Pentle Bay, Tresco, Isles of Scilly

 

 

Pentle Bay, Tresco,  Isles of Scilly      Acrylic (c) Tessa Spanton

I am delighted that his painting has been selected for the Society of Women Artists 2019 exhibition

24th-29th September, at the Mall Galleries, London. More details here

I wanted to do a plein air painting on one of Tresco's beaches. I chose Pentle Bay, a beautiful long beach curving like a crescent at one end. It is fringed with white sand, shells and seaweed. I like it best when the tide is not too low. I found a cowrie shell as I walked along to chose a spot.

I usually use watercolour or pencil for plein air work and didn't have an easel so it was a bit of a challenge to avoid everything face palming into the sand! I did incorporate a bit of Tresco sand into the foreground and found that a few of the silvery particles of mica from the sand had found their way onto the painting.

This was followed by something delicious to eat and drink at the Ruin Beach Cafe at Old Grimsby. I will write about that in another post. Meanwhile more details here

I did some more tweaks on it at home and decided to frame it in time for submssion day at the Mall Galleries just a few days later.

 The frame is made with a hardwood moulding and appears a bit darker in this photo than in reality.

 

 Handing in is at the back of the Mall Galleries from Carlton House Terrace beyond the board and down some steep steps. Paintings are piled high so need to be in durable frames.

Then its back to Trafalgar Square to get a no 11 bus to Victoria.

Falesia Algarve Paintings

 Falesia and Falesia 1  Olhos d'Agua, Algarve
 acrylics by Tessa Spanton SWA (c)

Framed with a cream mount and light wood frame, approx size 18x22in

The one above will be on show at the Mall Galleries, London with the Society of Women artists July 28th-Aug 7th

These 2 paintings were done in my studio using photos I took and bringing together some of my findings from the earlier explorations and studies when there.

The colours there on a bright day and the smoothness of some of the bands of rock were amazing.

I love the orange blue pairing of complementary colours. We were going to the Algarve so because of the colours I bought W and N Desert collection of watercolours.  Watercolours are more portable and easier to use outside than acrylics so I took these watercolours.

I did several studies and experiments with these colours all done there in front of the views.

The beach is called Falesia which means cliff. The beach stretches for miles and the cliffs are the backdrop have the most stunning colours and patterns.

we stayed at the Portobay Falesia above the beach with views of the rocks and sea.

Watercolours

 Orange Peaks Falesia 1,2,3

Below Cliff top pines  watersoluble inks

Sculpture Block

The SAA sent me 2 Sculpture blocks with a set of tools to try out. Sculpture block is a smaller version of sculpture canvas. It measures 15x15x2.5 cm It's a bit like oasis for dried flowers except denser and firmer. It is lightweight and can be carved with tools. It's rather like making a lino cut although much easier to cut. It can also be sanded.

I used a drawing of my local lavender field that I have previously done in watercolour and as a silk painting. The rows of lavender and the trees make such sculptural shapes and I thought would lend themselves to this. i cut away and sanded the top part of the sky area to make the trees and top cloud stand out. Lower down in the sky I left some of the horizontal marks left behind after carving as they suggested layers of more distant clouds. I carved and sanded the shapes of the rows of lavender then applied a coat of acrylic gesso to seal the whole surface and make it easier to paint. I made some more texture with the gesso. I painted using acrylic paints.

I like the idea of being able to make a 3d surface and textures. I wasn't so keen on the painting part as it felt like painting one of those plaster cast figures we used to make as kids. Maybe thicker paint and more of it would be better. 

I have placed the block in a frame and will probably fix it there using a strong double sided tape.

The block could be put directly on a wall without a frame. A small hole could be made in the back to accept a nail on the wall. Or D rings could be screwed onto the back of the block secured with some glue then cord attached.

With the other block that I have I think I will explore using it to print from.
 I have both sides to experiment with.

I mostly used the 2 tools on the right.

above  extra texture made using gesso

I gessoed and painted the sides as well.

The blocks and canvases are available from the SAA

The Market in Funchal Madeira

Mercado dos Lavradores in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

I did the under painting using FW inks on wet 200lb Bockingford paper. These are intense colours and I used then straight from the bottle. It comes with a handy dropper attached to the lid.

Onto this I collaged some paper torn from a magazine. I wanted some text in Portuguese and found some in a magazine I had brought back from Madeira. Even better there was an article about the market written in both Portuguese and English. I used pieces of this for the floor.

I worked on top of these using Atelier Interactive acrylics with plenty of flow medium. These are slower drying than acrylic paints usually are so I had plenty of time to blend colours. I spent several days on these paintings adjusting colours and tones, a luxury I don't usually have when painting on silk. I worked on them as a pair.
I mounted them like watercolours and framed them in light ash frames.
Here they are labelled and ready to be submitted to the Society of Women Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries complete with paperwork.
Today 2 weeks later the letter arrived with the form with the result. As I opened it I am wondering 'would there be an A or a R written next to the titles?'  Good news this time, both have been accepted.