Hollyhock Village, Part 1 - Day 7, 30 paintings in 30 days

Hollyhock Village Part 1

 Oil on gesso laminated wood panel

20x30 cm (8"x12")

During our recent lavender hunt, we came across a village which I shall call Hollyhock Village. Hollyhocks lined the streets, seemingly growing out of the concrete in the road. The roads were narrow enough, barely room for one car let alone a car and two rows of hollyhocks. I took heaps of photos both on the way there  (overcast day) and on the way back (nice sunny day).

Some photos of the hollyhocks

The village is Revest du Bion, Alpes-de-Haut Provence

About this painting

 This painting is part 1 of a pair painted on gesso panel. I did not add any additional gesso to it as they are supposed to be ready to go. Not sure I will do that again! the surface is so slippy and I wasn't convinced the paint was adhering. I've never used Yuppo with watercolour but from what I have read, it seems that this surface is similar.
I used a brush mostly with just a bit of knife work on the wall to give it texture.

I will wait until the paint has dried a little and rework some of the hollyhocks for more impact.

Come back tomorrow to see the the companion piece.

Close up

Paintings that talk to you - Sunset Glow at the Vineyard palette knife oil painting

Sunset Glow at the Vineyard

Palette knife painting

Oil on MDF canvas board, 24x30cm (approx. 10"x12")
Available on Daily Paintworks
website

This painting was started during the September 30 day challenge. It was slightly larger than many of the other paintings in the challenge. After the challenge I put it aside as I there was something I didn't like, but could not put my finger on it. 

The other day I looked at it again and suddenly it was clear what it needed to be finished. It was as if the painting was now ready for the final touches! Please keep this to yourselves as I don't want to be locked away for talking to paintings LOL.
See the WIP painting from the challenge HERE

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When is too much green too much green? Spring Vineyard in Provence

Spring Vineyard in Provence

Oil on box (gallery wrapped canvas

30x40x4cm (12x15x1.5inch)

The sides have been painted black.

Can be hung without a frame for a contemporary look.

Click on the image for a larger view

Available on Daily Paintworks

There is no getting away from using lots of green in a spring scene, particularly here in Provence after the spring rains when everything is bursting out.

The problem is that too much green in a painting is boring and can be dull even if using the vivid greens of spring. One solution is to intersperse the green with different colours, usually by using reds and/or yellow ochre pale. However, this can result in a spring scene quickly turning into an autumn scene.

About this painting
This is a spring vineyard scene from the Vidauban area in the Var with the Maures in the background. This is an area with deep red soil so I used burnt sienna (a reddish brown) for the earth and purples of the shadows to set off the greens. At the back of the vines I used a bluey-green to indicate the distance. The path in the middle was actually grass but I couldn't find a green that worked well so I turned it into a pale ochre path.

Let me know your tricks for painting spring green.

Contact  me about this or any other painting HERE

Ikebana 1 - pink chrysanthemums

Ikebana 1 - Pink Chrysanthemums

22x27cm (approx  9"x11")

oil on canvas board

Palette knife painting

I've taken a break from painting landscapes for the last couple of dates to paint some floral still lifes.

This is inspired by a book on Ikebana given to me by a neighbour, the monthly floral forum challenge on wetcanvas.com to paint chrysanthemums and my imagination. I wanted to achieve an ethereal 'look' in this painting.

I have completed four paintings for the challenge and will post more tomorrow.

Olive Tree Trio oil painting - SOLD

Olive Tree Trio

30x24cm (approx 12"x10")

Oil on gessoed panel
palette knife painting 
THIS PAINTING IS SOLD
and finding a new home in South Carolina

Sweet Chestnut Walk - Day 8, 30 days hath September Challenge

Sweet Chestnut Walk treescape WIP

Day 8, 30 days hath September Challenge

Oil on canvas panel

Palette knife painting
Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Last Friday we took a drive around the vineyards in the Var region so I could gather some photos of the vineyards before the grapes were harvested. As part of the drive we went through the Les Maures hills national forest. Sweet chestnut trees grow wild amongst the cork oaks. Generally the day was overcast but every now and then the sun shone through and I managed to capture the sunlight in this view. This is not quite finished, I still have to work on the edges of the shadows.

Sherwood Forest Walk - Day 7, 30 days hath September challenge

Sherwood Forest Walk treescape oil painting

Day 7, 30 days hath September challenge

18x24cm (approx 7"x10") oil on canvas panel

Palette knife painting

Sherwood Pines
At the end of May this year, we went to Sherwood Pines park in Nottingham my home town. While my brother and the kids did the bicycle circuit, I went for a walk and took photos.

