Happy Painting with Colour!

I've been working on the second, of what may turn out to be a series of paintings about where I live.  'The Barn' is a social club down the valley road in Marlow Bottom.  You're always sure of a welcome there, and during the Covid lockdown, Shelley Robson and her team have been feeding vulnerable members of the community each Sunday.  Lots of wonderful inspiration for a painting.  Now summer is here, outside the Barn hanging baskets and planters are overflowing with gorgeous begonias, which I just had to include of course.

Please contact me for price and further information if you'd like to purchase the original painting.  Limited edition prints will shortly be available to buy via my website www.beeskelton.com

Here's an impression of how a print could look framed:

My commission order book is currently open for a limited period.  You're welcome to contact me if you'd like me to discuss a painting personalised for you.

View from my window

A damp day and very misty earlier.  I'm loving the soft cool colours of the views through my kitchen window.  The sheep are lying down on the saturated grass.  Hardy creatures and so fortunate to have their thick heavy wool coats.  Nature got it just right as always.

You can email me for information about anything you see.  A small collection of work can also sometimes be seen in my Etsy shop. 

New studio and new art in England

I've now been back in England for a few months and feeling very at home deep in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside!  My studio is small but fully functioning and more than adequate.

Moving from the hot dry features of the eastern Mediterannean island of Cyprus with it's lively Greek culture, to the cooler, greener landscape of Britain I expected my art would begin to develop along fresh lines.  Portrait work is a constant love yet I'm looking forward to experimenting with other ideas.

Beginning my first winter back home I have been fascinated by the beautiful countryside surrounding our new home and itching to get it down in paint.  But what I wasn't ready for is a sudden interest I've developed in the art of children.  I've loved painting them for years, but now I find myself looking at the artwork children themselves produce.  I'm not the first of course to notice what natural artists children are.  Pablo Picasso famously said;

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html#bSczOfAQgmKTviU2.99

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html#bSczOfAQgmKTviU2.99

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pablo_picasso.html#1jm7MdMhtCfKDO2Q.99'A

 'All children are artists.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up'.

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html#bSczOfAQgmKTviU2.99

and

'It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child'.

I know what he meant.  Influences of art school and working towards fine art degrees etc can often mess with what perhaps sometimes should be left alone to develop naturally.  Some outsider art produced by self-taught adult artists can be so fabulously exciting!

I'm feeling my way with my 'other' work (that not connected with portraiture) and with my new start back home in England, now is as good a time as any to play around with ideas.  One of which is to study the artwork of children by making a series of drawings.  I would like them to be all the same size, 6 inches square and I shall make them in tone only.  I have absolutely no idea how, or if, this will develop.  To start I've taken a couple of photos of drawings by my grandsons and hope to acquire more.  Here is my first attempt at making a drawing inspired by the work of a child.  A drawing of a drawing becomes something entirely different.  I hope to learn something from this.

Homage to Max 1

You can email me for information about anything you see.  A small collection of work can also sometimes be seen in my Etsy shop.

England ... artist in residence again .... soon!

I'm very excited to announce that my studio is on the move!  Not only that, but the contents of our house, the managerie of pets, art, crafts and not least, my husband; the whole kit and kaboodle will soon be on their way back to England!

We've been on the island of Cyprus for the last 12 fascinating years and the time is now right to return home.  It will be the beginning of a new adventure.  Life and art will change.  I hope you'll stick with me to see what happens next.  It'll be a surprise for both of us

!

Painted emotions & atmosphere.

When our boys were small we often spent our summer holiday at Mousehole in Cornwall.  History is repeating itself, now one of our son's has taken his family back there again.  


After a very busy day, the boys made one last sandcastle before bedtime, on the little harbour beach just as the sun was setting.  I was emailed a photo and lapped up the happy memory.  The painterly possibilities seemed good too, as I'm currently studying expressionism and atmosphere.

I've tried to show that time of day when the light is just going, and colours and space begin to merge.  The appearance of the figures is non-specific, as is their activity.

 This painting is about remembered emotions:
Out one day, when one of my boys was tiny, I bought him a helium-filled balloon.  He was in-love with this balloon and held on to the string all the way through town and back home on the bus.  For safety's sake I offered to tie it to his wrist, but he was quite sure he would hold on tight.  OK you've guessed.  We got all the way back to the gate of our house ..... and the string slipped through his fingers.  He was so upset ... and so was I.  Strange the things you remember.

Sketch book Expressions 2

I can't be sure, but I believe my earliest memory was when I was two years old walking across the street from my Grandmother's house in the snow, to the house in which my parents and I were to begin living.  My mother is holding my hand, but being as stubborn then as I am now, I insisted on walking unaided and promptly fell flat on my face in the snow.

