Welcome to our painting diary

We are two British artists living in south-west France. We paint on commission or according to our moods. We create paintings in watercolour, acrylic or pen and ink. Here you can see our work as it is completed.

Thursday 27 January 2011

Watercolour painting - Tile style

I did this watercolour painting by masking out the horizontal and vertical lines to give the impression that it was painted on tiles.  The inspiration for this came from the tile paintings which are common in Portugal, where we lived previously.  I'm unsure at the moment how it would be best framed to keep up the pretence that it is painted on tiles.  The colour used is French Ultramarine.


























I suppose I ought to mention at this point, that four of my very short stories have been published in a book entitled 'FLASHBACK 2010' which is available HERE

I also have a short story in the No.5 edition of Pink Noise which is an Auckland, NZ. based online arts magazine.  You can find the latest edition, and the previous issues, two of which also have a story by me, HERE

Read the story HERE

Sunday 23 January 2011

Pet Portrait commission - Sophie

This is the latest of Fran's pet portraits.  It is an acrylic on watercolour paper 30x20 cm.  It was commissioned by a couple here in France as a present to friends in England.  The original photograph was not very good, but Fran has managed to create a good representation of the dog, don't you think?

Sophie





Not having any outstanding commissions myself at the moment, I was free to paint whatever I wanted and came up with this watercolour painting of a man playing the sax.  I liked the harsh stage lighting which rendered part of the player in shadow and highlighted the instrument.

 The Sax Player 
(30x20 cm)


I am currently in negotiations for a very exciting commission which I hope to make public very soon!!

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Watercolour Portrait Commission

This watercolour portrait gave me a few worries as you can imagine.  Five children in one painting was not my idea of fun and when I was first approached about it I said, yes I can do it, with a lot of trepidation.  As the summer passed into autumn while the woman who had asked me tried to get her five grandchildren to pose together, I half hoped that she had changed her mind.  In October she finally contacted me and passed over the photographs.  No escape.

The painting took a long time, half of that just staring at it, wondering what to do next.  Anyway the customer was pleased and I also think it turned out OK.

Here is the finished painting


Thursday 6 January 2011

Pet Portrait commission - Harvey

Hello, and Happy New Year to all.

This acrylic pet portrait was commissioned by a man here in France as a Christmas present for his daughter who lives in England.  There was some difficulty getting a photograph of Harvey with his ears standing up, and this is the best that could be done.

After a flush of commissions leading up to Christmas, things have gone quiet on that front which will leave us to paint whatever takes our fancy over the coming months in preparation for a new season of doing the markets once the weather has improved.

Here is the finished painting