wind Of salt spray Shards of light Play on the crests of the waves Like moths to light Dogs run In and out In free abandon Chasing the tide Catching the best of the day.
Summer like flowers fades Days shorten Time ebbs Like the retreat of the tide Memories are snatched with velocity Desperate to eek out Final afternoons Impromptu walks coffees drunk In favourite cafes With favourite friends Wild swimming at any opportunity Big skies Open spaces Dogs running free The chance to be ourselves Until… We pack Our lives neatly Like clothes in cases To begin again In ordered fashion Of timetable and routine. Lamenting what was Holding the memory Of Summer.
Straggly borders and faded flowers Drawn through with tangled weeds Like lampposts sunflowers Lean to wind and rain Zinnia spikes a sharp vermilion hue Fighting with soft pink of hollyhock juxtaposed Yellow rudbeckia - too sharp Note made Straw coloured calendula floats amidst a Hazy mist of cosmos Heights and stature change Grasses shower seed A profusion of tall perennials The final flourish Ending the firework display.
The sky is stretched In effortless flow The land cradled in the folds of the hills Shrill notes of bird Cut the stillness of air All is restored The earth sings its song.
Summer is practically the only time I can paint. I have to be in the mood and once there need to relinquish everything else as it becomes all consuming.
I booked myself on a two day course for the first time with South West Art back in Spring. I sourced a portable easel second hand as my studio one is too big. Excited by the prospect of painting en plein air, I counted and recounted my brushes and purchased the necessary acrylics, stashing them into my ancient box – wondering how one actually carries the equipment to the location.
Super excited, slightly nervous, I turned up to meet the other participants- all seasoned enthusiasts and professionals, all regularly exhibiting … and then there was me.
I wanted that course as I’ve known artist Phil Creek for years, professionally as art advisor for Devon Schools and more recently collecting his work, one of which he painted especially for us. I love his style ; I was keen to learn.
I may have been from the weakest starting point, yet in two days all I did was learn. I watched… I listened… I had a go.
The technique: One 1 in brush, no drawing. First layer simply make broad lines – no dabbing , single strokes , looking for blocks of colour and cover the page. Never paint like painting a wall – single strokes with same 1 in brush again over the first layer. Repeat the layers- use the brush on its side or tip for fine marks.
Layer one – unfinished study 20 mins Second study – two layers 40 mins
Day 2 we learnt to draw people – just giving a suggestion all with 1 in brush then with rigger brush to finish. The idea is not to suddenly return to a detail style or the painting becomes confused, looking as though it has been done by another hand.
Figures – a study
En plein air was hard – the time, the weather, the crowds. We carried our load of equipment down to the beach. I was keen to see how others dealt with it – trollies, hold-alls and the like . Easel in one hand, box in the other and a rucksack, we ended up at the Ham, Sidmouth, looking at the cliff above which my grandparents lived. When I was seven, could I have ever envisaged that one day I would be back painting the view ?
Phil instructed and demonstrated everything first Holidays by the Sea – Finished acrylic on boardView Towards Granny and Grandads Finished – acrylic on linen
In a world where Winds rush Across the globe Tornadoes spin across the Atlantic Whirl with centrifugal force The jet-stream snakes An arch of white And black meets white And white meets black Colours that merge Against the brilliance of The western sky A painted picture of gloss Over a stained undercoat Smart suits and cases Tell the narrative A thousand hopes Of streets paved in gold Turn to monochrome And a darker story That’s black and white unfolds uncomfortably And the grey skies darken And rain falls On the sodden ground As winds rush Across the Atlantic And tornados spin Back home
Ruth Partridge 