paintings prints and stuff

South Stack, near Holyhead, A3 pastel plein air  This is at the framers at the moment,  in preparation for an exhibition, along with lots of other work from the week painting in Wales.  It will be going in a lime washed frame. Vivid memories of a lovely day sketching on the cliff with friends somewhere near, doing their own views - that's a steep drop down via the path and then another steep cliff edge.  One friend was working down there, another much higher up looking way down at the lighthouse (just out of sight on the right).  What did we do before we had mobile phones?  so easy to coordinate coffee breaks and moving on when we spread out and aren't near each other. I used a sheet of Sennelier sanded paper for this and the Rembrandt and Inscribe pastels I'd thrown in at the last moment.  Oh dear, I did NOT like the Sennelier paper - luckily I'd swapped a sheet with a friend as she didn't like it and I got to try it without having to buy a ...

Plein air sketch by Vivien Blackburn in Sketching 365 My friend, Katherine Tyrrell, spent time last year writing this excellent book, now published.  It's packed full of tips, advice and techniques.  Not only suitable for beginners but for those with experience wishing to try other media or develop their work. There are 55 artists - all good - to show examples of a wide range of approaches.  Several are friends and others known to me as people I admire. My plein air sketch of Sennen Cove, from the terrace of Rose Cottage, sharing a page with Felicity House  I had proof read it online but nothing is quite like holding the actual book in my hands, flipping back and forth and seeing images by friends and artists I admire. It's not one of those 'do as I do' books, producing clones,  but one that sets out to make you think of alternatives, observation, composition, materials to use, tone, marks, pattern and much more - all the kind of things I tell m...

The tip of the headland with St Ives, from Gwithian Towans, watercolour and mixed media in S&B Delta sketchbook A cloudy day, looking across the estuary. That's the tip of St Ives just showing across the bay. Done mainly in watercolour with a touch of white gouache and some Derwent tinted charcoal pencils. Sometimes not-such-good-weather is more interesting to paint.

Bosworlas farm from the valley.  Watercolour and mixed media. Just a quick post to prove that I have been working!   Life has been a bit hectic. The Cornish farmhouse where we stayed one year, on the edge of the moor, above a rushing stream that tumbles down to the sea a little further down at Porth Nanven, below, one of my favourite places.  This painting of the farm  is currently on show at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery on New Walk. Porth Nanven, the Brisons and Cot Valley Now to finish a painting I need done  urgently ......

Alnmouth beach, a rainy morning, mixed media in S&B Delta A4 sketchbook Passing showers meant that I worked sitting in the car, from a car park with great views of the sweep of the beach and the gorgeous clouds. Again mixed media, with a lot of watercolour involved.  Because it was autumn, we were travelling to the north and weather was likely to be changeable, I made a decision on this trip to leave my oils at home,  They just aren't practical if it's necessary to work in the car.  I had some non-slip matting that meant my water pot, balanced on the dashboard,  didn't land on me - useful stuff though I don't know what it's called. I absolutely loved Northumberland, beaches, castles, hills .... so much drama.

Rocks at Bamburgh, watercolour and mixed media in S&B Delta sketchbook The geology on the coast of Northumbria is fascinating with parallel ridges of rocks that look almost as though they were constructed by man and sheets of flatter rock and sand between. This one is a study of the rocks to the north near Bamburgh.  It's basically watercolour but with bits of tinted charcoal and coloured pencil in there too. Again I was enjoying catching the very different colours and mood of the north east. More to follow .............

Sunset at Sennen Cove, oil on deep sided canvas, 12 ins square I did a series of sunsets in watercolour and oil of the sunsets and it really brought out how cameras distort the colours of sunsets and aren't really at all helpful.  The silhouetted rocks and breakwater lose all colour as well. They make beautiful pictures in their own right - but they aren't the reality of the experience at all. In the photographs, there is far more red (which there wasn't in reality) and the sun is white.   In fact , the sun was blazing red and the skies were a range of softer reds and peaches and sometimes soft yellows.   So the canvasses were done quickly while the memory of the colours was still fresh.   There were vivid pale blue ripples against the darker shadows and subtle reflections of the reds in the water.  Those electric ripples were beautiful and just didn't show properly on photos.  These are 2 examples - the actual sunset look...

