Watercolour in the Warm

Mary Kemp - Boats at Blakeney -
 Watercolour  23 x 28 cms

Yet again the weather has been cold. It's too cosy indoors to venture out to the studio for very long, so I've painted another picture in watercolour of a scene that reminded me of a warm summers evening.
Colours I used were ultramarine blue, violet, burnt Sienna, cadmium  yellow, cerulean blue, raw sienna and a bit of alizarin crimson.
These boats were all jostled up together , settled for the night.

South Holland Open Arts Exhibition 2013

Mary Kemp - Jetty

Yesterday I took 3 paintings to the South Holland Arts Centre in Spalding Lincolnshire for their lovely annual open exhibition. I'd submitted three pictures and all were selected.
That leaves me wondering ; were my paintings really ok?, was the rest of the entry not very good? did they have too few entries and just filled it up with any old rubbish? or is my work so absolutely fantastic that Spalding just can't get enough of it? ......................
I saw a few of the other entries as I took my work in. I think I'm in excellent company.

Time for Tea - The First One

Mary Kemp - Time for Tea. 

Here's a picture I painted earlier. The first of what I hope will be a series.
This is painted on canvas panel with alkyd paints using just a small amount of Sansador spirit to dilute the paint where necessary. It didn't take too long. I had the idea in my head and painted it.

New Painting - Memories of Summer.

I have started a new painting.
I did quite a few drawings and photographed this table in the garden on a beautiful June day last year. I'd just picked some beautifully smelling lilac from the garden and  wanted to paint a picture of them against the clean white table cloth.
But there was something else on the go and the moment passed.
Now this year I found the drawings and photos and it brought it all back to me, so I've started by drawing out the outline. I'd planned it all on a small square of black paper with pastel pencils beforehand
The purple hight lights are put in and it's all ready to go tomorrow.
I love this stage of a painting. Everything is possible. The next masterpiece................

A Handy Piece of Kit.

I know this piece of MDF next to my palette looks a bit rubbishy. But it's one of my most useful gadgets, and I made it myself ! It's my version of a mahl stick , or a hand rest to stop your wet painting getting smudged when you work on it.
It consists of a piece of about 12 inch by 4 inch MDF with a couple of smaller blocks glued to either end. It just clears your working area and gives a large surface to rest upon. This has it's limitations of course but for a home made gadget I think it's very efficient.

South Holland Open Exhibition

I've had 3 pictures selected for the South Holland Open Exhibition in Spalding this year.
Here's one of them.

Mary Kemp - Three Ladies

Three ladies of my acquaintance. Do you know who you are?

Ongoing Work - Sun Bursting Through the Trees.

I have been painting the sun bursting through the trees in Wakeham Woods. I painted it first in watercolour and am now struggling with oils, in fact I'm using Griffin Alkyd because it dries quicker.
I like alkyd paints if I'm painting something smooth and detailed. It doesn't handle as well as oil paints for the more textural passages as they don't seem to have the physicality of our luscious oil colours.

I've painted most of the ground work, leaves and trees and grass. So the picture is of that. Now I've put masking tape all over the surface to work out where I want the sunbeams to go. That's the place I'm at, but you're not seeing that!

Lovely Etsy

My Etsy shop has been up and running for a while, not with a lot of input from me it has to be said. I initially posted some paintings and with one thing and another I forgot about it. But it is out there for all to see...http://www.etsy.com/shop/marykemp.

Mary Kemp - Evening Shadows.

And today I have had my first sale, one of my favourite paintings. Part of me will be sorry to see it go. Off all the way to Germany.