Here are a few oil paintings of things that grew in our garden this autumn. I enjoyed doing the couple of still life paintings outside instead of placing what you find outside and then bringing them inside and placing them carefully on a table with the right light like i did with the onions.
Saffron Crocus. Oil on panel.
These are the Crocus that you can use for cooking, the red strands of saffron are more valuable than gold and taste better too although I’ve heard some crocuses are posionous if eaten so be careful!
Onions, Oil on Panel
Beautiful pink onions from the garden, one of Renoirs most memorable paintings (in my eyes) was a still life of some onions – “Oignons”- that reminded me of these ones although I think his were a different variety with the skin being more yellow. His onions came from Naples 🙂
Three Quinces, Oil on panel
Three quinces from the tree lying in the grass, I love the shape of them and their classic yellow colour when they are ripe.
Here a few paintings while visiting the Isle of Wight. The weather was always sunny hence the repeating painted blue skies! This is a great spot of the entrance channel from Bembridge harbour leading into the sea. The old breakwater in the foreground is in need of repair as now the sand and shingle from the sea is fillling up the small harbour pretty fast. One day it will end up as a big sand pit. Then what will the owner of the harbour say?
Study Of Shells. Oil on panel, 30cm x 40cm.
This painting is currently on show in London for the Royal Society of Marine Artists in the Mall Galleries. It is a small still life of shells that my daughter found on Ducue Beach. When I got back to Italy I bluetacked the best shells onto a blue book and set them out in the sunlight to paint.
Bembridge Harbour. Oil on panel, 30cm x 40cm.
A nice spot of Bembridge Harbour to set up and paint where you can watch the boats and the tide go in and out, and the sand and shingle come in.
Seaview. on on canvas board. 30cm x 40cm.
Seaview is walking distance along the beach from Bembridge when the tide is out. In the distance you can see the mainland.
Before Summer arrives (snow is due Sunday and we are in Italy!! ) here are a couple of tree paintings that have been pending for a while on my computer.
Here I enjoyed trying to paint the early Spring light as it filtered through the woods behind the three Acacia trees. The light was cold and blue against the branches.
Midday. Oil on panel, 45cm x 55cm.
An olive grove in Tuscany. I walked around for a while and couldn’t make up my mind what to paint. It was winter and rain was on it’s way but I chose the olive trees because I think their colours are shown at their best when the light is muted and grey.
My oil painting ‘Lifting Fog on Ducie Beach, Bembridge’ has been selected for the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition in London. I very much enjoyed looking around the show last year and it felt nice to be in a gallery surrounded by paintings inspired by the marine enviroment, it had a good feel with everyone exploring all the many diversities of the one subject, the sea, and I had hoped to take part in it one day. So ‘one day’ has arrived and I am looking forward to visiting the exhibition next week. Most of the paintings are of the British coastline including mine that was painted on a beach in the Isle of Wight which is an island in the south where part of my family are originally from.
Lifting Fog, Ducie Beach. Isle of Wight. 50cm x 70cm. Oil on Panel.
I had hoped for a completely different feel when I set out to paint this one March morning last year, the sky was blue when I set out and I had planned to paint the view of the Bembridge Lifeboat Station with the tide breakers on the beach. I think that is why the sea is so fascinating because nothing can be planned and it all changes so quickly, the fog rises while the tide goes out, reflections in the water are there for a moment then they disappear while I am still trying to paint the sky and what is not there in the distance!
Google Maps have put together an interesting map of everyones paintings showing in the upcoming Marine Exhibition and where they were painted along Britain’s coast. Here is the link:
I often visit the Isle of Wight to catch up with family. When I was young we used to go for seaside holidays and visit my Granny who spent 101 years on the Island. Fond memories of times are spent there, on the car ferry over and then down to the beach at low tide. It was the British holidays by the sea that you don’t forget. The cold wet sand rubbing in your jelly sandals, the damp wind nipping your neck as you looked for sandy shells and then the walk home with handfuls of buckets and spades, dodging the dog mess on Ducie Avenue.
The Isle of Wight gives plenty to paint. There are the high downs and soaring cliffs to long sandy beaches fringed by farms and trees, fishing villages and sailing clubs. Here are just a few painted from my last trip. Others I will post soon when they are photographed.
Path to the Beach, Bembridge, Study. 20cm x 30cm. OIl on Panel.
Narrow bridleways and footpaths run all along the coast, you can walk all around the Island if you wish too. Next time I will go back with a bigger board to paint on because I liked this composition and all the receding greens. A little bit of blue sea in the distance is all I needed without having to go and get sand stuck in my paintbrushes on the beach!
Rising Tide Towards Seaview. 45cm x 50cm. OIl on Panel
This is the sea seen from the top left corner from the previous painting. When setting out to paint on the Isle of Wight you need a tide timetable to coordinate your painting time. It goes in and out more or less once a day, sometimes I would hope to paint the sand and then arrive and realise that it was still two feet under the sea. So here the tide was coming in and so were the crabs. Its amazing how they they find toes so tasty and I had to make a run for it, also my easel got really rusty after its little paddle in the salt water. I’m sure tying some type of plastic around each leg would save it in future maritime trips! The sea gives us so many moods and colours to look at and it is so changeable, nothing is ever the same as you left it the day before.
