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

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.

Richmond Upon Thames

Here is one of my recently completed paintings.  It was painted over three days in March 2009 on the river front at Richmond in Surrey.  Most of the work was done on the first two days and on the third day I was just making a few corrections.   The picture was allowed to dry between painting sessions.

As most of my pictures are painted in ‘one wet’, it was quite a luxury this time to be able to work over dry paint.   One of the things I enoy about painting a picture like this one is the challenge of painting the people (staffage).  They are all painted from life and, obviously, it is easier when they come and sit by the river than when they just walk by.  In which case I will often mark the position of their head and feet to fix their size on the canvas and adjust the scale as they walk away – diminishing in size.  And as for those who cycled past – well – I’ll just pretend I didn’t see them.

It is oil on board and measures 10 x 20 inches (25.5 x 51cm).