Shadows on Sam's Shed

Mop Bucket

Mop Bucket

Pure Watercolour

24.5 cm x 40.5cm or 10 inches x 16 inches

That is an approximate measurement of the actual image, I like the edges and splashes very much so they are staying with this painting.

This is one of those forgotten corners that every garden has tucked away behind the shed or greenhouse.  Here is an old rusting mop bucket, a couple of pots with plants struggling on, the water butt and a pile of chicken wire tangled through with last years grass.  All those textures and patterns, I couldn't resist but this nonchalant assemblage has taken some very hard concentration on my part, that wire for a start, then all the little holes in the shade mesh, blackberry leaves in the dark shade...phew, I need a drink!

Shade House

Scented Geranium

Scented Geranium

Pure Watercolour

30 cm x 30 cm or 12 inches x 12 inches.

 A couple of old pots overflowing with one of my favorite plants, scented geraniums.  This one is "Fragrans" and has a nutmeggy, spicy scent.  I have one that smells of "coke bottles", those weird little jelly sweets that you can buy, that one sits next to the Chocolate Cosmos in sweet shop corner!  When you sit close by, drawing these beauties on a hot afternoon, the smell is lovely and as the afternoon dawdles into the evening the scents intensify and I don't know why, but it does and it is almost my favorite part of summer, scented summer nights.

I seem to be well and truly up the garden path as far as painting goes these days.  I think it is the result of a post operative knee which has limited my walking a bit.  Rather than tramping along cliff paths and across beaches I am sneaking about in gardens and sitting amongst the geraniums.  I spent a very productive couple of hours in my friends garden yesterday ( drawing not gardening) so there will be a few more garden inspired paintings to come.

Pots in the Sun

Underneath The Fig Tree

Underneath the Fig Tree

Pure Watercolour

30 cm x 30 cm or 12 inches x 12 inches

Underneath the fig tree twists a tunnel of secrets, past the locked shed, past an empty cage and there is something hiding behind the greenhouse door...

Raspberry Canes

Raspberry Canes
Pure Watercolour
55 cm x 40 cm or 21.7 inches x 15.7 inches

I love the light just clipping the little bits of string and chicken wire, bouncing off a few leaves and the general jungly jumble.  I can just imagine ferriting around in this lot finding juicy ripe raspberries and eating them, still warm from the sun.  A summer feast, alone with just the buzzing insects and far away, perhaps, the sound of grass being cut, or maybe kids playing... but very far away!

London Garden

London Garden
Pure Watercolour
81cm x 100cm or 32 inches x 40 inches.

It is a summer morning in this oasis of green calm.  A bubble of peace in a noisy world.  This garden holds, like many others, a jumble of plants.  Some carefully chosen after a visit to a garden center, some left overs from a previous gardener.  Others creeping in, borne on the wind, growing quietly, unnoticed, lifting heavy paving with tender green shoots, softening the hard edges.  People need gardens, parks, a pot with a plant, they need green, to soothe and calm, to marinate the soul and to breathe out.  This is the house where I stay when I visit London and after a day scuttling around on hot pavements, through crowds of people this is perfect to come back to.  It is a retreat.
Another large watercolour, I shall live with it on the easel for a while, until I am sure it is really finished... I think it is but you never know!

A Set of Paintings

This is the little collection of paintings for the gallery's  2010 Summer Exhibition. 
I like to try and make a kind of story for the paintings and this year they are all about a walk to the sea, the sort of thing that I do all the time I know, but, it is also the sort of thing that a lot of people enjoy when they come here on holiday.  Anyway I think they "hang" together quite well, in other words they have a narrative for me.  I think it is very interesting to put a set of paintings together like this.  Firstly it gives a very good sense of scale, it lets me know, as the artist, whether they work well together, if they have that narrative quality.  It shows me what my colours are right now (it's not just green, it is the type of green, which side of green I am leaning towards!)  The other thing that it does is highlight what it is that catches my attention, knowing that, or rather being conscious of that can really help you to "see" potential paintings.
And last but not least it gives me a little time to enjoy my work, after all this might be the last time I ever see them, (sadly but hopefully!)