Gelidonya 2
10″ x 8″ acrylic on card
This is my second interpretation of Gelidonya Lighthouse from a different viewpoint and using a different palette.
Gelidonya 2
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Tag Archives: my paintings
Fethiye Postcard
Fethiye Bay 2013
SOLD
This is my favourite view of Fethiye and my original photo, taken from the hillside above the Marina Vista Hotel and the boatyards, has a picture postcard quality that I rarely capture. The plan is to create a large landscape and this is my first studio sketch using that photo which I intend to follow up with some plein air work. I limited my pallette to just the three primaries and white and worked with a large brush to try and keep the detail minimised. I’m really looking forward to the challenge of developing this as it’s a more picturesque subject than most of my work on Kayakoy.
Hedgehog Happy Hounds
Not much sleep last night after a chorus of all the dogs in the area woke us at 2.30. Unfortunately it was started by our pair, Ziggy and Zara doing their best to make us believe they were being tortured with hot needles. As it turned out that was a fair description.
Opening the door revealed a pattern of bloody spots and paw prints and we thought, oh no, here we go again! Luckily, all became clear when Gina discovered nothing more sinister than a very large hedgehog. This was deposited in the field opposite and serenity reigned again, well as near as we ever get to it!
Kaya in Motion
24″ x 18″, Acrylic on canvas
At least the horrible wet weather today enabled me to finish this landscape. Here, I’m trying to capture some of the spirit of Kayakoy as the changes in the wind move it into another phase. It’s been out of sight for a long time, hidden away and quietly corroding, but the future is rushing in as politicians, developers and all the other interested parties begin to unfold their plans and read us their agendas. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Machete Vs Machine
I was given a telling off yesterday by my neighbour, the farmer’s wife. We have a beautiful Mimosa tree http://spiritrisingherbs.com/?p=33 which blooms throughout the summer but it was planted against the garden wall and, willow like, it’s branches hang down and block the road. I can live with that but, annoyingly, they also grow through the electricity cables.
Our Mimosa
So every few years I have to give it a severe haircut. I had just climbed down after the latest operation when I was sharply interrogated about my intentions regarding the 50 or so branches strewn across the road. Up ’til then I’d been using a hand saw as chainsaws, me and ladders don’t mix but I explained that I would be using my chainsaw to lop the branches into firewood. Makina yok! she said, zooming off and after a couple of minutes returned with a wicked looking and razor sharp machete and a chopping block. I was then given a lesson in the art of stripping off the twigs and lopping the 10 ft. branches into one foot lengths with the same apparent effort as it takes to scramble an egg. Suitably impressed, I was handed the heavier than it looked billhook and told to start. Well, after two minutes I discovered, unsurprisingly, it wasn’t anywhere near as easy as it looked!
However, I persevered and managed to complete the job in record time with no damage to the enviroment apart from a couple of blisters. I sure my neighbours enjoyed a good laugh….”Guess what! He was going to use a machine to make a bit of firewod!” And Gina has promised to buy me a machete for Xmas….mmmm
Kayakoy Chimney
10″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
Anyway this has nothing whatsoever to do with my painting today which is of a lonely chimney stack back in Kayakoy.
The River Bend
River Bend
10″ x 8″, Acrylic on board
Today I took Daisy, our new boat, out in the bay for our first sail and despite a few butterflies to start we had a great time getting to know her. During the trial, some more small jobs became evident and that will keep me from the easel a little longer than planned. So tonight I fell back onto one of my favourite subjects. Rivers are an endless source of delight and inspiration to me and despite the demands of Daisy, my new mistress, I managed to produce this painting.
Fethiye Palm Island
Fethiye Palm Island
24″ x 18″, Acrylic on canvas
This little corner of Fethiye is in an area subject to major redevelopment at present, and often overlooked by residents and visitors alike, mostly due to being focused on the traffic hazard, I suspect. Since I took this photo it has been enhanced with the addition of a huge TV advertising screen on the island and a massive pediment fronting the jeweller’s shop on the left. There is also now, to the right, the major works of the Fethiye Amphitheatre Restoration Project and there seem to be more buildings on the hillside too.
As I said last week, I’ve been getting the boat ready and not had much free time for painting but I’m really pleased to finish this scene as I think it highlights one of the easily missed views of this amazing place.
Kayaköy Festıval 2013
Kayakoy Landscape No.5
10″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
Cultural Connections is an annual celebration of literature, film, art, music, dance and food… all the stuff of life that links humanity throughout the world. Both stimulating, challenging, occasionally provocative and always fun, Cultural Connections is an excitingly different and thought provoking way to explore the things that bring people together.
This five-day event, Kayaköy Connections 2013 will celebrate the Kaya valley in southwest Turkey, its long history, rich culture and links with Greece. Acclaimed authors Louis de Bernières, Victoria Hislop, Jeremy Seal will be travelling from the UK and Sofka Zinovieff will be joining them from Athens. Others, from Turkey, Greece, yet to be decided, will join them to take part in a range of thought provoking, fun and entertaining events and gatherings.
More information can be found here http://culturalconnectionsfestival.com/
Kaya light
Kayakoy Landscape 101
20″ x 14″ Acrylic on canvas
Mostly the light is harsh and unforgiving, it comes from directly above so doorways and windows become black holes. Then again, the sun shines on the white plaster of an internal wall and the window opposite beams like a searchlight. Other days the light is hazy and diffuse, and there isn’t much contrast, shadows get bleached out, then there are no really dark areas and the light bounces off the stone into the shadows. The walls have eroded into dark and light areas that are independant of the light. So a vertical dark band on a facing wall gives the impression of a shadowed side wall which would naturally be light (if it was there!). And all the walls are like that. Its very confusing to the eye and I struggle to resolve it without losing realism. For example, the apse(in shadow) is lighter than the side wall of the church (in the light) and the pink plastered walls actually seem to glow It’s very tricky. On the other hand it’s one of the things that make Kayakoy so visually fascinating to me.
Antifouling blues
Daisy the Dog
10″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
Well, it’s been a week since I last posted anything although I’ve been doing loads of painting. Unfortunately only rolling several coats of sky blue antifouling paint onto the bottom of my boat! However, it’s finished now, until next year of course, and Daisy goes back in the water tomorrow. That’s the boat, not our Yorkshire Terrier who coincidentally shares the same name.
The Colour Purple
Armagnac Autumn with Lavender and Hay
15″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
A chat with Gina about the 2013 Spring/Summer fashion colours got me thinking about just how many neon colours there are in nature. Acid greens and yellows in Spring, vivid pink and orange sunsets, ocean blues and the violets and purples of distant hills. I suppose that’s why I am so dazzled by the Colourists and Impressionists who gave full expression to what lay right in front of them and how brave they were!
All that talk of food in my last post kept me in the mood for another French autumn picture. I can smell the lavender and hay and feel that luscious late heat coming off the well baked hills.