31 October 2016

Autumn Vineyard painting inspriration and WIP.



I went hunting for autumn vineyard inspiration on Saturday and I wasn't disappointed. We travelled around the area between Les Arcs and Salernes in the Var and we weren't disappointed.

The Var has a lot more autumn colour than the Alpes Maritime, the area where I live, and, as we discovered, is much colder in the mornings. The day was beautiful, with sunshine and clear blue skies and luckily the temperature eventually reached 23 degC later, much more my type of temperature.

I have been inspired, with several paintings running through my head and I have started on one. Here is the underpainting - warning sunglasses needed!


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28 October 2016

Work in progress - reworking an old painting



I am reworking one of my old paintings that has been sitting in the corner for a few years. I came across it today and felt it had some good points and was worth using as a basis for a new painting.

I didn't take a photo before I started but remembered about half an hour into it. It will give you some idea of what the original looked like. I am sure I have a photo of it somewhere but I have changed computers twice (or maybe three) times since then. I wanted to start painting so will see if I feel like wading through my old backups later.

I like how the yellow tulips fade into the background of this photo. I will try to keep that effect, but will be surprised if I can resist putting more paint on!

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23 October 2016

Colourful Petunias - container flowers

Summer Container - Colorful Petunias by Marion Hedger
5x7 inch on gallery wrapped canvas
Oil painting, painted with a palette knife

This is painted from life. The local nursery always have some baskets planted up early in the season. I couldn't resist and bought 3 for the carport and front entrance. It is a nice sunny spot and they flourish there. Elsewhere I will have to wait a little longer.

There is something therapeutic about painting these small paintings full of colour. I am definitely 'in the zone' mixing the colours and playing (sorry carefully considering) with the placement of colour and what will work with what.

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22 October 2016

Provence Vines in Autumn

End of Summer, Provence Vineyard
by Marion Hedger
18x24cm (approx 7"x10")
Oil on canvas panel
Palette Knife painting

This painting is SOLD
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We are just discussing a trip to see the local vineyards which I like to do every year. I looked at previous autumn vineyard paintings to get my inspiration going.
 
These vineyards produce the delicious Provence Rosé the area is famous for. I painted these vineyards in the autumn last year after the harvest
Autumn Vineyards in Provence Montage
by Marion Hedger

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19 October 2016

Summer Garden completed and Latest Newsletter link

Summer Garden
Oil palette knife painting on 30x40cm gallery wrapped 

Studio News
This painting is featured in my latest newsletter as a special offer to my newsletter subscribers. Sign up now to keep up to date with my latest paintings.

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17 October 2016

Sunset over the sea

Sunset over the Sea
Oil on MDF canvas panel
18x24cm


This painting is a mixture of brush and palette knife. Here are some close-ups to show the texture.







And how it might look framed:

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16 October 2016

Shimmer colours of Olive Trees

Olive Tree Trio
SOLD
by Mairon Hedger
30x24cm (approx 12"x10")
Oil on gessoed panel
palette knife painting

This is one I painted a while ago.

Olive Trees
This is an amalgam of trees from different photos but I quite like the way it came together. I wanted to show how olive trees are blue, turquoise and green all at the same time, particularly if there is a slight breeze blowing.
It is slightly larger that the other four paintings (which can be seen HERE) and this allowed me to concentrate on the form of the trunks. I love the rough, tactile, gnarled bark of the olive trees, a product of the hard pruning they receive.

Niçoise speciality
Here around Nice the olives produced by the trees are very small, but they are delicious and are a Niçoise speciality. We have three olive trees in the garden but I have never preserved the olives as it takes ages to get them to the edible stage. Raw they are extremely bitter and have to be soaked in brine to be edible.

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13 October 2016

Throwback Thursday -Memories from Facebook, a blast from the past


Reflections
Soft Pastel on La Carte pastel card
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I was reminded of this painting today as a Facebook memory. It goes back six or seven years when I was painting with pastels. It's a painting I loved then and still like now. 

At the time I had just lost my Mum to cancer and I filled my time by taking some on-line pastel tutorials from Charlotte (Charlie) Hertzfeld on wetcanvas.com. Charlie kindly gave us her time to teach us how to use colour to paint light in a painting and this was my final painting on the course.  

Taking this virtual course really kick-started my art and made me take it seriously.

Although it is totally different from my style now, I still love this painting. 



