Still painting! Commissions galore!

I haven't posted since before the summer and will now try to rectify that with some serious updating.  Summer sales have been good this year and in between going out to exhibit, and commission work, we have been hard at it to replenish our mobile gallery of work.

Our stand at St Mary in July

Fran has been doing several pet portrait commissions, all of dogs, and recently they nearly all seem to be of labradors! Here is one that isn't.  This is Foxy, a German Shepherd, in his younger days.  He is now an old boy and Fran is currently working on a more recent portrait.

Foxy

After our spring exhibition in Angoulême I decided to paint a watercolour of the cathedral.  I actually did two versions of the same painting trying to work in a looser style and with a very limited palette.  The first uses three colours while the second is done with just Winsor Blue(Red Shade) and Burnt Sienna.

Exhibition in Angoulême

We have finally been to visit a gallery in Angoulême with a view to hanging our paintings there.  This visit resulted in our booking a space for each of us to exhibit for a month from March 13 to April 13.  The gallery incorporates a café and is situated in the heart of the city.

 

Fran has been busy getting together some canvases to show while I have been agonising over which of my many unframed paintings to mount and frame.

Here is one of Fran's new acrylic paintings of an appropriately seasonal scene.

Bluebell Path - Acrylic painting on canvas 40x30 cm

This is one of my latest paintings in a representation of the mount and frame that I have used.

Summer Rain -Watercolour painting 30x20 cm

Acrylic painting - Old Boots

With the greatest reluctance I finally had to concede that it was time to buy myself a new pair of boots.  I had become rather attached to this pair and do still wear them around the garden.  There's nothing really wrong with them as long as it's dry.

This is an acrylic painting on a box canvas.

Acrylic painting 40x30 cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two acrylic paintings - French Towns

Fran completed the first of these paintings in response to an enquiry by a man who lives on this side of the town.  He bought a watercolour of the château at La Rochefoucauld and wondered whether we had any of Montbron.  Fran painted this view from the basse ville by the river and it was sold at the market in Piégut before we even had the chance to exhibit it in Montbron.

Approaching Montbron - Acrylic 30x20 cm

This next painting is the southern approach to our local village of Varaignes in the Dordogne region of France.  Fran painted this to exhibit at the Foire Aux Dindons which is a big turkey festival held in the village every year.  It hasn't been sold yet but we will be exhibiting it again next Sunday at the Christmas Market.

Approaching Varaignes - Acrylic 30x20 cm

Pet Portraits

We have set up a new website concentrating on pet portraits. As it is Fran who more frequently paints animals the site is www.franspetportraits.com.

This is Toby, a mini schnautzer...

Harvey the greyhound...

Holly the chocolate labrador

Flowers

Fran has recently completed this painting of hollyhocks which was taken from a view in our small hamlet.  These flowers are blooming at the moment and seem to be able to grow anywhere, even out of cracks between pavement and walls.  This is an acrylic painting on paper 40x25 cm.

Acrylic painting - Hollyhock Cottage

The next three paintings are small acrylics on canvas 20x20cm. We display them mounted on small easels which can be supplied with the painting at no extra cost.

   

Big Commission - Four paintings

We have recently completed four paintings which were commissioned by an association of local tourist offices in the Charente who want to use the pictures as cover illustrations for brochures focusing on four towns in the local area.  This is an important commission for us and we are looking forward to seeing the brochures published in time for the summer season.  Two of the towns in question are much visited by tourists on account of their impressive châteaux, and we are hoping that this will generate some business for us.

Two of the paintings are in acrylic, painted by Fran; two in watercolour, painted by me.  Here are the finished paintings.

Villebois-Lavalette

Acrylic by Fran Evans

Torsac

Watercolour by Ian Osborne

Montbron

Acrylic by Fran Evans

La Rochefoucauld

Watercolour by Ian Osborne

Watercolour painting - Wisteria / Acrylic painting - Henrietta

Fran has done an acrylic painting of this door surrounded by wisteria, which is in our local village of Varaignes.  Using the same reference photos, I chose a different angle to her painting, which was a straight-on close-up of the door.  This angle allowed me to include the row of purple irises beside the doorway, and a bit of the garden beyond.  The painting is a watercolour 30x20 cm.

 Fran has meanwhile painted this hen which is one of many that belong to a friend.  This is an acrylic painting on a deep-edged canvas 30x24 cm and was commissioned by a woman here in France as a present to her daughter in England. It is to match the painting of a cockerel that she bought last summer.

Acrylic painting - Portrait of a horse

This acrylic painting is on a deep-edged canvas 50x40cm. Fran painted this, not as a commission, but as an example to try to entice people to commission a painting of their horse.  We have been asked about this several times when we have been doing markets etc. but nobody has ever followed up their enquiry.  The painting will go up in a local bar/café where we have several works on the walls, and hopefully attract some interest.

Here is the painting

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!!

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