meldrum art
I am relatively happy with this painting. Not technically, no, more that I was able to find something beautiful when there was no real beauty available. I try to be better at finding interesting compositions wherever I am. One just has to look around where one is standing, and if you have patience something beautiful will appear to you. Most of the time! 😉
I recently returned from a week in Poland, I was invited to Kuligów outside of Warsaw to painting outdoors with Polish, Ukrainian and Latvian artists. There was even an artist from Belarus and Hungry. It was a lovely experience. Not many spoke English, but we all shared the language of art. I took the train from Stockholm to Warsaw, return. That was an interesting adventure also.
Here are a few sketches that weren’t completed while I was in France. I finished them later in the studio. I always enjoy myself in Paimpol and Ploubazlanec. Nice memories as usual.
This is the last watercolour I will show from my trip to France. The house belongs to my mother-in-law. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place, as you can see. A young man lives in the van, he’s been there for four years. It’s the way it is. I look forward to visiting again next year.
I mentioned in my last post that I liked it best when the tide was out. Looking through my watercolours from the trip to Brittany it’s clear that it is so. These were painted just outside of Paimpol harbour. Lots of abandoned boats to try and capture. I had a lot of fun that day.
I just love it in Brittany. So nice to go out painting everyday while visiting my mother-in-law in Ploubazlanec. The tides are pretty extreme. A ten metre difference between high and low. The view of the sea is always changing. I enjoy trying to capture the low tides best.
I returned to France after a four year break.
I love spending time in Brittany. I get on really well with my mother-in-law, and the scenery there is just fantastic.
This painting is of the view from the garden. It’s the first of many watercolours that I painted during my stay.
It’s so easy to be inspired when visiting far off places. It’s a little harder to get excited closer to home.
Yes, like I mentioned in the previous post, my wife was at a conference in Noordwijkerhout, Holland. I tagged along for the chance to discover a new place and to find inspiration to paint a watercolour.
I left the hotel after breakfast with my easel and painting gear. It was day two, what should I paint? I wandered around for a while and then decided to make it easy for myself. There were only flat fields, as far as an artist could see. It was a hot, sunny day, so when I found shade, it decided the view of the tulip fields.
While painting, a local carefully asked, why was I painting the field? It was empty after all, the tulips had been harvested two weeks before. She smiled, mounted her bike and cycled away. I had no choice did I! I had missed the harvest and was in the middle of nowhere. I probably made the fields redder than they really were, because of that little encounter with the lady on the bicycle.
I have just returned from a two week holiday. Sylvie, my wife was attending a conference in Holland and I just hung along for the ride. Later, we took the train to Paris and then visited her mother in Brittany, France.
I didn’t look at the exact location of my wife’s conference on the map. It was in a place called Noordwijkerhout. A farming region, flat as a pancake, south of Amsterdam. Small towns dotted around but mostly just farmland. No windmills. What could I paint? A field? A field that once had tulips? And, they had been harvested weeks earlier …
It’s fascinating how, when one stares long enough at a seemingly mundane landscape, one can find beauty. I did my best to capture it. I had walked around for hours with my easel. It was late evening when I settled for this scene.