Rocks and sea in Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook, with Derwent Artbars and Neocolor II I decided to try some collage in the Gamma sketchbook today while the class were working - tearing up old demo sketches,   The rocks in this one started life as undergrowth and tree trunks.   Marks in trees, rivulets in wet sand and the cracks in rocks can be so similar in pattern - turn them round and the subject changes.  :>) The grass, sea, far headland and a few strokes of vegetation were added with a mix of Derwent Artbars and Neocolor II. This book has the 100lb ivory paper, which held up to the washes extremely well.   I do rather like ivory or cream paper - it has character.   How about you?

Pale, pearly morning, Derwent Artbars, Vivien Blackburn This one was an experiment with Derwent's new Artbars to produce a pale, high key image rather than the vivid colours of some  works shown earlier .   They were equally capable of catching the subtle light of an early morning when colours were pearly pale and delicate. There is a lovely range of pale colours, plus of course the deeper colours which, applied lightly and then washed, will give further variations of soft pale colour.  Some of this was done using quite wet washes, some deliberately leaving marks, some dry crayon drawn through damp washes, some fragments dropped into wet washes, some at the end used dry and left dry.  Whatever was going to make the marks I wanted. Further episodes of the series on essentials in painting and drawing to follow - I've been up to my eyes in family matters lately!

 detail from step by step Well ..... secret project is secret no more  : > ) Derwent Artbars Last summer I was asked to take part in testing Derwent's newest baby - Artbars , then in the lab under development.   They will be available in the next couple of weeks and are now on the Derwent website.   Rocks near Porthgwarra, Derwent Artbars, on A2 cartridge paper, Vivien Blackburn It was really interesting being involved in trying them out from the short-stumps-of-colour-and-varied-composition/shape etc at the beginning and following their progression.   I still have a little container of these stumps. In this one, that they commissioned after the initial testing, the only other medium used is a little white gouache for those areas where I didn't retain the white of the paper for the incoming waves.   In other places it is simply the white paper. In the one above,  I was wanting to build an intensity of col...

  Wreck, sketch with Derwent Inktense block, tinted charcoal and white oil pastel This was a play to try out some new brushes (Christmas present from himself).   So, I thought I'd continue using the Derwent materials I was given, to test mixes of these as well. I used a photo of a wreck we found when cliff walking a few years ago.   From this side it looked whole - from the other side it looked as if someone had sliced it in half, almost totally hollow.   First I laid down a few areas of colour for cliffs and boat.   Once I knew where they would be, I laid down scribbles of surf with a white Sennelier oil pastel - no other brand works as well for a resist to water media as the Sennelier, they are lush.   I used Inktense blocks , partly drawing and partly for lifting colour from, to wash further colour in the sea, the cliffs and the boat..     I then drew into the dried painting with Derwents Tinted Charcoal to add furth...

Mawgan Porth, Moonrise, coloured pencil and gouache on a deep buff paper Originally the cliff top showed more clearly against the dark clouds, paler.   It jarred, I didn't like it, so I sat down to create a lost edge - the cliff top edge barely visible against the dark cloud.  I like it better. This is another in that sketchbook with the deep buff paper - you can see it in places in this and the other images. I also added  a little white gouache to enhance the gleam on the water, moved the moon (with the flick of my hand!), added a ring around the moon and I'm happier with it now.. The clouds haven't scanned well  - they are softer with more subtleties and changes of colour than is picked up here.   I think it's finished. details:

