Oil Paintings Day 2

Still more work to be done on them when the paint is drier.

Works in Progress Oils

I prepared the boards a few days ago with 3 coats of primer. I started to paint yesterday and I am working on these 2 paintings together.

Iris on Silk

This is my latest silk painting. The top image has been cropped as I may use a square framing format.

'Sargent and the Sea' Paintings by John Singer Sargent

The no 38 bus stopped outside Laduree as usual, this time I tasted a blackcurrant and violet macaron. It was good though I couldn't really taste the violet. I was on my way to Sargent and the Sea at the Royal Academy, a few doors along on Piccadilly in London.

There were oils, watercolours and drawings of coastal subjects and seascapes many of them done during his summer travels.

The exhibition is in The Sackler wing of galleries on the top floor.

I have chosen some highlights, the first being a group of 3 evocative seascapes. One of these gave me the feeling I was on the sea in a boat.

En Route pour la Pêche (Setting out to fish) 1878 is a large oil painting showing a group of fisherwomen and children on the beach at Cancale in Brittany. I was drawn to this painting partly because I have been to Cancale and eaten seafood at one of the little harbourside restaurants. I spent a long time looking at it. I like the way the figures are grouped, the warm colouring and the beautiful reflections in the wet sand. Next to it was a smaller version with looser brushstrokes which had been done first. After looking at other paintings in the room I arrived at the opposite side where, like old friends, there were drawings and oil studies of some of the figures from 'Setting out to fish'. It was interesting to see how his thinking evolved as he worked on the composition. There were about 80 paintings altogether and this group interested me most.

At the end of the exhibition there was a group of watercolours of Venice. Bold, lively and painterly, they seemed to me to have been done for the sheer enjoyment of painting, several of them unsigned. One of them had been given as a wedding present to a friend and bore a lovely inscription written on the painting.

The photos show some fun sculptures in the courtyard ouside the RA.

Cakes from the window display at Laduree

New Jewellery

1.I made the enamelled pendant recently at a workshop at Art in Action. The tutors were very good, one of them and gave us a demo and showed us some samples. Then we got to work. another tutor fired the work. I covered the copper blank with a layer of clear glass powder, this then had its first firing. While that was happening I played with ideas for the design. I chose copper wire, millfiori glass slices, glass beads and copper rings. The fired piece then had another layer of glass powder, this time blue. I wanted the copper colour to show through a thin haze of blue. Then each bit of the design had to be positioned carefully without disturbing the powder layer. It required a lot of focus but was fun to do. Then there was the second firing.
I like the way the millefiori slices changed shape when fired and look like sea urchins and the little glass beads melted to fill the copper split rings. We were offered a chain or key ring to attach it to so I wore it for the rest of the day.





2. A beaded necklace that I bought last week at the Carshalton Lavender Open days.







3. One of the dragonfly pendants that I made. This one was for the EST challenge for my Etsy shop. It is now flying on its way to California

Monday Moodboard

This morning I have been making up bunches of lavender that I picked from the local field where I had my exhibition described in yesterday's post. The scent is wonderful. I picked purple, mauve, pink and white lavenders. The above photo was taken at Castle Farm Lavender a few weeks ago

So the theme of my Monday Moodboard for the European Street Team on etsy is lavender. I have found these lovely things from some of the team members. They would have fitted in so well at our event.

White Fabric Photoframe with lilac Lace - Shabby Chic by MamiMadeIt from Vienna

Art Necklace Lavender and Tree silvertone round glass locket with silvercoloured chain and 2 miniature original oilpaintings by NancyvdBoom from Holland

Silk Jewelry Pouch...Heirloom Hand Embroidery by Lamercerie from France

Pink Amethyst earrings wire wrapped in oxidized sterling silver - Alina by Arctida from Sweden

My best selling card here in my etsy shop

Carshalton Lavender Open Weekend

I arrived at 8pm to set up the gazebo. Here is my pitch next to the lavender garden at Carshalton Lavender

South London was once the lavender growing capital of the world. Both Yardley and Potter and Moore made their products with lavender from the region. When the land was needed for housing in the 1930s lavender growing moved to Norfolk. This little patch of land tucked away within suburbia now has lavender growing on it once again and opens to the public for pick your own during the last weekend in July. The bees and butterflies love it.

Here it is all set up. I had paintings, prints, cards, silk scarves and jewellery for sale.The weather was beautiful, I met lots of new people as well as friends and old friends I hadn't seen for some time. Sales were good and I sold the painting shown in the previous post.I bought a few things too including a necklace, lavender cookies and shortbread.

On the second day I managed to do some painting as well.

People arrived to pick bunches of lavender, browse the stands and pick up plenty to eat. There were home made cakes and cookies and breads and a barbeque. Local honey and lavender were some of the ingredients. Local beekeepers had a double stand. The photo below shows the edge of the lavender field.