Roy Connelly

These are a few of the locations I have been painting in this week.  I spent several days painting by the River Thames in Richmond then worked on the beach at West Wittering yesterday.

The Cheyne Walk Trust is raising funds for a bursary for young artists at Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea.

There will be an exhibition of paintings of the Chelsea Riverside at Heatherleys 18 – 22 April, 2 – 6pm.

On the evening of Thursday 22nd April there will be a reception, prize giving ceremony and an auction. Prizes will be presented by Ken Howard RA.

Full details here: Chelsea Exhibition The cover image is a detail from my painting of Albert Bridge which will feature in the auction.

If you would like to reserve tickets for the Reception and Auction click here: Reception tickets for Chelsea Riverside

Island Fine Arts. Bembridge, Isle of Wight.
27 March – 24 April 2010

For more information or to purchase any of these pictures please contact Island Fine Arts, tel: 01983 875133.

Click on any thumbnail to view full size. Then click on the image to see the next one or press ‘start’ for slideshow.

I have work in two exhibitions in London at the moment.  ‘London Seen’ is a group show of London paintings at Llewellyn Alexander Fine Paintings.

‘Venice in Peril’ is also a group show,  in this case featuring paintings of Venice.  This popular annual exhibition, at W.H. Patterson in Albermarle Street, helps to raise funds for restoration projects in that most beautiful city.

At Venice in Peril there are works by Ken Howard, Auguste Bouvard, Ivan Lapper, David Sawyer, Robert E Wells, Roy Connelly, Jonathan Trowell, John Stillman and other talented artists.

London Seen features Tom Coates, Bruce Yardley, Roy Connelly, Liam O’Farrell, Terry McKifragan, Robert E Wells, Fraser King and others

If you fancy seeing both wonderful cities in a day, its only a short 20 minute walk between the two galleries.

London Seen Llewellyn Alexander Fine Paintings
11 January – 10 February 2010

Venice in Peril W. H. Patterson
13 January – 5 February 2010

The paintings above show the view from Riva Degli Schiavoni in Venice with San Giorgio on the left and the Doges Palace (under scaffolding) on the right,  Santa Maria Della Salute is in the distance.

Below that is a view of Cleopatra’s Needle by the River Thames in London.

The New English Art Club (NEAC) annual open exhibition opens on Friday 27th November.  I am pleased to once again have work in this prestigious show.  Early exhibitors in this exhibition include Claude Monet and Edgar Degas along with Walter Sickert, James McNeil Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Philip Wilson Steer.

Above: Stainforth Autumn Morning, oil on board, 4×10 inches.

If you can’t make along in person or want to make sure that special picture doesn’t get bought before you get there, most of the paintings in the exhibition can be seen and purchased online now. 

Above: Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire. 8 x 20 inches, oil on board

I was back in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, last week.  And, being a plein air painter, there was a lot of weather to contend with.  Frequently the best painting weather – ie. when it wasn’t actually raining – came in the last hour or so before dusk. But working fast against the fading light in wild locations is one of the great things about being a landscape painter.

Above: Me painting after sunset on a calm evening at Newgale.

We visited artist Naomi Tydeman and walked our dogs on the beach and out to Monkstone Point at sunset before an unforgetable dinner.   Later in the week we met up for a meal with thriller writer Scott Mariani at his country house in a secret location in the wilds of West Wales.

I snapped this shot of the figure above walking across the sand or was it the sky at Newgale Beach. Below is another view of the same wonderful beach. 

Waterloo Bridge, oil on board 10 x 20 inches, 25.5 x 51 cm. Sold

The painting above is one of sixteen of my oil paintings of London, The River Thames and Surrey that will be on show in London for the rest of the month.

Eight Man Show
Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) Ltd
2 – 28 November 2009

Featured artists:
Roy Connelly
Lisa Graa Jensen RI
Chris Kendrick
Tina Morgan SWA
Liam O’Farrell
Steven Outram RBA
Richard Sorrell NEAC PPRWS
Tessa Shedley Jordan

Gallery Open 10am to 7:30pm Monday to Saturday:
124 -126 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LN UK

(Opposite the Old Vic Theatre and just 2 minutes from Waterloo Underground and mainline station) Tel: 020 7620 1322/1324

 Visit the gallery website for more details.

I visited the Isle of Wight earlier this week to deliver a collection of recent paintings to Island Fine Arts in Bembridge.

After dropping off the pictures there was just time to paint the view from Culver Down, before having a fish and chip supper and catching the ferry home.  It would have been  nice to have stayed longer.

Today, I was pleasantly surprised to find one of the paintings on the front page of the gallery website.  Rye Harbour, shown above, is in oil on board and measures 12 x 12 inches.  It was painted on location in the fading light just after sunset.

You can find Island Fine Arts at: 53 High Street, Bembridge, Isle of Wight, PO35 5SE. Tel: 01983 875 133  and at the Affordable Art Fair 22-25 October, in Battersea Park, London. Stand E6

The Hampshire Art Fair opens today.  I will have a collection of recent landscape oil paintings, including the one shown above which is a view of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire.  It is 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, and was painted on location in July 2009.

Other artists taking part include: Lousie Balaam, Chris Daynes, Mary Jackson NEAC, Richard Price, Richard Sorrell NEAC RWS, Karl Terry and many others.

The art fair will be taking place at a new venue this year, visit the website for full details.

Norman Court Farm
Upper Clatford
Andover
Hampshire SP11 7HB

Yesterday I visited the Corot to Monet exhibition at the National Gallery.   The show follows the development of outdoor landscape painting up to the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.

One of the many painters featured is Eugène  Boudin, who taught Monet to paint outside.  Above is one of the sketches I made at the exhibition,  one of Boudin’s beach scenes from Trouville.