Sherwood Pines is a managed pine plantation right in the heart of Sherwood Forest (quel domage) where they used to grow the pines for pit props in the coal mines. That industry has now died and they are gradually replacing the trees with native species.
My Walk
Naturally it was the regenerated part of the forest where I went for my walk. The sun was shining through the fresh green growth of trees and all was OK in my world.
Does it need people?
I am uncertain whether or not to put a couple in at the end of the path to:

• add a focal point and scale
• To add a touch of red (a shirt maybe) as a foil for all the green

Please let me know what you think.

Reworking 'Calm at the Lake' pastel landscape

I have been participating in on-line landscape tutorials hosted by landscape painter Johannes Vloothuis for some time now. I feel more confident in my landscapes due to his webinars and can look at some of my older paintings with  more critical eye. As an exercise I have decided to rework one of my old pastel painting 'Calm at the Lake'.

Calm at the lake,

Pastel on sanded card

I liked this when I first painted this and still do to a certain extent, but I can now find several landscape  errors. The painting is on good quality sanded paper so I will scrape off some of the pastel and overpaint.

Things I like about the painting

1. Colour combination - the purples set of the greens very nicely
2. The water
3. Overall design

Items to fix
After studying the painting these are some of the things I want to change.

1. The sky should be the lightest area in the painting. This sky is light but I feel it is not light enough.
2. The mass of the mountain is too dark and does not recede enough. It needs to be blended in some places to soften the edges. I will also think about breaking up the mass to give another plane.
3. This line of background trees is too monotonous and needs to vary in shapes and colour.
4. Two cloned lollipop trees - need I say more!
5. The bank needs to be more melodic and not quite so straight lineish (newly invented word)
6. The reeds block the entry into the painting and are too detailed for the foreground.
7. Another lollipop tree - I will also move this tree over to the edge and only paint 3/4 of it to add some interest.

 These are the things I see at the moment. As I continue with the painting I may notice/change other things.
I will post the progress tomorrow.

Some like it hot - still life in oils

Some like it hot still life palette knife painting

20c20cm (8"x8") oil on canvas board

This is another rework. Initially painted with a brush, I just couldn't get the effect I wanted. I left is aside for a while and last week I reworked it using impasto paint and a palette knife. Although not too bad before, the rework has added 'oomph'. There is something satisfying about reworking a painting, maybe it's because there is nothing to lose and the painting is no longer 'so precious' so there is more freedom to just go for it.

Into the distance, 6"x6" Landscape painting

I

Into the distance, Landscape painting

15x15cm (6"x6") oil on canvas panel

Palette knife on a pink ground 

The second of my mini trials. This time I used an underpainting using cool colours for the dark tones and warm colours for the lights. Again everything is suggested. Unfortunately, and I left a lot of the underpainting showing.

Unfortunately, the photo shows the purple as quite light - I will have to try to get a photo with a truer colour.

Here are the two paintings side by side

Which one do you prefer?

Meandering Path, palette knife painting in oils

Meandering Path, Landscape painting

15x15cm (6"x6") oil on canvas panel

Palette knife on a multi-coloured ground 
To purchase this painting CLICK HERE

These small sized paintings are great for trying different things. They are large enough to give a good effect and small enough to quickly complete. I painted three of the same scene trying different techniques. This one is painted with a palette knife and painted onto a coloured ground of cool colours for the darks and warm colours for the lights. I also wanted to work on my tree technique - trying not to be too detailed but with enough information. I also just wanted to suggest the foreground. I quite like the result where everything is just suggested, leaving much to the viewers imagination.

I will post the other two over the next couple of days.

Mountain Scene Challenge in Pastel

 Mountain Abstract in Green and Purples

Pastel on Pastel paper

22x30cm

A while ago I participated in a challenge in the Pastel forum of wetcanvas.com which involved choosing a landscape photo and creating different versions of it using various techniques and style. I am cleaning out my studio and am now offering these for sale at Etsy to make room. There are 10 paintings in all, with two of them shown here.

Click here to see all of the series for sale

Green Paraqueet Bathing Gouache painting

Bathing Paraqueet by Marion Hedger

13x18 cm (5"x7")

Gouache on canvas panel

Painted as part of the January 'Gouache Corner' challenge on wetcanvas.com. Unfortunately, in the photo, the weave of the canvas is very pronounced, it is not quite so obvious in real life. This is my second bird painting and I love the subject. It reminds me of the red Eastern Rosellas we used to get in our garden in Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately I never took a photo, so have no reminders of them. I cropped this from the original photo which contains 3 green paraqueets all taking a bath. Maybe I shall attempt all three later. This will be varnished to protect the surface and allow it to be framed without glass.