Lifting Fog, Ducie Beach. Isle of Wight. 50cm x 70cm. Oil on Panel.
And this is the same beach again, Ducie Beach in the early morning just as the fog was lifting. I hadn’t planned to paint fog that day, I had in mind a crisp view looking towards the Lifeboat Station with all the breakwaters in the foreground. Thanks to the fog I managed to blur out all the nitty-gritty because what I really wanted to paint were the old and gnarly breakwaters, (the wooden posts that artificially protect the beach from water erosion and are quite characteristic of this beach, anyway to me they are).
Lobster Study. 35cm x 45cm, oil on panel.
One thing for sure is you have to eat a lobster. I painted this one before it was politely devoured. These ones from the English Channel are bigger and sweeter than from anywhere else!
The Needles, Alum Bay. 17cm x 35cm. Oil on Panel
These toothlike white stacks of eroded chalk which have become world famous are called the Needles. The name comes from a fourth pillar (shown in the engraving below) which was more needle-shaped than what we see today. The original ‘Needle’ pillar collapsed in a storm in 1764, and at the far end is a red and white lighthouse which warns sailors of the treacherous waters. The Needles are both frightening and beautiful, a place for pirates, shipwrecks and suicides but also an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Fourth “Needle” that collapsed in 1764. ‘The Needles from Isaac Taylor’s “one inch map” of Hampshire’.
Please check back for more paintings of the Isle of Wight soon!
Trees and rivers are my inspiration here, they make up for buildings and the roads in towns. We are in Ligura at 370mt above sea level surrounded by chestnut trees, oak, walnut, hazelnut, acacia, pines and many more. Most of the trees I guess are about 40 years old, many grown up from long forgotton terraces that were cultivated when the valleys were more densely populated with people. This is an old nut tree, one of the survivors because it will always feed you!
Il Vecchio Noce. Oil on panel, 20cm x 30cm.
Just around the corner the river runs wild in heavy rain. The roaring of the water is exciting after a year of dry weather. I did this painting from a window looking down onto the river as it rained, it was luxury plein air painting with all the comforts of heat and a dry palette without those annoying raindrops that accumulate onto the brushes and make the colours feel as if you are painting with vaseline!
Here are some paintings of where I live in Liguria, Italy. They were all done in Spring and from life hence the spring greens.
The Way to Santa Maria. 60cm x 50cm, oil on panel.
There is a man in Santa Maria, this small hamlet above who once gave us some delicious onion sets from seeds that he has been using from the past fifty years, and before. They are the sweetest onions to be eaten raw in salads or stuffed. Not many people around here buy seeds but have been reseeding from the existing plant. So they say the tomatoes that are easily diseased are always the seeds bought from the mass producers in the shops!
Path in Spring. 35cm x 45cm, oil on wood.
This road takes you to another nearby village called Sasseta. Thirty years ago there was only a mule track but times have changed and there is now a road which even more bumpy than the mule track.
In the Garden. 75cm x 90cm, oil on canvas.
Our vegetable garden with sunflowers and cucumbers and various other things including my children having a snack 🙂
Wisteria before Bloom. 20cm x 30cm, oil on wood.
There is something I find a bit overwhelming when painting a Wisteria tree when it is in full bloom so here is a little sketch of it about to come into flower.
Ciao for now and just to keep up to date I will be posting some paintings from this summer soon!
Just one building sits on top of this mountain, the Sanctuario della Madonna del Dragnone. Monte Dragnone is just over 1000mt high and it lies in the area of Zignago, in the La Spezia region of Liguria. It has a very steep and rocky path climbing up beneath the pine trees to the summit where todays Santuario sits. Built in the 1800’s on a pre-christian site signs of the bronze and iron age have also been found.
The old Oak and the Sanctuario Della Madonna del Dragnone. Oil on wood, 35cm x 45cm.
As popular tradition tells us the Madonna appeared infront of a deaf shepherdess miracolously bringing back her voice. The spiritual following of the Madonna del Dragnone, Patron of Zignago, is still very popular and on the 8th September pilgrims from far and wide, old and young make their way on foot to the top of Monte Dragnone to the Sanctuary.
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Santuario di Nostra Signora dell’Ulivo. 20cm x 30cm, oil on wood.
This 17th century sanctuary of Nostra Signora dell’Ulivo is built on the hills overlooking Brugnato, a small Ligurian town that sits in the valley below Monte Dragnone. The Sanctuary has been built on one of the several oratories that were constructed by the Brugnato monks in the 7th Century. There wasn’t much room to get a good view of the facade, (and the same problem happened in the Dragnone Sanctuary!) however after a bit of exploring I preferred this view amongst the olive trees overlooking the valley. Each olive tree has metal plaques with names and dates on tied on chains around their trunks, if you are born here in this community then you can have an olive tree planted in your name.
Anna Dennis | Oil Painter 