Happy Endings, a work in progress

After having read the book "Night over Water" I wanted to pick a scene to paint for the Book Challenge on Painting Friends.

But the scene I fancied - the plane flying at night, I couldn't find a copyright free pic of the plane. As the planes no longer exist, I doubt I ever will.

There was a love triangle in the novel and a surprise element made it work out for the best - and as this was a luxury voyage, I decided to paint three glasses of pink champagne and call it Happy Endings - and chucked in the cherry as the surprise element .

The drawing

The masking

Areas painted with new gamboge, followed by a mix of Winsor red true and Quin red. These were done to give me a feel of where I was in the painting. I'll be painting light to dark with the rest :)

More to follow another day :)

The Alphabet Paintings - Z

So here I am, the last of the alphabet paintings :)
Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend. 

For my Z painting, I chose to paint

Zen Rock Garden

There's something quite fascinating about this painting, because if you stare at it long enough the rocks seem to levitate!

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through the Alphabet series.

I hope you've enjoyed them, and if you would like to see them all together go HERE

Now I'm off to visit all your blogs :) 

Ta-ta for now!

The Alphabet Paintings - Y

On the final straight now for the alphabet series!
This is my Y painting.............

Yeoman Warder

15" x 11"

Arches 140 Rough

WN artist's quality paint.

Like all of my paintings, it will have a permanent home on my gallery site, HERE

The Alphabet Paintings... X

The X painting, all finished... not a plant, a flower or an X-ray!

I present to you.............

Xenolith

15" x 11"

Arches 140 Rough

WN AQ paints

Of course, all those with an interest in geology will have no doubt guessed my X .. for those who don't know about geology, the explanation of a xenolith is HERE.  I hope you all enjoy the picture.

Out and About

Good morning all!
We had a beautiful day yesterday so we all went over to Belhus Woods.
See HERE for information on the woods.

Over at Painting Friends (here) we've got an "Out and About" group who in the clement weather go off and sketch their local area. I've joined up for it :)

I took my trusty backpack, the frame of which converts to a seat, with my sketching kit and doggy necessities in it.

Then I sat and quickly sketched a few pieces at varying points in the walk.
Its ages since I sketched outside (not counting my back garden!) and I did feel a frisson of nervousness. Hence why the sketches were my quick scribbly style. I shall have to go out more often, until it becomes second nature again.
Thankfully, the weather looks set to co-operate!

I'm wondering too, if many of you go out and about sketching or painting?
Do you take someone (or some dog) with you? Are you part of a sketching group, or are you a solitary soul?

Breakfast on the Patio

Good morning everyone :)
Now all the computer work is done, its time to get back to painting!
Here's my latest effort:

Breakfast on the Patio

Now that this is done, my brain is turning towards the next in my alphabet series, which is going to be an X ! That should be interesting - and I can promise it won't be a xylophone or an x-ray :)

Busy bee!

Good morning all.

I've been a busy bee recently, redesigning my main website, which is for reflexology. You can see the new look HERE
Sharp eyed viewers will spot that the banner is now the same over my main site, my painting gallery site HERE and this blog!

So with all the work involved, I went bug eyed and felt I was glued to the computer. Stir crazy too, so even though it was raining we went to a local country park for their plant sale and I bought some new plants, some for outdoors in the cottage garden, some for inside, in the conservatory.

Here's a couple of photos for you to see whilst I now get on with catching up with all your gorgeous blogs!

entrance to the country park

can you spot the house in the woods?

Indoor orchid

and another one!

Missy stakes a Claim!

What do you buy the man who has everything?
Storage!
Which is exactly what I did, in the form of this footstool whose lid lifts to reveal lots of storage.

 

It matches the sofa perfectly. So I cover it with a throw, because Missy doesn't like the feel of leather. I do, it suits my asthma better than fabric. Still, I can easily wash throws!

 
Then who should jump up and claim it?
Missy of course!

and she looks so comfortable on it too.
Daddy will have to sneak his stuff in when she's gone to bed :)

Breakfast Chez Moi

Good morning, one and all.
Would you like to come breakfast with me?

This is what you're likely to have. :)

Breakfast Chez Moi

Over on Painting Friends, this month's title challenge was "Breakfast Chez Moi" with the idea of us all sharing what we have for breakfast, in a painting.

Coffee and a croissant is my favourite... what's your favourite breakfast?

The Alphabet Paintings: W

I wanted to have fun with this, and that I certainly did.

My "W" painting...   

 Waves of Perfume