Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

It was a cold gloomy day on Sunday so I spent some time painting a sunny day in Paris. This is the scene in the Luxembourg Gardens in July - the big tubs with oleanders and pomegranate trees are out, the flowers look gorgeous, the trees are backlit by dazzling sunshine. A young woman enjoys a quiet moment on the terrace
This acrylic painting is 8 x 8 inches and you can see it at http://www.etsy.com/listing/79740913/luxembourg-gardens-paris-original

Paris bridges

Two recent additions to my etsy shop are these summer views of the Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts. This is what you see from more or less the same point on the footpath at the downstream end of Ile de la Cite, when you look up and down river. It was great fun painting these little pictures - it brought back so many happy memories of holidays in Paris.
These paintings are each 5 x 7 inches and are on canvas boards. You can see them at http://www.etsy.com/listing/79350217/pont-neuf-paris-original-acrylic and http://www.etsy.com/listing/79368212/pont-des-arts-paris-original-acrylic

Rocks on the beach

My latest addition to the etsy shop - an abstract painting (acrylic) based on rocks on the beach. I'm always interested in rocks, cliffs, anything geological, for inspiration, and here I've had fun oversaturating the colours and emphasizing the dynamic linear elements, You can see this at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77836355/beach-rocks-small-original-acrylic

I've also been having some fun making ACEOS from old Paris Metro tickets - I thought they'd turn into quirky souvenirs of Paris. Here's an example:

A padlock on the Pont des Arts - the railings on the central part of this bridge have become covered with little padlocks, marked with lovers' initials or a heart or lips. This ACEO is at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77949758/paris-metro-ticket-padlock-aceo and I'll add a few more in coming days.

Old pictures, new etsy shop items

I've been going through some of my older paintings and sketches, and decided to add a few of them to my etsy shop. This one is a view of Clovelly in north Devon, from the precipitous street that winds its way down to the harbour, and is an oil pastel sketch for a painting that didn't work as well as the sketch. (I must try again; this is a very appealing view.) It's 16 x 16 inches, and you can see this sketch at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77644442/clovelly-harbour-original-oil-pastel

This is a quick sketch of a still life subject that was set, some years ago, in a local painting class. The chair had been painted a gorgeous viridian colour, and the leafy stems just seemed to explode in all directions from the old bottle. I tried a rough, Matisse-type approach for this one. This acrylic painting is 16 x 20 inches, and can be seen at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77579913/green-chair-original-acrylic-painting

And here are a couple of girls by the Seine in Paris. They just happened to be wearing colours that totally harmonized, so this was an irresistible subject. This acrylic painting is 16 x 20 inches and is at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77573389/girls-by-the-seine-original-acrylic

And finally, a fairly intensely coloured version of the peacock topiary in the garden next to Haddon Hall entrance (Derbyshire). I already have a little painting of this subject in my shop, and for the larger one here I simplified and smoothed the shapes and upped the brightness, so that it starts to look a bit surreal. It's weird what people can do with hedges! This garden always puts me in mind of Alice in Wonderland and the beautiful garden down the little passageway. This acrylic painting is at http://www.etsy.com/listing/77573879/peacock-topiary-haddon-hall-original

Tuileries Gardens, Paris

An early springtime view of the avenue of trees in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris. This was a mild, gentle day, and the contrast between the cast shadows and the golden sunlit areas was lovely. This was before the remodelling of the gardens, and I'm not sure if this scene looks the same now.
This acrylic painting (16 x 16) is available in my etsy shop, at:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/68218115/tuileries-paris-original-acrylic