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12 October 2016

Eye Popping Colour - Autumn Paintings Review

Autumn Beauty
Palette knife painting
oil on MDF canvas
24x30 cm (approx 10x12inches)
SOLD contact me to commission a similar painting

The weather has been much colder lately. We are still getting some sun in the day but apparently that changes tomorrow when the snow is expected to arrive in the Alps. The change in the weather has prompted me to clear out my studio so that I can actually work in it. During spring and summer my studio is the dump room for anything art related - and sometimes not.

The changing season has got me thinking about autumn paintings. I have already had one request for an autumn painting with reflections and so I looked through my archive to review my previous ones with fall color  - so I thought I would share the review.
Autumn Explosion Landscape
Silver birches in autumn
Palette knife painting
18x24cm on canvas panel 
SOLD contact me to commission a similar painting 
 
Autumn Silver Birches
Oil on canvas MDF canvas panel
Palette knife painting
18x24 cm (approx 7"x10")
 SOLD contact me to commission a similar painting
 

11 October 2016

Provence Pots and Geraniums - Rework



Provence Pots and Geraniums
Oil palette knife painting on canvas panel

This painting was no.13 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. I was quite happy when it was at this stage


But after looking at it for a couple of weeks the lower area of the wall and path needed more definition and the stem on the lhs really bothered me and I had to change it.

I covered the painting in liquin and let it sit for a few minutes to soften the paint surface so that the new paint would adhere better.

Next
  • I darkened the wall by adding more purples and blues.
  • I painted over that stem and put in a new shorter one more to the left and a  suggestion of another small geranium head to breach up the angle of the leaves.
  • I altered the colours in the background removing that bright turquoise colour which was jarring
  • I darkened some of the flowers and added highlights to others.
I think I prefer it much better now - what do you think?

Close-up of the knife work



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10 October 2016

Changeover - The start of Autumn, Finished with WIP images


Changeover -  The start of Autumn
30x40cm oil on gallery wrapped canvas

We don't get much in the way of autumn colours here in the Alpes Maritime although sometimes you get surprising little pockets where the autumn colours shine. This lovely spot is in the Parc d'Esteron in the Alpes Maritime. We found it by accident down a tiny track we decided to explore during one of our country drives.

Work in Progress images:







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09 October 2016

What are your Favourite Colour Combinations?


One of my artist friends, Sea Dean, posed the question "If you had to choose just two colors what would they be and why?" But it was not as simple as saying blue and yellow, of course she wanted more detail - exactly what shades, which brand etc.

This got me thinking. I use a lot of colour in my paintings but my palette has evolved to always having cadmium yellow medium, ultramarine blue, winsor blue, dioxazine violet and alazarin crimson and often viridian squeezed onto the palette. These basic colours provide me with combinations that suit the Provence landscape. I add yellow ochre pale for some buildings, rocks and pathways and also use other colours as required. I use winsor and Newton oil paints as the consistency is right for me for both palette knife and brush.

I can't say that I have two favourites but there are certain combinations I love and here are two:

Pale purple and green/turquoise
This painting is based on the shimmering combination of the violet and turquoise


For the pale purple I mix diox purple with white, sometimes adding a touch of pink (permanent rose or al. crimson with white) or a touch of pale winsor blue depending upon the temperature I am trying to achieve. For the green turquoise I will mix a combination of phthalo blue, lemon yellow, white and often viridian and winsor blue to get the correct colour.

Yellow and purple
This combination is difficult to pull off because they are both such vibrant colours. It is important to make one of them more dominant than the other. In this painting the purple dominates but the yellow is the star


Of course the yellow doesn't need to be vibrant, the combination works just as well with purple and yellow ochre


08 October 2016

Shadowland Updated and WIP photos


Shadowland
24x30cm oil on canvas panel.

The 30 painting in 30 days challenge has finished - Well it finished at the end of September of course, I have just been a bit slow in collating all my paintings and posting.


The 30 day challenges are fun and it really does make you think about painting and producing art. Some work out and others are not so good but it is the palette knife (or brush) miles that count. I included more larger paintings than my usual 18x24cm than I normally do to allow myself more freedom - sometimes making a composition fit on the smaller boards is difficult, especially if, like me, you have a tendency to put in too much detail. Consequently I had a many more not quite finished paintings than normal.

I am gradually working my way through them adding the final touches. I shall share these as I go along.

Today's painting is 'Shadowland'. It needed more work on the shadows and some touching up on the background colours. I am now happy with it and it reminds me of the day we walked through the dappled shadows in the woods at Chateau la Coste.

Here are some work-in-progress photos: