'Bodey II'

'Bodey II' 19th June 2013

Week two of my life painting project! This morning I managed another hour long sketch of Bodey, in the same pose as last week. There are some definite issues drawing wise, that I struggled to fix, but overall I think the painting and use of colour has come on from last weeks effort so I'm pleased! Looking forward to going back next week and seeing how I get on. Feels good to be getting regular life painting done, I love doing it, especially stood in the sunshine like today!

Weekly Bodey Painting!

'Bodey I' 12th June, 2013

My new little spare room studio is fast filling up with newly started paintings; I am keen to enter six to the Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition and the deadline is only 6 or 7 weeks away! Lots to do. That said, with my brilliant week painting in Somerset fresh in my mind I am remaining committed to my work from life and have thought myself up a project to keep me focused over the summer!

Meet Bodey, my wonderful friend Jo's beautiful cob, whom I am lucky enough to ride regularly. He is a real star of a horse; fantastic fun to ride, safe as they come, and great with children too. Bodey is such a credit to Jo, I adore him! I have been meaning to paint him for ages but somehow haven't got round to it, until today. Feeling inspired and armed with my new easel (which makes getting set up and packed away when painting outside so much easier) I managed a quick (one hour ish?) oil sketch today, and now plan to paint him every single week, without fail.

My eldest, Oliver, and Bodey

I have seen before just how much I improve when I paint the same thing over and over again, so I am hoping that when I look back on 'Bodey I' several weeks down the line I'll see a big difference compared with 'Bodey V', and so on. My expectations for today's painting were low and I wasn't sure whether knowing him well would help or hinder me? I worked fast and the end result wasn't as bad as I was expecting! Bodey was a great model, stood very nicely for me. I got in a bit of a muddle with his ever shifting hind legs but wasn't too worried about fiddling fixing them, wanted more just to capture him today and get a feel for painting him. Thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm very grateful to Jo for being so very generous with her lovely horse.

Bodey and I having fun!

Ultimately I'd love to one day get a life sketch accepted into the SEA exhibition... long way off being able to produce that sort of standard but perhaps with some hard work I might just manage it eventually!

Life Painting with the Society of Equestrian Artists, Porlock Vale 2013

My favourite of the work I produced during the week.

Yesterday evening I returned home (completely shattered!) with a car full of paintings after just THE BEST week away in Somerset painting horses from life with The Society of Equestrian Artists.

I try and paint horses from life as often as I can, so the opportunity to spend 5 full days painting with fellow artists and fantastic tutors at the beautiful country house hotel Porlock Vale House was one I leapt at! The venue was idyllic, and the sun shone all week for us. The tuition from Malcolm Coward, Colin Allbrook, Jim Power, and Barry Peckham was invaluable and it was such great fun having a brilliant bunch of artists all staying at the same venue. Don't think I have ever laughed as much! 

Some of the highlights for me were three of our equine models roaming loose around the pretty orchard we were painting in most days (while the fourth was held still for us), painting the amazing scenery on top of Porlock Hill, wine and conversation flowing in the evenings, and a fantastic bonfire on the beach next to the local pub on the final night. The weather was glorious every single day (soooo lucky!!) and the food (all included in the price of the workshop) was absolutely delicious!

I think I produced about 14 paintings over 5 days. None were as good as I'd like them to be of course, some were complete disasters, but I'm proud of how my life painting has developed over the last couple of years and I learnt a great deal painting every single one of the 14. I'm especially grateful to Malcolm Coward who has been so generous with his time and knowledge since I started focusing on this sort of work. 

If anyone is thinking of going next year then my advice would be to get in quick because the vast majority (if not all!) of those who were there this time were desperate to put their names down for 2014 before they even left Exmoor! Can't thank the organisers Jim and Jean Power enough, the week was a roaring success, thanks to their very hard work.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! 

Painting with fellow artist and friend Hannah Merson on Porlock Hill.

Sketching

Painting in the orchard using my new Soltek easel- which I LOVE! 

Roll on next year....

Zebras from life!

Had a great day today visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park with the Association of Animal Artists.

Painting from life is something that I am becoming increasingly interested in and dedicated to (had a wonderful time at a 2 day workshop with Malcolm Coward just last weekend, and of course there is my Beswick project!) so I decided that I would definitely have a bash at painting some kind of animal at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. I am not very good at it (yet!) but I get a real buzz out of it, and my studio work really benefits from the skills I develop via my life work, regardless of how bad the life paintings are!

Arrived this morning, met up with fellow artists, and then left our children with my husband Brian while I carted my easel about looking for a subject. Now, what I really fancied painting was a zebra (no surprises there!) but given how hard it is to paint horses from life even when you have someone to hold them and shift them back into place, I decided painting zebra loose in a giant paddock would be impossible. I decided maybe some kind of sleeping lion or such thing might be do-able?

Have to admit I felt a bit nervous wandering round choosing my subject- lots of people visiting the park who might potentially walk by and see me paint waaaayyyy out of my comfort zone- eek! Plenty of sleeping lions to be found, none close enough to paint though. There were some sleeping goats that probably would have sat long enough to be painted but it felt a bit of a cop out to come all that way to paint a goat... so I decided I might as well give the zebra a bash. Why not!

Chose a spot next to one zebra and couldn't believe my luck when a couple more came over. Of course, they didn't stay still for a minute and moved all the time but having sketched the initial position of the first I was able to kind of use all three to pick out useful bits to add to the painting. They wandered off after about 15-20 mins after which I just had a VERY distant view to try and finish it off.

Obviously there is a lot wrong with it BUT I expected to come home with a few suggested lines of a loose wild animal, not a recognisable painting of one, so I am very proud of it!

Looking forward to visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park again soon, a beautiful place full of beautiful and happy looking animals. Great family day out.

Lots of photos taken too so brace yourselves for some zebra studio paintings coming soon!!

Beswick Horse No.7

Wasn't in the right mood for the big Friesian painting today so got back to my Beswick ornament instead! 7 down, 23 to go...