Hidden Passageway oil painting

Hidden Passageway

30x40cm (12x16") Oil on stretched canvas

AVAILABLE

We have lots of beautiful old villages around us, and apart from a few small paintings see this post here I have not painted any of them. I have hundreds of photos but there is something about painting buildings, however picturesque that I find daunting.

I decided it is about time I changed that and challenged myself to paint some larger pieces. OK this one is not a large one but a step along the way.

About this painting
This is an alleyway in St Paul de Vence my local village. It leads up to a hotel at the top and they always line the ally with flower pots. You often see tourists arriving, and after driving through the narrow village streets they then have to take their cases up this passage and negotiate the steps.

This painting is not as textured as usual, I have reserved the texture for the highlighted area. I scraped the foreground walls several times to give the impression of the weathered wall texture. Tell me if it worked.

Some closeups

 

Summer Lavender Impressionist oil painting

Lavender Summer Provence Landscape

18x24cm (approx 7x10inch) 

Oil on 3mm MDF canvas panel

AVAILABLE

This painting nearly slipped through the net. I painted it last year after my yearly trip to the lavender fields. For some reason I missed posting it! A shame because I really like the way it it turned out.

I thought you might like to see my inspiration photo. As you can see I used my artistic license to it's full extent, adding foreground colour and encouraging the far lavender field into bloom.

Tell me how you would have handled this photo.

Some Close-ups of the knife work

 And how it might look displayed

Purple Sea oil palette knife painting

Purple Sea

Oil palette knife painting

18x24cm on 3mm canvas MDF panel

Available for purchase

Back to my beloved lavender scenes. I was getting purple withdrawal symptoms!

Painted from photos of the Valensol plateau which is awash with purple in the summer.

About this painting
This painting includes a version of the trees I was sketching previously see here. My husband commented the other day that my lavender paintings always look like you are looking down on them. Well that's right! The best vantage point to take the photos from is the verge which is usually higher than the road and gives more of a view and raises the horizon line.

I used a pink ground here and allowed it to poke through in places. The finishing touch was splattering paint over the foreground.

Some close-ups