Bishop's Bay, The Finished Painting

Bishop's Bay, Loch Leven

I have finished the reflections of the hills and sky, added the yachts and put their reflections in, Painted in the seaweed in the foreground and sweeping around to the Island on the right. I also painted in some darker shadows in the trees behind the yachts, tidied up the clouds and cloud shadows and then finally signed it off! It was a beautiful week in the Highlands of Scotland inspiring many a painting yet to do! It measures 20" x 16".

Bishop's Bay, Loch Leven

Bishop's |BayLoch Leven

I have Bishop's Bay on Loch Leven here to the stage where I need to paint in the yachts and then their reflections and then all of the movement lines of the water. Then I will complete the sky and sky reflections. Keep an eye open for my next post...

Predominantly Blue

Totland Pier

Here's another predominantly blue painting (Prussian Blue) The unity of this painting is created by the use of the colours in the sky echoed in the foreground and a simple composition. I am going to paint a similar scene to this again as a square format canvas, increasing the space between the left hand edge and the canvas and the end of the pier putting the light about a third of the way in from the right and up from the bottom more closely observing 'the rule of thirds'.

Latest Isle of Wight Landscape

Newtown, February

The attraction of this scene for me was definitely the reflected sky. The extraordinarily high tide cut off the footpath from the bridge to the Town hall (on the right) and created the little island tufts of grass. The thing to note here from a painters point of view is the fact that light colours reflect darker and dark colours/objects reflect lighter, a valuable tip for painting water and making it look wet! I like the unusual amount of blue in this landscape.

Painting in The Western Highlands

Bishop's Bay, Loch Leven

I very recently returned from leading a landscape painting holiday in water-mixable oils with some lovely guests at Alltschellach, on the edge of Bishop's Bay, a lovely spot on Loch Leven. The lawns of the house sweep down to the bay pictured above, inspiring scenery which I intend to do a studio painting of in the coming weeks. I did a little sketching and took many photographs whilst  helping and encouraging the guests with their paintings. My next painting holiday lead for HF is at Church Stretton in July to which I am looking forward to.


Below is my most recently finished painting which is of Waterhead on Windermere, like the photograph above I very much like the reflections which are a joy to paint.

Waterhead on Windermere

2016 Successes

Toward Bourton on the Water

I am very proud to tell you that the oil painting above is 16 x 12 inces on a stretched canvas and was painted earlier this year, has won the Light, Space and Time Gallery Landscape painting of the year 2016 it was selected from a total of 738 paintings from 28 Countries. My second success for the year so far is that the painting below 'Ox-Eye Daisies' will be featured on the front cover of the SAA's  'Paint' magazine in May which includes a two page interview. I wonder what the rest of the year might bring?  I love my job, in May I'm off to France running a painting holiday in the Dordogne come back for a week then it's off to Glencoe leading a Landscape painting holiday for HF Holidays. No peace for the wicked!

Ox-Eye Daisies

Come and Draw and Paint With Me in The Glorious Aquitaine

View Toward Villefranche de Longchat

Are you interested in coming to a glorious region of France to spend a week                                                                               drawing and painting with me? We are offering a substantial discount on the                                                                               holiday to fill the few remaining places. I have been to Le Manoir many times                                                                         now and know the area and the destinations for our fantastic excursions                                                                                 intimately, this means I can show you those tucked away subjects that are                                                                                   terrific to draw and paint as well as great places to get a coffee and a bite to                                                                               eat. On the subject of eating, the holiday includes all evening meals and                                                                                     breakfasts and four of our lunches, the other three lunches are on our                                                                                       excursions where we can discover the delights of eating out in France and                                                                           where I do this regularly I know some great places for lunch to suit all                                                                                           budgets.

Airport transfers from Bergerac are included as are the excursions. For more                                                                               information about the holiday check out the web site, here is a link...

Holidays Dordogne France

		Holidays Dordogne France Holiday Dordogne France
		View on manoirdegurson.wix.com	Preview by Yahoo

The offer..

Normal price for painters £700 - Special offer price £625

Normal price non painting partners/friends £500 special offer price £450

We have to arrange and pay for our own flights but this is very reasonable                                                                                   and dead easy as flights are direct from Southampton airport!

I really hope that some of you will join me to paint and experience this                                                                             beautiful, historic region of France and enjoy the wonderful hospitality of our                                                                         hosts,Charmaine and her family at Le Manoir De Gurson.

The flights from Southampton airport is direct to Bergerac leaving on the                                                                                     14th May at 10.55 flight number BE3643 and flying back on 21st May at                                                                                   14.10 Flybe flight number BE3644 at a return cost of around £225

Be sure to Quote special offer code MAY14 when booking with Charmaine                                                                                 at Le Manoir.

Very Best Wishes,

                              Murray

 

Final Stage

Ox-Eye Daisies Final Stage

The final stage was to strengthen some of the shadows on the petals, brighten some of the leaves, place a few yellow centres in the distant flowers and the final touch was to add the Ladybird on the closest of the blooms which I carefully placed approximately a third of the way in from the right and about a third of the way up from the bottom making it a strategically placed focal point. As you see, not just thrown together!

Ox-Eye Daisies Second Session

Ox-Eye Daisies II

The background has been worked up with the suggestion of more distant vague foliage, leaves, blooms and stems using the same basic colours for all of the mixes; Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Zinc White and Payne's Gray. Next I deepened the shadows on some of the petals and put in the shadows cast by the centres (Stamens) of the flowers onto the petals in mixes of Cobalt Blue, Alizarin, white and a touch of Payne's Gray. The next stage will bring the whole to a finish

Ox-Eye Daisies in Water-Mixable Oils

Ox-Eye Daisies

I started this painting by coating a 12" x 10" stretched cotton canvas with a mixed, scumbled base of Payne's Gray and Prussian Blue Acrylic and then in oils using a soft round brush I stippled the background with various shades of green mixed from Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Yellow Pale ranging from very dark blue shades and lighter, greener shades of the green mixes. You can see the under-painting in the top right hand corner showing the dark blue-gray base. Over the background I establish the basic flower forms and though the petals may look white at this point they are actually painted in a pale lavender grey colour mixed using Zinc White, Cobalt Blue, Alizarin Crimson with a touch of Raw Umber. You will see the difference when I put the white highlights on the petals and strengthen some of the shadow colours. Finally I painted the centres in a mix of Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre and Raw Umber.