  Clovelly Harbour, Misty Summer Day, coloured pencil and white gouache I was looking at this sketchbook with buff paper, thinking of working in it.  Instead I edited the 3 images in there.   I'd never been quite happy with them due to the whites being dull, making the whole image dull.   White pencils are very disappointing when used on coloured paper I find - I'd used 3 different brands in trying to get the whites brighter. I used a little white gouache, drybrushed where I wanted a gleam in the water, scrubbed a little into part of the wall of the house (but not all over) and used the small colour shaper tool that came in a set of Derwent tools to apply thin drawn lines of gouache for the edges of the waves. I'm much happier with it now.  This is also a better scan, bringing out the colours in the stone wall at the front and the water colour is more like the original.  Maybe it's having that white there to help it get the white balance to s...

detail of the sketch below   A quick sketch on a very windy day with Rotring pen and watersoluble ink, with a little brush pen (waterproof ink) and a touch of gouache.  I do like watersoluble ink for those lovely washes.    The Crowns, Botallack, pen and ink sketch in Canson sketchbook.  Vivien Blackburn And turning 180 degrees this was the skyline, with another ruined mine engine house in the distance. This one was done in carbon pencil.

The Crowns at Botallack, charcoal sketch, A3, Vivien Blackburn I was determined to sketch these old engine houses in charcoal on this visit - the wildness of the place, the old stone buildings - it just seems so much the right medium.   I'd like to do an A1 version of this - or if I've got a sheet of the larger Fabriano paper left, an even larger one. I do like charcoal.   It's such a painterly medium for drawing, so easily adjustable - smudging out to pale soft washes or left intense and black, drawn back into with an eraser to 'draw' lights back in, like the flowers at the front.  Endlessly pushaboutable!

Colours of Cornwall. Afternoon light Sennen Cove.  Coloured pencil in moleskine sketch book Just back from a week in Cornwall - with family, but some painting :>) This is one of a series of colour studies of the bay at different times of day, recording the changing colours.  This was the afternoon light - sunny, bringing out the intense turquoise/viridian/prussian blue in the water.  More to follow ..........

Last Light, oil on deep canvas. 12 ins square. Vivien Blackburn Not a great photo as it's shining - but one of the recent series of 12 inch canvasses. I'm deep in Christmassy stuff and hopefully will catch up with the blog this week.

Sam on the beach, evening, high tide. Watercolour, mixed media This is another illustration for Sam's book. We were on the beach as the light faded - looking to the left the sea was bleached of colour a symphony of silvers and greys but to the right it was still aquamarine and viridian. The tide was high. Sam was playing with his much loved new yellow spade, which was luminous with the light shining through. The harbour wall a silhouett against the light in the distance. Shadows were long. A perfect evening.

detail from Porth Nanven sketch, the road down, watercolour, mixed media detail of the cliff, Porth Nanven, watercolour, mixed media detail of raised beach from the ice age, smooth boulders, watercolour, mixed media Whole sketch, Porth Nanven, watercolour and mixed media, 24 x 9 inches, Vivien Blackburn This is a double page watercolour sketch of one of my favourite places - the graphite sketch of the previous post was done from slightly further down the hill, closer to the little beach. The sea was vivid greeny blues, the grass full of wild flowers, the wind was blowing, it was warm. The rounded boulders are from a raised beach from the ice age and it's illegal to remove stones as it's a site of archeological interest. The lane down is single track and steep, running alongside and above the little stream, the Cot, on it's steep, tumbling way to the sea down at the cove. Further up the hill where it is sheltered there are trees and lush growth. Here where the winds come s...

I sketched the lighthouse at Pendeen 2 days running in very different light and weather conditions. Detail of sketch of Pendeen Lighthouse in watercolour/mixed media. Vivien Blackburn This detail shows the single track lane leading along the clifftop to the lighthouse. The sea at the foot of the cliff was this beautiful colour, while out at sea areas were intensely dark. The cliffs fall steeply away, covered with wildflowers. and the whole double page, 24x9 ins .... and one done the previous day in very different light, from slightly nearer - pearly colours, with the sky and sea merging I do love our changing light :>)