Fruit & Veg Stall, Whitechapel Market

6x8" acrylic on canvas, $45. Available here

Another I forgot to upload; this is painted from a photo I took at Whitechapel Market on an unusually hot April day. The market was bustling, full of colourful stalls; most seemed to be selling fruit and veg, or scarves. I've said before I love painting markets, and this was no exception. I was happy to catch this pair mid-transaction, a bit of human interaction makes for an interesting challenge. Though I must have re-painted that white shirt a dozen times!

It was a very challenging scene to paint generally, because of the sheer amount of stuff that's everywhere; stacks of boxes, the striped canopy folding and catching the light, the hanging blue bags... And the fact you can see through the back of the stall to the other side of the street! I hope I managed to create a cohesive painting out of it all.
 

A Return to the Meadow

6x8" oil on canvas board, $45. Available here

Here's a plein air sketch I completed in late May. It was a lovely warm day, so I went to one of my favourite painting spots. I like returning to the same view each year, to see how differently I approach it this time around. I seem to be going a month earlier each time, though! The original was August 2016, and then I returned in June 2017.

I was very lucky when I arrived; there was a pleasantly shady spot on the path, and the grass was full of colour! There were big swathes of beautiful yellow buttercups catching the sun, and the little shed at the end of the meadow was cast mostly in shadow. The painting came together quite quickly, and I had a lot of fun working on it! It's interesting how it seems to combine the bolder and more confident brushwork of the August piece with the brighter colours of the June one. And how I've shifted the shed to the left this time around.

Hello Avocado

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

...I haven't tried painting you before! In fact, I'm managing quite a few painting 'firsts' lately, which is fun. I went for a much cooler colour palette here, to contrast all the reds and warm purples I've been doing lately, but I tried to keep things bright and cheerful; I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. 

Lemon and Cherries

5x7" oil on canvas board. $40, Available here

I was in the mood to do something kind of traditional to get myself back into using oils - I'd been having a bit of a block. I decided to try doing a simple still life against a dark background, and found that I loved how luminous it made the lemon look! I had fun trying to suggest the texture of the lemon's skin with careful brushmarks.

Among the Greenery

6x6" watercolour on paper. $40. Available here 

This is a little local scene. There are lots of houses tucked in among the trees and shrubs at the edges of country lanes; the white and green make for a really nice contrast. I love painting architecture like this in watercolour- and I had fun with all of the leafiness too!

Piglet

6x8" oil on canvas board. $45. Available here

Just up the road from our house is a farm. A while back, I went along to do some sketches of the animals for a college project. I took some photos as well, and this is painted from my favourite one; the piglets were absolutely adorable! Noisy, but cute. This was a really enjoyable painting to do, quite a change of subject matter for me, I learned a lot. Maybe I'll go along again this spring and take some more photos to paint from in future!

Hornsey Road, North London

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

Another London scene- I'm really enjoying painting the city at the moment! This one's of Hornsey Road in North London, just around the corner from the Emirates Stadium. I really enjoyed this colourful little scene- those shutters took ages to get right, but they were worth the struggle!

Late Autumn Leaves 2

6x6" acrylic on canvas board, $40. Available here

Quieter residential streets are building up a good collection of autumn leaves for scuffling through! This one had a particularly thick covering and I had to do a little painting to celebrate it before they all get blown away...

Late Autumn Leaves I

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

I'm determined to capture the Autumn colours before they fade! Here's a little view from the town centre, where the pavements are still lined by piles of gold and orange leaves...

Last Autumn Leaves

6x8" oil on canvas board. On sale, $25! Available here

Well, perhaps not the very last, but with the winds we're getting lately, they won't last much longer! I painted this one on location, and VERY fast, as I was sure it was going to start raining while I worked... luckily it stayed dry. I'm going to have to start carrying my fingerless gloves again though... my hands got pretty cold!

Golden Sunset

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $22! Available here

A sunset study for the weekly challenge- this is one of the trickier ones I've had to do, capturing the soft pinks and yellows proved much more complex than I expected! I usually do more dramatic, contrast-y sunsets and this was very gentle in comparison.

Gourd Gang

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $22! Available here

I'm having a much better time painting gourds than I did last year! The variety of colours, shapes and textures had me quite overwhelmed last time, but this year I'm feeling more confident. Here's a painting of a few of my favourites, posing nicely.

Autumn in High-Key

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

Following on from the last painting I posted, here's the high-key study! I really struggled with the leaves while painting this, they seemed to be changing position. I realised as I was deconstructing the arrangement they'd been curling up as I painted... no wonder I was confused!

Autumn in Low-Key

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

After reading a new book on painting, I decided that I need to dedicate some time to studying tonal keys. I tend to paint tone exactly as I see it, and have never really 'taken control' of it; learning to tweak values to create a particular mood will really help me to progress to a new level.

I decided to do two studies of an arrangement, one low key and the other high, to see if I understood the concept properly. Here's the low key, with dominant darks. I love the dramatic feeling this has, the way that the light shines off the leaves, and the dark background accentuating the rich, saturated colour.

The Phone Box

6x8" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $25! Available here

A little study of Highgate, based on a photo I took there recently. I really liked the lighting! And I quite enjoy painting phone boxes; it must be the bright colour and the interesting patterns of light and dark seen through the windows. The parked cars were the biggest challenge here; figuring out how to simplify the reflections of trees in their windscreens took me ages.

Feeling Crabby?

5x7" acrylic on canvas. On Sale, $22! Available here

Here's a fun little painting! We bought this whole Cromer crab for dinner one night, and I snapped a bunch of photos before we ate it. The shapes and colours are fascinating- in fact, I kept the shell to sketch from. I wanted to try and give this guy a little personality and I hope I've succeeded!

Golden Autumn

6x8" acrylic on canvas board. $45 Available here

It's almost October and the trees are starting to turn golden! I can't wait to get out and paint them. It's my favourite time of year for plein air...

Surrounded Glass

8x10" acrylic on canvas. $80 Available here

I did this piece for an exhibition back in spring, and promptly forgot to upload it to my DPW gallery once the show finished. Well, here you are! Featuring orange slices and glass, two of my favourite still-life subjects. I really enjoyed pushing the contrast of vibrant colours and dark background here.

Watching Over The Garden

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here 

 My uncle's garden is pretty amazing- full of statues and carvings he's created over the years, watching you from unexpected places. I couldn't resist taking some photos of a few spots and painting them. I really love the way the pale shells in the flowerbed are catching the light here!

Market Day, Cambridge

5x7" acrylic on watercolour paper- currently NFS.
View it in more detail on Daily Paintworks! 

For the weekly challenge, the theme of "people in motion." I have been trying to be more adventurous and do more figurative work lately, so this was a well-timed one! I had a few ideas I wanted to try painting, and hopefully I'll have time to work through them all. This is from the market in Cambridge, which was quite busy; funny enough, the hardest part was figuring out how to handle the background rather than the people!

(Aaaand Blogger is not loading the "add image" interface, so you'll have to click the link above to see the painting! *sigh* I'll add it in another day when the computer feels like cooperating...)