Flamingo on Silk

'Flamingo' Silk painting (c) Tessa Spanton
Maybe I should rename this painting 'Female Flamingo applying Make up'
Prints and cards of this painting are available too.

It's that time of year when I start to send paintings off to exhibitions and this flamingo has just flown off to the Wow Gallery. I went to visit the garden at Chestnut Lodge Cobham one summer and took lots of photos of the flamingos on the lake there. I have also seen them wild in the Camargue in the south of France.
Some were standing around on one leg, some wading around together and from time to time seemed to be getting into arguments with each other. I was fascinated by the shapes they made and in particular this bird preening itself. The striking coral pink colour is derived from shrimps that they filter from the water to feed on. While writing this post I have discovered more abaout preening hence the alternative title at the top!
The birds spend a lot of time preening their feathers to keep them in good condition and to enhance the colour by rubbing their feathers with a wax that contains carotinoids. This comes from the preen gland. Females have been observed to apply the 'make up'  more often than the males.  more here

Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park

Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park   watercolour 11x14 (c) Tessa Spanton

This painting was commissioned as a wedding present. The proposal had taken place in the Isabella plantation and the couple are shown in the painting.
I have painted in this beautiful place and taken may photos there over the years. I first discovered it when I was teaching at White Lodge in Richmond Park. (The Royal Ballet school's lower school.)

In April and May bluebells, camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons put on a splendid show. Candelabra primulas grow by the streams and there are wafts of scent from some of the azaleas.

When I did the painting the bright colours had gone and the trees were bare. I went there to watch people strolling along the paths to help with placing the figures in the painting.
It was a pleasure doing a painting of this lovely place to mark such an important milestone in this couple's life.

Painting Snow, Leisure Painter Magazine

Snow on Headley Heath  (c) Tessa Spanton

 watercolour  14x11in

Headley Heath is fairly local to me and is one of my favourite places to visit for landscape painting. 

It was a favourite of our dog too for picking up big sticks to carry, blackberrying fetching her ball and chasing but never catching rabbits.

There are little hills and valleys and glimpses to the North Downs, silver birch trees, gorse, heather in season, highland cattle and small ponds sometimes frozen in the winter.

You can see some of my paintings  here

The painting above is in this month's Leisure Painter magazine as the  subject of a step by step demo that I wrote. 'Quick tips for painting snow.' I like to see the colours in freshly fallen snow on a sunlit day but as for slushy suburban snow the sooner it melts the better.

March issue published on Feb 1st and also available as a digital version. from here

Doodles from a Mile High

 Doodles

The drinks trolley had passed and I had finished a glass of wine and a coffee. The sun had set so there was nothing of much interest to look at through the little window. So I turned to Brushes on the ipad.

After much random tapping of icons and nothing happening I got a coloured screen to appear and started to play. I have got a lot to learn and an instruction manual would help but I had a lot of fun with it and before long we were preparing to land at Heathrow.

                                         

A sampler

below A little bit of Madeira

In the Garden at Reids Palace

I had a third session painting in the garden and here is the finished painting. What a pleasure it was to be painting in this beautiful and peaceful garden. The giant leaves of the Strelitzia nicolai are silhouetted against the light and frame the view to Funchal and the steps down to the sea. There was the sound of the sea, the scents of the garden, a mild breeze and dappled sunshine which for me brings so much more to the experience of painting than working from a photo. I do work from my own photos and as I was in the place can bring some memories and imagination to the work. I very rarely work from other people's photos. It's nice to think that the paint from those washes dried in the warm Madeiran January sunshine especially as I am back home now and looking out of the window at a grey sky and half melted patches of snow.

  For this painting I used a block of Schollershammer hot pressed paper. This is convenient for working out doors as the block is rigid like a drawing board and the paper stretched to avoid cockling. It is very different from the paper I usually use as it is very highly sized so the paint skids over the surface and dries in puddles which makes some interesting effects. It has its pros and cons. Paint can be easily washed off to make alterations. However this can also happen when working in layers as I usually do when building up one wash over another. So it's best to mix the paint to the full strength from the start and use just one or two washes

The buffet lunch there was fantastic, much to be recommended.

From Madeira

This is a first! I am blogging from Madeira on an ipad.
Today I have been to the gardens of Reids Palace Hotel to do some painting in the beautiful garden. It is sunny but also very windy. I started by doing a sketch and may make a painting of it. I got cold so moved to another spot and started something else, a view through some interesting foliage with a
 glimpse of the sea and Funchal beyond and  I am part way through the painting. The leaves that I have started painting are those of the giant bird of paradise, Strelitzia nicolai.

Reid's Palace Madeira

'Reids Palace' watercolour (c) Tessa Spanton

(The colours in the original painting are nicer. I'll take another photo when the weather is brighter, it's very grey in London today)

At last this painting is finished. It was the last of the sequence described below and was about 3/4 ready last January when it was time to come home. I have had a break over Christmas and decided to do some more work on it.

This building looks amazing, high up and rising up from the rocks where the sea is pounding below and looking like a pink confection against the backdrop of mountains.

 I chose roughly the same time each day, around 11 am, to work outside. First I made some sketches and a tonal study. I spent between 1/2 hour to an hour at a time. Much longer and the lighting had changed. It was sunny so the lighting of the building was good though some days so windy that my papers would have blown away if they hadn't been clipped down.

                      
                         Reids Palace Maderia Aquarelle pencil (c) Tessa Spanton

The image above was done with a blue aquarelle pencil and a little water, inspired by the Portuguese azulejos. Very convenient when working outside as all you need is one blue aquarelle pencil and a small brush that can be filled with water like a fountain pen.

In a previous post I showed paintings that I had done of the other side of Reids. here