BREAKING SEA

 

Along the coast of Hong Kong again. I managed to find a place with quite rough seas after a storm had passed so painted this scene trying to contrast the waves and lighter foam against the dark of the rocks. I kept the foreground open as a way of drawing your eye into the painting over the waves and the motion of the sea on to the rocks in the background. I love doing smaller paintings like this as I feel that I can capture the intimacy of a scene more easily. Size is 8 x 10 inches, oil on board.

LATCH

 

 

While visiting a farm some time ago, I began working on a painting of the south side of a small barn. Attached to the barn was a tool shed and I noticed how the weak afternoon sun created an unusual shadow of the latch on the edge of the half-opened door. Deciding to try and capture this, I did a few small sketches first then painted this one using acrylic which I felt would be suited to the subject. Size is 10 x 8 inches.

OSPREY PORTRAIT

 

I recently completed this Osprey study - something that I have been working on for some time. I haven't had really close-up views of ospreys in the wild, most of my views have been through a telescope which at least allowed me to do a few studies. This is the main reason the painting took so long, anyway, it's done now and I can finally move on to the next painting.

This pencil study is one of a few I did in preparation for the actual painting and I worked quite hard to get it looking the way I wanted. Once completed, I transferred this image to watercolor paper then used this and other reference for the final work. The watercolour is sized at 12 x 9 inches, the drawing at 7 x 5 inches.

CLEARING SKIES

 

During one of our trips to the Netherlands some time ago, we visited Amsterdamse Bos which is a large park-like area outside Amsterdam. There was a multitude of things to paint but I settled on this scene of tall trees in early spring, trying to capture the different shades of green under a clearing sky after some morning showers. A glimpse of distant water appears on the right and the nearby fields were full of geese and birdsong - truly wonderful! Size of this painting is 9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas.

BARN OWL

 

The other day, I came across images of this Barn Owl painting that I did quite some years ago now. For some reason I had almost forgot about it although seeing the painting again, I do remember working on it and the struggles I had, but I don't think that I have posted any pictures of this one. This is a slightly more cropped view, I think the actual painting shows more of the textured whitewash wall surrounding the old window. I do remember being happy that I had captured the owl in the way that I wanted to and that the painting brought back memories of my youth looking for owls not only on my grandfathers' farm but also any other barns that I came across. One evening my brothers and I attempted to stay a night in an old barn but the eerie screetch of a Barn Owl calling close by in the pitch dark sent up quickly scurrying back home! This acrylic on canvas is about 20 x 16 inches.

FRENCH BAKERY

 

Living on the edge of the harbor as we did, one of our morning rituals was going out in the morning for coffee. We would walk over to the downtown district and often frequent this French bakery, not just for coffee but also for their delicious baked goods. Here the early morning light cast a deep shadow over the facade so that the interior was dark and mysterious. Would they still have some of our favorite desserts? Size of this painting is 10 x 8 inches, oil on canvas.

ICELANDIC WATERFALL

 

Iceland has many waterfalls, some extremely impressive. This is one is less so but still, I enjoyed watching the heavy stream of water flowing around and over the submerged rocks creating a foamy pool just below me. Started from a quick sketch I did on site, later when I got back to my room, I would paint from these sketches perhaps also using some video that I took. When I got back home to the studio, I was able to go through the series of paintings I did there touching up as necessary but without doing too much to change each one. This painting is in oil and done on canvas - size is 8 x 10 inches.