Tag: mall galleries

Still Life and Landscapes from the Sea.

I often buy fresh fish from the fish market in town, it is a busy outdoor market in the port town of La Spezia in Italy. These Red Mullets are fresh in each morning and they are very good fried or can also be served painted and put in a frame which was my first choice here. There is something I like when you buy fish wrapped up in paper instead of plastic and at the market everything is hastily wrapped up like this while the fish monger shouts about at whatever else there is for sale. When I got home I couldn’t wait to unwrap the package and start about painting the white paper set against the lovely pinky red and silver tones of the Mullets.

This painting will be exhibited this wednesday in – The Royal Society of Marine Exhibition – in London opening 30th September – 10th October.  The show is up on the walls and open to the public (and also online as always for those who cannot be there). What a year it’s been!! I am very thankful that at least a small part of me has been sent to London, maybe I in person will patiently follow next year 😉

Six Red Mullets. 30cm x 40cm. oil on panel.

Every year from May to July when the sea has warmed up and the anchovies are big and lean they come into the markets and we buy enough to put them under salt, a process that rewards you with a tasty treat that will last and taste deliciously fresh for ages. Here are a few left over, the cat got these ones at the end.

FIve Anchovies on a Plate. 20cm x 35cm, oil on panel.

I spent an afternoon at the beach in Pietrasanta in Versiglia which is a big long stretch of sand that is the part of north-western Tuscany just next door to Liguria.  It was nice to see so much sand infront of me and I sat on the shore while painting.

Pietrasanta, 20cm x 30cm, oil on panel.

Le Grazie is a small fishing village near La Spezia. There is a beach opposite which gives a good view across the harbour.  Many of the beaches are formed of rocky coves and colourful fishermens villages and the sea is always rich in colour by all the reflected light from its surroundings.

Le Grazie. 20cm x 35cm.

And here below are a couple of paintings of Levanto which is the next town north of Monterosso. This is where my anchovies came from.  The sea is crystal clear.

Behind Vallesanta. 30cm x 40cm, oil on panel.

And the beach next door during July.

Vallesanta, Levanto. 30cm x 50cm. Oil on panel.

Paintings from the Summer, Bembridge, Isle of Wight.

From Bembridge Point. Oil on panel. 30cm x 40cm

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.

Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition, 11th – 20th Oct, Mall Galleries, London.

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.

liftingfogbembridgebeach_annadennis_oilpainting
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:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1KdnitVappPMStHVfMI5KDfxCOe86_Trq&ll=50.7731686837871%2C-0.6744136582030933&z=10

My painting comes up under Bembridge along with other artists paintings too. You need to pedal down south to the Isle of Wight. It took me ages.

But it is a really cool idea….here is a zoomed in screenshot.

mapliftingfog_annadennis_oilpainting

I look forward to the exhibition next week and I hope to see you there!

During the Summer.

duringthesummer
During the Summer. Oil on Linen, 100cm x 120cm.

I am really pleased that this painting of our vegetable garden “During the Summer” has been chosen to be exhibited in the Royal Society of Oil Painters Exhibition in the Mall Galleries, London from the 2nd Dec – 13th Dec. The exhibition will be showing over 300 paintings from 120 artists and I’m looking forward to seeing all the works on show.

This painting is something I worked on during this summer, it’s bigger than usual and a nice change to working small, I feel I can be more imaginative with more space on the canvas. Bigger brushes and less to worry about!

There is an art to selecting the site to grow vegetables and deciding what to plant in a small time limit, this summer in Italy was extremly hot and from experience painting is sometimes more simple than growing vegetables! Just like oil painting growing things requires alot of learning by mistakes and the best advice we get is from the local people who pass us down knowledge learnt from their previous generations working the land.

I painted this scene to remember what was growing here during the summer of 2015 and be reminded to bring about new changes for 2016. Next year it will be a completely different layout because seasonal scenes like this only last a couple of months before plants get eaten (the vicious cycle of life!) and new plants grow.

It would be great to see you on the 2nd December at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2015 – See more at:

http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/royal-institute-oil-painters-annual-exhibition-2015#sthash.H33vZJBc.dpuf

Have a good weekend!