Joaquina, sea, the end of March, 2016

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Joaquina, sea, the end of March, 2016, oil on card 15 x 13 cm SOLD

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Joaquina- watercolour

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Joaquina,watercolour on paper, 35 x 27.5 cm

 

 

 

 

This is on a heavier Canson paper- 200 gsm. I feel that i am getting the hang of this: having a larger (almost A3) paper means I have more space for gestural effects and that I don't overwork the painting.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go up to A3 and see what happens. I hope the sun shines as that (obviously!) makes the paint dry faster and allows easier layering.

 I feel that watercolour necessitates a kind of understanding an patience with the medium that isn't required in oils, where one can make mistakes with impunity, as the paint can always be scraped off.

I'm not sure about the but at the top centre: it seems a bit messy to me.

 

 

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Bromelias, Joaquina

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Bromelias, Joaquina, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm

The flight moves more than a non-painter might imagine, the shadows shifting, different leaves, stones or twigs becoming more or less prominent as the session passes. The colours are bleached in the sun.

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Joaquina, shrubbery

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Joaquina, shrubbery, oil on card, 28 x 26 cm - available

An amazing bright day, the colours bleaching out.

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Dunes, Joaquina, July, 2020

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Dunes, Joaquina, July, 2020, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm - unavailable

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Joaquina, road

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Joaquina, road, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm

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Dunes, Joaquina, June

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Dunes, Joaquina, June 2020, oil on card, 28 x 26 cm   AVAILABLE

The light was unusually and deliciously silvery for a few hours, and the landscape took on a dreamlike quality. Wind.

I seemed to work efficiently and everything just fell into place like jigsaw puzzle pieces suddenly do  after a frustrating search for their partners.

A few hours later there was a terrible wind which left me feeling much out of sorts, appallingly alone and full of unhappiness.

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The painting was a rapid success. I suppose I carry within me the memory of different landscapes and the lessons from many paintings and at some moments these lessons yield their fruit. Or perhaps the unusual light lent a different urgency to my work and I couldn`t involve myself with psychological perambulations that sometimes slow my creative decision-making.

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Near Joaquina

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Near Joaquina, oil on card, 21 x 17 cm - unavailable

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Two paintings from Joaquina

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 Carrier featuring two paintings from Joaquina, October, 2016

 Joaquina I, October, 2016, oil on card, 13.5 x 12 cm   available

 Joaquina II, October, 2016, oil on card, 11 x 13 cm   AVAILABLE

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Joaquina- sea, October

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Joaquina, sea, October, oil on card, 11 x 12.5 cm - available

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Going to Joaquina

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Going to Joaquina, oil on card, 15.5 x 16.5 cm- unavailable

A lightly romantic picture.

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Joaquina, sea, the end of March, 2016

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 Joaquina, sea, the end of March, 2016, oil on card, 15 x 13 cm  SOLD

Joaquina, the end of March, 2016, oil on card, 15 x 17 cm

Two from Praia Joaquina- there is that high key light there, shadow-less and strange. Ensor, a hero, painted similarly near Ostend.

It's delightful to sit there and paint, and forget about daily life. It is difficult and slow here: it is difficult to achieve things and Brazilians are forever cancelling meetings or messing about with the arrangements. It is annoying to do stuff with them, 

Next week I travel to Chile.

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Joaquina, December 2015

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Joaquina, December 2015, oil on card, 17.5 x 16 cm   SOLD

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Joaquina, November

Joaquina, November, oil on card, 16 x 18 cm     SOLD

Painted plein air (as are all the pochades) overlooking Praia Joaquina, in my mind the loveliest of the beaches here.

I shall, most likely, be unable to travel far this New Year: but I shall at least try to make some sort of excusrion into anta Catarina, and Parana.

Coming from Joaquina

Coming from Joaquina, oil on card, 17.5 x 18.5 cm   AVAILABLE

Another beautiful day here. It is becoming quite hot. The community here are extremely friendly.

Joaquina: sky, sea, sands; Boudin

Joaquina: sky, sea, sands, oil on card, 12.5 x 15 cm  unavailable

It`s been a while since I had been down to the sea -at least successfully- and I`ll try to do more work there over the next few days, weather permitting.

I`ve taken the French easel out: it`s an elegant thing though rather heavy to lug around. But it allows me to work standing up, and to lay out my colours more easily, and makes me feel rather swish.

I wish I could easily see more of Boudin`s work- he is rather the master of this sort of long marine view, often presented on small, oblong canvases. I see that (bizzarely as I can`t find any connection between him and Brazil, and there aren`t any works by him in MASP) there is a square named after him in Sao Paolo: http://historiadesaopaulo.blogspot.com.br/2012/11/praca-eugene-boudin.html

Boudin is a true petit-maître: he has his province and works it well: he does not shout, he knows his limits and he has wit. Contemporary art is tiresomely full of ideas, as if ideas can be some sort of substitute for sensibility and material transformation.

 

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On the way to Joaquina

On the way to Joaquina, oil on card, 11.5 x 14 cm     -available

Another glorious sunny day.

The dunes from Joaquina

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The dunes from Joaquina, oil on card, 14.5 x 12 cm available

This is the size I shall be taking to Egypt. 

The larger sizes are only sometimes successful. The virtue of these little pochades is surely in the sense of concentration they convey. If I move up to about 18 x 16 cm, say, that feeling of concentration is diffused. The painting is neither intense and  little nor big and  free.

Joaquina, oil on card, 14 x 12 cm    SOLD

Painted from the dunes, looking down. I am not sure if I perfectly captured the way the dunes cut into the vegetation, but I'm happy with the sense of the scale of the place.

Praia Joquina: lifeguard; exhibition

Praia Joaquina: lifeguard, oil on card, 12 / 14.9 cm - available

I am thinking of having a little show consisting only of sea paintings. There are about 30 little ones in total. I wondered whether this might be monotonous, or whether the narrowness of theme could have the opposite effect, by encouraging comparisons.

I laid out the thirty paintings and they are not too bad, though I feel that it is probably better to present a smaller selection, say 12, because the eye gets weary, and showing too many things can have a cheapening effect.