Frederic Lord Leighton Capri Paintings

I was in the Ashmolean in Oxford yesterday and I stumbled upon these absolute gems!

These are associated but not confirmed as a series of first oil sketches painted by Frederic Lord Leighton during an early summer 5 week stay on the Island of Capri in 1859. He was influenced by his friend Giovanni Costa.

The above painting and detail is my favourite, it stopped me dead in my tracks as I was trying to find a route back to the Egyptian and Nubian department. Going by size and style I'd like to think these are plein air paintings, according to the museum they were studies not intended to be seen by the public.

I hope to find out more on Leighton's Capri sketches.

Have Some Fun!

It's important to have some fun with your work every now and then. I should try to follow that mantra more frequently but deadlines get in the way of sketching for fun.

HOWEVER... I took the day off yesterday and did a bit of plein air watercolour painting by a bridge in the Bowood estate at the back of my house. Perhaps painting is not the right word, more sketching with a brush in the hope that the more colour I add it will look better. Maybe I didn't succeed but it was still fun and very relaxing.

Alternatively if you want the end product to be good without having to think about it you can always copy something, I think they call it Fan Art.

As part of my rough sketches stage for my recent painting of North Parade Bridge I had to come up with a creature design for my hidden Greek Goblins. I thought to myself I need to get my monster juices flowing so after dismissing the usual options (get bitten by a super spider, expose myself to extreme super power inducing radiation and declining a drink from Dr Jekyll) I decided to do a smaller copy of a Paul Bonner creation. Needless to say copying got me in the mood for producing an original design which I was rather pleased with.

Honeymoon Sketches Pt.3

My first attempt at watercolour pencils was part success, part failure. I found it difficult to achieve the correct colours, probably due to the limited colours I had at my disposal but I did enjoy the atmospherics on the distant mountains I could suggest with varied applications of ultramarine and violet.

The view is from half way up the Verbier mountainside looking down into the town and across in the direction of the mountain of Le Catogne. While I sketched a couple of American golfers were coaching each other on the course directly below where I sat. As they jabbered on about birdies and irons a helicopter kept flying up the valley dragging recently felled trees behind it. Also there were at least two lumber-jacks complete with chainsaws in full flow during my time sat drawing. Despite appearances this was not a peaceful scene.