I can see things I remember. My father's trilby hat, an essential fashion item in the hat-making town where I grew up. His sport coat has a dotty texture; I remember it was made from rough tweed, which felt scratchy. He is strongly drawn, whereas my mother is hardly there at this time apart from her paisley headscarf. The small figure, is shrugging away Dad's protective hand. The open door (it was green) of our new house, with it's bright interior and windows is welcoming; in contrast the neighbour's door is smaller and darker, as is the interior. My father grew to dislike the neighbour. He was a sensitive man.   

 Our Last Conversation

Trying out my new solar oven.

Yesterday a friend and I visited an art and craft market in Limassol Old Town, expecting to come away with perhaps a piece of cool arty jewellery.  Instead we both updated our green credentials and bought solar ovens.  

I just couldn't wait to try mine out.  So this morning I popped some chicken fillet, garlic, green peppers, tomato, onions and mushrooms in one pot.  And some potato to bake in another.  I placed it in the oven following the instructions and then pretty much forgot about it, whilst I did some work and watched the F1 Grand Prix on the tv.  

When we were ready to eat I threw a salad together and went outside to see if we had a meal fit to eat.  It was pretty much an experiment as I haven't used a solar oven before.  So I was really excited to find we had a really yummy meal for two;  even my husband was impressed!  And all cooked by the sun!  Can't wait to try something else ... maybe some bread next time.

If this inspires you to find out more, just Google 'solar oven' or 'solar cooker', there's masses of information and recipes on the internet.  Good luck!

Update:  Since posting the above a few days ago, people are asking where I obtained my solar oven.  So here's a link to Re-newcy the very nice people who supplied it.

Oil painting - Artist and Model.

Artist and Model

oil painting 14 x 22 inches

I began this painting by making a quick compositional sketch looking at myself and my model through a large mirror.  Knowing my model has limited time available to pose, I also made tone and colour notes and tried to get as far as a could with the painting using just those alone as reference.  I used direct observation to paint myself by looking through the mirror.  Eventually I grabbed my model long enough to take a photo of him in position, and then completed the painting using that, taking care to combine the two figures harmoniously, whilst demonstrating that one figure is in the foreground and one at some distance.  It was an interesting challenge, as you might suspect from my anxious squinty expression on my face LOL!

 

Home and Garden painting

Today an oil painting featuring our garden.  The leaves of the palm make a clattering sound as the breeze moves them.  I tried to give an impression of the movement.

Painting and photo sketches #113

#113

I'm beginning a series working in different ways with photographs.  Firstly in my sketchbook working directly into the photo image with acrylic paint to redefine the composition, colour and tones.

 

 There's a story attached to the original photograph, which concerns a visit my son made to the shop with our grandson, who got bored and decided to join the window display. His pose earned him a round of applause from a grinning street audience. Fortunately his father allowed an encore especially for the camera... which I'm now having more fun with in my sketchbook. 

Brothers and Best Friends - portrait painting - work in progress 1

I've been wanting to make this painting for months, but there never seemed enough time available to work it from start to finish.  So I've decided to do it over a period of time, in between other projects.  It could well take some considerable time, but it will be worth it in the end.  In the meantime, I shall post 'work in progress' images on the blog as it moves along.

These adorable little boys are our grandsons, so you can imagine how much this painting matters.

Alice in Wonderland - Art Workshop

You may remember a few weeks ago, a friend and I had a ripping time making collage! Yesterday, I managed to push enough of the studio-mess towards the walls, to squeeze 2 of us in for another workshop. A different friend this time, who has never in her life considered making art. I don't think she really believed me when I promised she'd be making art to be proud of.

She is a mathematician/physicist and, she won't mind me telling you that her only memory of art classes at school, was when she was required to draw a chair. As she was only able to actually see 3 chair legs from her viewpoint, her logical mind got totally banjaxed, was unable to deal with the invisible other leg, and that was that.

I could have explained that Picasso would have understood her dilemma, and if we hadn't had other stuff planned, we could've Googled some of his paintings to demonstrate how he dealt with showing things from all angles, all at the same time. Instead we helped ourselves to some seriously colourful self-expression of our own, with acrylic paint, paper ephemera, gloss acrylic medium, heat transfer printing and handmade papers.

We had such a good time. It was so brilliant to see my friend's excitement when she realised she'd created something really stunning! Next week she's off to the framers.

