It was so busy at times that people were unable to get into our marquee and had to wait until some people left. Terry was painting lovely landscape views throughout the day whilst I painted a single painting, it was quite a complex harbour view of a yacht and lots of rigging and took 5 stages. I didn't want it to look photographic I wanted to suggest movement and so I did quite a bit of splashing and flicking colour. The figures are very important, they add some dramatic colour and tell a story.
I masked quite a large area then flooded in colours, tilted the board and shook it to get the pigment to run, ooh it was lovely watching all that wonderful colour running across the paper. It looked a bit shocking and I am sure some of the people watching thought I must have lost the plot!
Some of the colours flocculated and resulted in stunning turquoise speckles across the entire painting. I thoroughly enjoyed painting it, its a subject I really love.
 |
| Tying Off 10 x 14 inches |
What a hectic day it has been, with people coming all day which has been lovely. Thank you to everyone who visited us, especially the lovely group from Dunstable who were such a fun group.
Rather than working on lots of demos during the day which is what I tend to do at a show, at this Open Studio event I have been building up just one painting and working flat, soaking 200lb Bockingford paper, tilting it, flicking on paint and allowing layers to dry before adding more.
Visitors have managed to come and go throughout the day and some were very keen to see the final painting but were not able to come back, so I promised to take a photo and show you.
After masking off the lightest sections of the painting I then used DANIEL SMITH colours, working very wet, allowing the pigments to separate and create some fab effects. This mid stage looks very strange and needs a confident approach when dropping an splashing on the darks! Of course I know where its all going and what I plan to do next which I explain as I go along so hopefully the people watching get a feel for how its going to look when its finished.
There were two more stages after this before it was finished, and this is it.
I wanted to achieve a glorious sunlit scene and I am really happy with it.
 |
|
The marquee is up and the ground floor has been transformed this weekend. If you had seen it on
Saturday morning you might have wondered if we were moving house! The place was covered in all sorts, paintings of various shapes and sizes, art materials, a box of Terry's jigsaw puzzles of the village, watercolour paper, books and brushes of all shapes and sizes.
It seemed like total chaos but it will all come together and look wonderful by Wednesday morning. I still had time to put on my pinny (that's what we call an apron in the NE of England) bake a red pepper with chili and goats cheese tart and a cheesecake on Saturday morning (Terry's favourite)
Sunday morning and I was listening to 'The Archers' on the Radio (for those of you outside of the UK this is a long running soap about country folk in the fictitious village of Ambridge.... somewhere near us here in the UK) and sorting out a few paintings, when a man in a Scottish kilt (a tartan skirt) appeared in my garden tapping on the glass door. It was not a sight I had expected and indeed once over the shock, it soon transpired that this was our first arrival for the Open Studio Event! Hooray.... although a week early. (you couldn't make this up)
 |
| this is the entrance |
The Tourist Information centre (also here in
Victoria Street, but around the corner) are bracing themselves for lost painters looking for our event.
You might think that we should put posters up in the village, well on the face
of it, that sounds like a good idea, we did it once and I vowed never again.
Bourton on the Water is a bit of a visitor attraction, and the 'year of the
posters' we attracted all sorts of curious people, one woman brought her two
children into our front room, sat them on my carpet with cans of coke and crisps
for a picnic! Can you imagine?
Then we had a group led by a lady who
obviously thought it was a great opportunity to tell her friends what the
property was like 30 years ago so she did a guided tour around us, like we
didn't exist!
This year there will be yellow bunting over the door and a sign saying Fiona Peart and Terry Harrison, please don't expect it to say OPEN STUDIO or it will be OPEN to every man and his dog.
We hope to see lots of artists, would-be painters and people we have met over the years, you are all welcome..... but please don't bring a picnic!
For details of timings etc please look at the NEWS page on my website where you can also print a map of where to find us in the village, or pop into the Tourist Information centre.... they are expecting you!
 |
| A normal morning |
Its a Bank Holiday coming up this weekend so the village will be heaving with people, especially as on Monday we have 'football in the river'
This sounds weird I know, but its such a fun event and those standing anywhere near the edge get drenched! Two local teams play a match with a fair amount of cheating taking place as well as some antics I am sure.
This is what the village looks like in the morning before the visitors arrive.
This is what it looks like when people visit us. We love it though, its the most fun village to live in, lots going on, especially during the summer but beautifully quiet too.
