Watercolour painting - Château Puymartin

Château Puymartin is in the south of the Dordogne near Sarlat.  Thérèse de Saint-Clar, who took advantage of her husband's absence while he was away fighting in the 16th century, and enjoyed herself with another man, was imprisoned by her jealous husband on his return in a room in the north tower, which was sealed upon her death with her body still inside. La Dame Blanche, the ghost of the unfortunate woman, has been seen wandering the château at night, apparently. 

This painting was done from a photograph as, although I've driven almost right past it, I have not yet had a chance to visit.  This will be rectified!

Château Puymartin 

Watercolour 30x20 cm 

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 - Four Men on Bench

My latest watercolour was painted from a photograph in the image library on wetcanvas.com, which has a vast range of licence-free photos for artist's reference.  The scene was shot on Madeira.  As the figures are in shadow and the detail on the faces was difficult to see well from the photo, I have left the faces blank.  The painting is a bit of a departure for me, but I quite like the effect. I have called the painting....

In The Shade of the Jacaranda Tree

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

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

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!!