Roy Connelly

The hottest day of the year so far and I have just spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the studio of Bob Brown NEAC. Set in beautiful rolling English countryside beside a very paintable river, Bob has the perfect studio.  It was completely filled with an exhibition of his richly coloured landscapes.

 Ken Howard and Richard Pikesley, another two of my favourite painters, were also there, along with many other friends. Many thanks to Bob and Sue for their wonderful hospitality.

Afterwards I spent an hour painting painting the nearby river, one of Englands most beautiful chalk streams.  While I was painting a mayfly settled on my hand among the brushes. 

A quick sketch - 8 x 10 inches, oil on board

I went down to Hampton Court to see the latest exhibition of paintings by my friend John Dobbs. 

The show, which looked fantastic, features oil paintings of the River Thames and the areas around Hampton Court. It’s on until 7th June.

Fountain Gallery, Bridge Road, Hampton Court, East Molsey, Surrey, KT8 9HA.

Ducks at Molesey © John Dobbs 2009

 After John’s exhibition I went down to West Wittering, one of my favourite beaches, were I painted the pictures shown below.

Paintings on my easel, 6 x10 and 5 x 12, oil on board

Pecasso

Just returned from a wonderful time painting in Kent - the Garden of England.  We were house and chicken sitting for a friend.  While there I was under strict orders, from my wife, to paint the chickens.  They took great interest in my painting equipment and brushes as you can see.

More picture to follow in the next few days.

Today I delivered 5 paintings to Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) Ltd in London.  I travelled in on the tube with my trusty box easel and paint bag as well as the framed paintings.  I had wondered how I would get everything there and in the end I put the pictures in a large portfolio for extra protection.

I met up with fellow artist Richard Price and we each painted a couple of small pictures in Trafalgar Square. The light was good despite the sun going in and out all day and the wind that did its best to blow debris on the wet paint.

Landscape painter Karl Terry spotted us on his way home from the Chelsea Flower Show and his wife found herself painted into our pictures. Thanks Jo for being so patient!

Thanks also to Lucy for the squeeze of cadmium red

Evening Light

The second annual Kent and Sussex Art Fair opens this week.

Wednesday 13 – Sunday 17 May 2009

Many thanks to Nadia and Sarah – whose hard work makes this such a wonderful exhibition.

Exhibiting artists:

Ann Armitage, Louise Balaam, Sarah Batt, Shona Barr, Julia Cassels, Colin Carruthers, Roy Connelly, Chris Daynes, Lindsay Denning, Sandy Dooley, Sarah Elder, Michael Ewart, Soraya French, Charlotte Grant, Emma Haggas, Bryan Hanlon, Jeannette Hayes, Mary Jackson, Susan Kirkman, Bridget Lansley, Nick Leigh, Sarah Lewis, Malcolm Ludvigsen, Imogen Man, Jo Maw, Fiona MacRae, Jo Oakley, Tuema Pattie, Bella Pieroni, Jonathan Pocock, Georgina Potter, Jeffrey Pratt, Lucy Pratt, Richard Price, Raymund M Rogers, Adam Roud, Harriet Salt, Francesca Shakespeare, Minnie Shaw Stewart, Helen Simmonds, Jane Skingley, Daphne Stephenson, Zarina Stewart-clark, Karl Terry, Paul Treasure, Angela Van Oss, Paul Vanstone, David Wheeler, Jake Winkle.

On the way home from the Leaden Hall Summer Exhibition in Salisbury I stopped on the border of Wiltshire and Hampshire for a quick sketch. A local organic farmer kindly pointed out some more natural views than the brightly coloured fields of rape seed. I will heed his advice and look forward to heading back there in early June.

Painting in Hampshire

Salisbury Cathedral

The view of the cathedral across the Harnham Watermeadows was painted on the 19th of March 2009 especially for the show. It is painted in oil on stretched Belgian linen canvas and measures 51 x 60 cm (20 x 24 inches).

Here are some of my paintings of the River Nevern at Newport, Pembrokeshire. All are in painted in oil on board.

In the first painting Tonnau is a Celtic Longboat setting off from Newport Boat Club.

I have just returned from a 10 day painting trip to the wonderful Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales. The weather ranged from wet and windy to glorious sunshine. I was able to get useful work done everyday, returning with more than 30 pictures, although I will only frame a fraction of these. Here are four of the smallest paintings from the trip. They are all in oil on board and measure 10 x 25 cm or 4 x 10 inches. As usual they were all completed on the spot.

You can click each of them to view the full size image or why not try out the slideshow link below. To return to this page from the Piclens viewer click on the link at the top left.

I am busy this week collecting frames and delivering paintings to different exhibitions but I will post more paintings of the Pembrokeshire coast as I get organised.