Seasons Greetings

Wishing you all 

A Very Merry Christmas

and A Happy New Year!

Mousehole

Mousehole, Cornwall

 In the first week of June this year I was leading a landscape painting holiday from St. Ives in Cornwall for HF Holidays. The guests and I went painting to three locations other than in St. Ives, we went to Porthcurnow which is a beautiful little bay just below the world famous Minack Theatre, We also visited Marazion and painted St. Michaels Mount and we spent a great day painting in the little fishing village of Mousehole, pronounced Mowzal. The locals were very friendly and the weather was reasonably considerate and though I didn't actually get to paint myself I did do a little sketching, took lots of photographs for reference material and created this oil painting in the studio some time after I got home. Also, later in the comfort of my studio I painted this picture of Porthcurnow featured below. Cornwall is a beautiful County and having visited St. Ives for the first time one can understand the historical attraction for artists, there is a definite quality of light even on a misty day which screams 'paint me'!

Porthcurnow

Award Winning Pastel Painting

One competition two awards, I was awarded 4th place for my pastel painting 'Early Morning Mist' from a total of 734 entries and a certificate of special recognition for my oil painting                             'Low Tide, Staithes' in the annual 'Open' competition run by the 'Light, Space and Time' Online Gallery.

'Early Morning Mist'

'Low Tide, Staithes'

Official Charity Book Launch

The details on the above poster are a little of the story, please come along on Saturday morning and help us raise some money for this most worthy of causes, it would be great to see you there!. 

Porthcurnow, Cornwall

Porthcurnow, Cornwall

This is a painting resulting from a painting holiday that I recently lead for HF Holidays at their house in St. Ives. We went to Porthcurnow beach which is just below the famous Minack Theatre. When we arrived the weather was rough with light rain and a heavy sea but as often happens when the tide turns the weather changed and gradually the day brightened and the sea calmed; The rollers became less violent and this is the painting that resulted from my sketch and photographs, a memorable day for me and hopefully for the guests too!

Please Vote For My Painting

If you think it worthy perhaps you could click on this link and vote for my painting that made it to the final in the Patchings (The Artist exhibition category). They are now looking for the peoples choice
https://www.patchingsartcentre.co.uk/…/TALP_Ex…/gallery.php…

This is the one...

Many thanks folks!

Low Tide at Staithes

Here is my latest oil painting it is 30 x 90 cm on stretched cotton canvas... I'll blog a little more about it later.

Drawings From France

Drawings created on my last trip to the Aquitaine

Why not join me in this wonderful part of France on one of my two holidays in September?

E-mail me for details; hello@murrayince.com

My Latest Completed Paintings

Brook Cottages brought to a conclusion with the addition of a fairly simple foreground.

Milford Sound, a commissioned painting, I particularly like the clouds over the mountain sides.

The completed painting of Newtown Creek.

New Project

Winter Scene, Calbourne Stage I

Having drawn the very basic shapes of the trees and landscape I then gave the canvas an acrylic wash of Raw Sienna sealing the graphite down, killing the white of the canvas and making tonal value and colour choice much easier.

Brook Coastguard Cottages

Brook Coastguard Cottages Stage III

Trees, cottages, telegraph poles and rough verge of the field have been painted in. I like the way the telegraph poles show that the lane outside of the cottages runs around the bend into the distance but you can't see where it leads to. Stage IV will be the painting of the field in the foreground which as you can see takes up approximately 1/3 of the picture plane, the interest is the sky and cottages so the foreground will be kept relatively simple.

Newtown Creek

Newtown Creek

I have just finished this painting of Newtown Creek which is as a partner to the earlier Newtown Bird Hide painting (can be seen here), this too is an acrylic at 60 x 20 centimeters.

Stage XI

Stage XI

Here we have the addition of the last few sailing dinghies and the reflected hulls. The next and possibly final stage will be the painting of the mooring buoys, masts and rigging and some more movement lines in the water, Watch this space...

Brook Coastguard Cottages

Here is a new painting that I am working on along with a few others. It is the row of coastguard cottages at Brook as seen from the Military Road, here I have put in the sky in Artisan water-mixable oils after the initial drawing and dull pink acrylic wash was applied. Next stage will be the trees and then the cottages themselves before putting in the foreground.

Yar Stage X

Yar Stage X

Here more boats have been added with the first of the work on the reflections. When the final few boats have been painted in the front of the line of moorings then  the masts and their reflections can be added to the whole, it is important to paint the object before painting the reflection as it needs to be in the right place and to be able to observe the fact that light colours reflect darker and dark colours reflect lighter!

Yar Stage IX

Stage IX

Here I have added the two boats on the right in shades of Prussian Blue, Payne's Gray, Zinc White (mixing) and Titanium White for the brighter highlights. Next is the final detailing on the right i.e masts and a couple more posts and then it is on to the row of sailing dinghies through the centre.