So all those people lining the river will inevitably get wet, people stand on the bridges thinking they will be safe there, but I know from experience they wont!
So if you fancy a drenching, 3pm on Monday is your chance!
This weekend we also put up our little marquee in the back garden in preparation for our Open Studio event in September. Its always quite a challenge as the poles and panels are laid out ready to assemble and then there is the annual memory test of which bit goes where.... always a challenge! The family come and help though, so the girls can watch whilst the guys build (I nearly used a different word then which could have got me into trouble!)
Information about the Open Studio is on my website News Page if you would like to visit us.
I have been totally inspired creating very textural paintings these last few days. I have been pushing the boat out (if you pardon the pun) with some very experimental ideas, I've been building up watercolour layers, and using complimentary colour washes with strong colour on top to achieve the effects I'm looking for. Tilting the wet surface is proving an exciting stage as well as quite dramatic, and I now have 3 paintings I am happy with, all of which I shall add to my website Gallery shortly. They are all figurative and inspired by a trip to Cuba some time back.
We are never past learning new techniques, I love it when I discover something exciting - well I say discover, I haven't invented it.... I've just discovered it for myself. Others will of course have 'discovered similar things' in the past, but it will be new to me and therefor I get all excited about it and want to share it with you!
This little painting of Venice was one of my experimental pieces, I love the textures, those little islands of colour are such fun! I like the way this technique says 'painting' and not 'photo' so many publications these days seem to concentrate on paintings that look like photographs which for me, no matter how clever they are, don't seem to have any soul.
At present I am steering more towards abstract shapes and patterns than realism, although I still like to see what the subject is.
This one will be for sale at my Open Studio in September. Come and visit, you can have a close up look at the new things I am working on.
We had such a fun day painting in Wyck Rissington yesterday. I had a lovely small group, just six lucky people had almost individual tuition for the day and to be honest, its what beginners really benefit from.
Why is there such a fear of watercolour running in all directions when it only goes where we put it!
Once everyone had relaxed into it, and let the watercolour escape a bit, we really started painting. It wasn't until lunch time that we began an actual painting, but everyone finished and I was delighted with their fabulous results in just one day.
This is what we did.
 |
| with Edd my editor |
My last four days have been spent in a photographic studio at Search Press in Tunbridge Wells. I arrived with a car full of boxes packed full of art materials and two port folios. One had all of the finished paintings (over 100 of them) needed for my next book and the other the planned step by step projects.
My lovely Editor Edd, directs the whole process brilliantly and Paul (the wonderful photographer) spends his days going up and down ladders under the hot lights. As I paint, each of the painting processes are photographed while Edd writes down what I have used and what I have just done. Every so often there is a FLASH as the camera takes another shot. We always take far more photos than we need so that the best ones are finally chosen for the book.
It can be quite a challenge because as the paint is wet and flowing perfectly across the paper, that's when the shot is needed, but of course its also the exact moment when I like to drop in another colour, but no! hold on, FLASH, drop in now, FLASH another shot, more paint, or another colour then another FLASH. Then relax, watch the paint move and at that perfect moment a final shot is taken.
So the next time you are flicking through a step by step project, do imagine how it all happens!
Once all of the paintings are complete, the shoot is not over. Its now time for all of the materials used in the book to be photographed. This might seem like a simple job, but believe me, its an art. Juan arrives with his design skills and a wealth of experience then the cameras are all adjusted, milk crates are moved into position (yes, milk crates, the photographers MUST HAVE item apparently) white boards are positioned and then, the materials are painstakingly arranged into stylish compositions. They are works of art in their own right.
 |
| Paul, Edd and Juan |
You might think a pile of art materials appear thrown together, but no, they are all individually placed, their size, colour and shape is very much taken into account. the image is viewed on a monitor and the items tweaked till the perfect shot is achieved.
It took almost an entire day for these materials because there are so many of them.
For a week before the shoot I was placing items on a table in my studio, checking lists and worrying that something would be forgotten.
This is going to be a lovely book I am sure, so much work has gone into it, I do hope you enjoy it.
On Wednesday evening when Terry and I were in the town, we noticed the local Art Society seemed open and a group of painters were busy working away, so as we have both given demonstrations for the Tunbridge Wells Society in the past, we thought we would call in.
What a lovely group, tea and home made buns were immediately offered and we ended up sitting with them and chatting. The art world is such a small and friendly one.
