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.

Watercolour House Portrait Commission

Two months into the year and this is my first post. I have been neglecting the diary and will attempt to get back up to date.  This will mean some serious posting as we have loads of new paintings to show you. I'll start with a watercolour painting which was a commission of a house in the Charente. 

House Portrait Commission - Watercolour 40x30 cm

The second painting is also a watercolour, of our local hamlet.  I started this while we were at a market with our paintings.  Working while trying to sell is a good talking point and attracts a bit more interest.  It also demonstrates that we really are the creators of the paintings which we are displaying.  A lot of people ask this question.

Village Scene, France - Watercolour 24x18 cm

Two watercolour paintings - Market Scenes

Every Wednesday morning a huge market is held in the Dordogne town of Piégut.  Throughout the milder months we are there every week with our stand of original paintings and greeting cards. At this time of the year the market becomes smaller and is naturally not so busy.  Our attendance over the next few months will be dependent on the weather but we hope to go at least every other week.  I have taken several photographs around the market and the two following paintings are the latest based on photos taken there.

Market day coffee break - watercolour 30x20 cm

At the vegetable stall - watercolour 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

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!!

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

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