Bird Hide, Newtown Creek

Bird Hide Newtown Creek

This is the completed painting that started life as an acrylic demonstration for George and the lovely Carisbrooke Priory Art Group last Monday. It just required a few finishing touches and the foreground completing which I settled down and did yesterday evening. Acrylics are a very forgiving and versatile medium and work well for quick, sketchy styles such as this, why not have a go?

Completed Demonstration Painting

View Toward Villefranche de Longchat

This is the completed oil painting that started life as a demonstration back in December which I have finally got around to putting the finishing touches on. It is what is commonly known as an L shaped composition for obvious reasons. I have  tried to convey the heat of the day and the view toward the distant Villefranche, this is just up the road from the Manoir de Gurson from where I run my French painting holidays.

Newtown Bird Hide

Newtown Bird Hide

This is the stage that I had reached at the end of a demonstration in acrylics at the lovely Priory Art Group at Carisbrooke Priory yesterday morning. I have posted it here as it is as yet unfinished and will post a photograph of the finished painting for comparison at some point in the very near future.

River Yar Stage VIII

Stage VIII

There doesn't appear to be much progress but the work that has been added is quite time consuming, more boats and marina type detail with mooring posts and even a couple of masts. Next are the larger boats on the right and the row leading into the scene.

River Yar Stage VII

Stage VII

More boats and suggested detail has been added with  some reflections, special note should be made of the fact that light colours reflect slightly darker in the water and dark colour will reflect slightly lighter; Don't believe me?  Have a look next time you are there or anywhere that you see reflections in water, the degree of difference will depend on the clarity of the water, the murkier the water the more marked the difference can appear.

Yar Painting Stage VI

Stage VI

In this stage I have started to add the river using the same combination of colours as in the sky. A little more definition was added to the edge of the banks where they meet the waters edge and then a little edge of very pale blue,  was cut along the exact point where the bank meets the water, this, along with the reflections are the tricks to making water look wet (more of these at a later stage). The next bit was to start putting in the 'illusion of detail' behind the row of moored boats on the right indicating the hotch-potch of ropes, fenders, outboard motors etc. etc. associated with a marine scene such as this.

Yar Painting Stage V

In stage five I have painted the salt marshland that is between the hedge of the old railway track and the inlets from the main flow of the river Yar. You can see three distant boats in the right of the painting. The salt marsh was painted using just the following colours in varying mixes :- Cobalt Blue, Cad Yellow pale, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Alizarin Crimson and Zinc white. For those of you who walk the old railway track you will notice that just to right of centre is the bridge that if like me you stop to look at the fish and watch the birds. The next stage is to start painting in the water, watch this space...

River Yar Stage IV

Stage IV

Using various mixes of Cobalt Blue, Cad Yellow Pale, Raw Sienna and Zinc White highlights were added to the distant trees along the back edge of the wheat field. Next the barn was put in (mixes of Z. White and Raw Umber) and then the wheat field itself was painted with mixes of Z. White, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber and Alizarin Crimson. This was applied so that a certain amount of streakiness was created in the direction of the lay of the land i.e. slightly uphill from left to right. Next the hedges and small trees were put in using the same combination of colours as the distant trees only with slightly darker tonal values, this is the hedge that follows the old railway line from Yarmouth to Freshwater. The next stage is to paint in the marsh land between the hedge and the water of the Yar itself.

Stage II & III

Stage II 

An Acrylic wash of Alizarin Crimson, White and a touch of Raw Umber was applied over the initial drawing after the oil painting proper was started. A simple sky of Cobalt Blue, and Zinc (mixing) White with a touch of Raw Umber starts the sky at the top adding a little more white as I paint down the sky and in the lowest third of the sky a little Alizarin Crimson is added to warm the sky a little. The downs are painted next with various mixes of Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light (thank God the EEC didn't ban the Cadmium colours from production) Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Zinc White. All of the greens to this stage are produced using these same basic colurs. Next is some light details in those distant trees, not too much at that distance.

My Current Project

The Western Yar from Yarmouth Bridge

Stage I

This is a medium grained stretched cotton canvas with the initial drawing sketched in with a minimum of detail, in fact the drawing of the masts is for your benefit now as I will just paint over them when putting in the water but it gives you an early idea of the composition which I suppose technically is best described as an 'S' or 'Z' composition, note the line of moored yachts leading in from the foreground and then sweeping around the middle distance and I will use a few artistic tricks to lead back across the distance and into the sky from right to left. The next stage is to put an acrylic wash over the whole canvas to kill the white, seal the graphite pencil lines and make tonal value judgement easier, or at least, less deceptive, tonal value can be easily misjudged on a stark white ground (the bare, white primed canvas). It is difficult to erase errors in the drawing on a canvas texture so I shall simply paint over them; I have adjusted the height of some of the mooring posts.