On Location – Page 8 – Roy Connelly

Pembrokeshire Pictures

Leave a Comment / On Location, Paintings / Roy

Above: Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire. 8 x 20 inches, oil on board
This painting will feature in my exhibition at Island Fine Arts in June 2011

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.

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A work in progress

Leave a Comment / Advice for Artists, On Location / Roy

Earlier this week I was painting the River Thames at Strand on the Green. The top picture shows the painting a couple of minutes after I started. I have used very thin paint to draw in the basic composition.

The middle photograph was taken twenty minutes later. With a dramatic and fast moving sky I needed to work quickly to capture it. The trees are a little more solid but the river is still almost untouched.

The last photo shows the painting an hour later. The trees and river have been worked on together, with a little more work on the sky. By this point the day was starting to brighten up and touches of blue were appearing in the sky. It was time stop as I did not want to end up with one scene painted on top of another.

I was working in oils on an 8 x 16 inch board. Click on each image for a larger view.

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On the Jane Austen Trail

3 Comments / On Location / Roy

The two oil paintings above were painted yesterday at Chawton in Hampshire, the home of Jane Austen. The top one is Jane Austen’s house where she lived for the last 8 years of her life. Below it, is Chawton Great House now known as Chawton House Library. It was owned by Jane’s brother, Edward.

Below is the artist’s faithful dog guarding a work in progress.

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Fleeting Effects

Recent Painting trips

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Leave a Comment / Exhibitions, On Location / Roy

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

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Chicken Sitting

A day in London

3 Comments / Exhibitions, On Location / Roy

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 😉

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Caution Wet Paint

2 Comments / Advice for Artists, On Location / Roy

: Raindrops on my palette

This evening I found myself rushing to try and finish a picture before the rain started. I was set up on a hill and could see the rain sweeping towards me across the valley.

The rain won on this occassion. I often finish pictures in the rain and sometimes even start them in the rain. Working in oils it is possible to carry on in quite bad weather when my watercolour colleagues have long packed up.

It is quite easy to remove enough water from the palette to keep painting just by giving it a good shake (remember to remove the dipper first). In theory the paint stays in place and the water slides off. In practice, well, that depends on how much you like to thin your paint.

If you have any tips or comments on painting in adverse onditions you can add them using the comments link below.

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A quick sketch

1 Comment / On Location / Roy

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.

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