'Alice in Wonderland' is one of my original whimsical folkart collage paintings inspired by the book / film. She's a character with a funny little face, who started life as a sketchbook drawing, and was then applied to a collage background, where she stands very prim and proper.

Life got serious

Just a brief word to explain why I haven't been around for a few days. My beloved has been through a scary time in ICU. All is looking good now and he is home and in good spirits. Our thanks to Dr Femke Ellens, Dr Kazantzis and staff at the Poly Clinic in Limassol and Dr's Christou and Constantinides at the American Heart Institute in Nicosia. Thank you also to all the people who know us and have supported us with good wishes and prayers.

Sketching inside out

The sun continues to shine but it was too breezy to sketch outdoors today. Instead I set myself up infront of a window and picked a bit of view to add to the sketchbook. This is the old track that leads to the next village, Pyrgos, in the next valley. These days myself, my dogs and the goats are it's main users. And yes, that is the sea in the background. Maybe if the weather holds, I'll take my sketchbook down to the coast.

This evening when I've run out of daylight, I'll finish making some more fingerless mittens and start a scarflette in this gorgeous yarn.

Fruitful New Year

Not much artwork since I returned from England. A few drawings in my sketchbook that's all. Today I had planned to paint, but I still feel in holiday mode :) So when checking out the fruit in the garden I got sidetracked. Ho hum!

The red grapefruit are juicy and great for eating fresh and hardly need added sugar, they are so sweet! In a few weeks I shall make Lemon Curd, but today I decided to tackle a few Pomelos. Pomelos are similar to huge grapefruits. Whilst delicious, my particular ones are full of pips, and so I decided to use a few of them to make marmalade. I adapted a Seville Orange Marmalade recipe by Delia Smith and fiddled with the quantities It seems to have worked OK. It's cooling in jars just now, so will need testing at breakfast tomorrow.

Here are a couple of shots H took of the house martin family.

Two chicks hatched and finally flew the nest earlier this week. We're hoping the nest will be re-used for another hatching. But our dogs and cats we suspect are hoping NOT ... as they've been somewhat restricted of late as we tried not to disturb the babies.

Don't you just love 'em :)

It isn't just painting that makes me happy. My darling H is just one big SOFTY and I love him for it :)

Regular visitors will remember house martins began nest building at the house around the beginning of April. Wishing to lend them a hand, H built them a very posh 'mod des res' (see top left of pic), which they promptly ignored and continued with their own adjacent. We think they are first time builders, as it's a bit minimal ... more a like a verandah than a house.

Nevertheless, two lively chicks are now keeping mum and dad on the go all day, stuffing food down their necks. As a result they are growing rapidly and looking ever more vulnerable in the tiny nest.

H is so concerned that he has cobbled a 'safety net' just in case they fall out. My car with sunbed matresses taped to the roof ... not pretty but hopefully functional :)

MORPHING

It was H who first noticed, what appeared to be a caterpillar crawling out of a piece of twig on the terrace. On closer inspection we realised that his intention was not to leave his 'tree house' but to creep along the tiles taking it with him. We got to wondering whether we were witnessing one of natures miracles and that in fact this tiny creature was in the process of creating some kind of elaborate chrysalis. A few hours later the little chap had crept approximately 10metres and then had the energy to crawl up the side of a brick where he is now firmly attached.

We would dearly love to see him complete the metamorphsis and appear as the butterfly/moth he's intending to become. It would be too much of a fluke to expect to be around at the magic moment ... but who knows. If anyone reading this knows how long the process is likely to take ... I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Happy New Year!

First day of 2008 with lots to look forward to! Heaps of painterly ideas and fun plans to work through. Starting tomorrow though ..... as the English bug I brought home with me is temporarily dulling my normal New Year enthusiasm :-)

We sorted out an old mechanical alarm clock this morning for our friends to send to their son serving in Afghanistan. They've searched the shops without success for what, apparently, is a much prized piece of kit out there. It would be good to hope he and his friends are back home before the clock next reads 12 midnight 31st December.

Studio BoBo

The weather here in Cyprus has cooled a bit over the last week. Bobo has decided winter has arrived and seems set on taking over the studio. He's found a cosy spot in one of the storage drawers.

We found Bobo (Beau is his posh name) along with his sister Bella in a plastic supermarket bag by the roadside 3 years ago. They were tiny scraps and both fitted on the palm of my hand at the time. Severely mal-nourished and with eye infections, we fed them with hyperdermic syringes and the vet did his best to help us save their eyes. Sadly Bobo lost the sight in his left eye but is otherwise just fine now. Don't feel too sorry for him .... he can spot and pounce on a lizard quicker than any cat I've ever seen.