Big Loulou and the artists

Big Loulou (rescued from the rain)

8"x10"

Derek Daniells and Steven Alexander

 Peter Cronin

Rob Adams

Michael Richardson

Haidee-Jo Summers and Richard Bond

Sorry for all the images, but I wanted to introduce you to some of the great painters that I met while on the Wapping Group and friends trip to Brittany. Starting at the top, in Port-en-Bessin, many of us were entranced by the large fishing boats loaded onto cradles on the marine railway. My unfinished painting is at the top. Gros Loulou (Big Loulou) is the boat on the left, and in the second photo you'll see Dereck Daniells and Steven Alexander, members of the Wapping Group, with the same subject. It was a day of swiftly moving clouds and lots of patches of rain. Up and down came the umbrellas, and finally we got clobbered with a torrential downpour. Haidee and I gave up, but Derek and Steven finished their paintings, which were beautiful. Take a look at Derek's website here and an article on Steven here.

Next is Peter Cronin, from Wales, who paints wonderful watercolors. Check out his website and be sure to look at the demo.

I enjoyed Rob Adam's work in both watercolor and acrylic, and bought a watercolor sketchbook like the one he uses at Cornelissens in London. He has a very instructive blog (Brittany post here and in the next post) and a nice website.

Michael Richardson is another Wapping Group member, and with his partner, Kate Borg, organized the trip. Many thanks to them both! They do several painting trips to France each year, so check out Michael's website for both his paintings and the trips (Holidays).

I've mentioned Haidee before, do look at her website, and check out the paintings in her soon to open Exhibition 2012.

Richard Bond paints both in oils and water color, and they are both wonderful. His website is here.

I was fortunate enough to come home with paintings by several of these painters, and hope to complete my collection.

And I promise to finish "Big Loulou".

Thanks for your patience.

Douarnenez Sunset

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

This is the sunset view from a spot near that painted in my last post.  Michael Richardson was painting next to me this time. Once again, I choose to omit the island, and to capture the moment just as the sun was swallowed in the clouds. It was a beautiful, a very pleasant evening for painting.

Douarnenez Mist - Sold

Douarnenez Mist

I've returned from France, but have more paintings to post from the trip. This one was done on our first morning in Douarnenez, and it was misting, a common occurrence on the trip (when it wasn't actually raining!). Here's a link to a post by Haidee-Jo Summers, who was painting a few yards to the right of me that morning. Note that Haidee has included the Ile Tristan, which I left to the mist. Do take a look at Haidee's other posts, her paintings are wonderful, and she did a really good job of keeping up with them on her blog.

David Painting in Concarneau

I've visited some beautiful places here in Brittany with my English friends. In this painting, David Lloyd-Smith is working on a painting overlooking the beach in Concarneau.

Saint Malo

I'm in Brittany, painting with the Wapping Group and friends from London. Yesterday we were in Saint Malo and it was raining, as it has done a lot lately. I found shelter on a covered stage meant for the band, and was able to paint the cafes across the square.

It rained again today in Douarnenez. But the food's good.

The "Wee Bluey"

On our visit to Glasgow, we stopped in at the Transportation Museum and it was marvelous. I loved the 3 wheel cars, particularly the "Wee Bluey", with the single wheel in the front. It was on a stand, which I left out of the drawing, so it looks like it's flying. Thanks to my friend Mike for the recommendation to visit this museum, the model ships were fantastic.

Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

We are visiting the Scottish island of Islay, off the west coast. It's known for peaty scotch whiskey, which we are greatly enjoying. We're staying in Bowmore, and this watercolor shows the town from the pier. The Bowmore distillery is to the right of this scene. It was great to have a day of sunshine!

Doing the crossword

It was a rainy Sunday in Edinburgh yesterday. This man was doing the crossword at Glass and Thompson while we had tea and scones. Wonderful art galleries in that area. I particularly liked the Helen Wilson exhibit at the Open Eye, done from an in depth study at the Scottish opera.

We're Off!

We're off on our trip to Scotland and France. Whiskey first, painting later.

I've been looking at iPhone apps for the trip, not wanting to take my laptop or even an iPad. This drawing was done with my finger on the free version of Inspire, a woman waiting for her flight to depart.

Posting with my iPhone

I'm going on a trip in a few weeks and would like to leave my laptop at home. This is a test post using only my iPhone to take a photo of a painting, crop it, and post it to my blog.

I started this painting on Monday at the Royal River Boat Yard. I couldn't resist the pattern of the travel lift straps across the front of the Irish Piper, sitting on jack stands (not yet in the painting).

What do you think, does this method work?

PS - The hardest part was getting all of the image. Be sure to use the image settings in the blogger iPhone app to do that, no need to resize the image beforehand.