ivy branch ii

© JANE MINTER

"ivy branch ii"

watercolour study 
24 x 32 cm 

work in progress ...posting another study of ivy branch ! ... I often paint quite a few studies  of the same subject... I wasn't happy with the intial wash but decided to carry on working on it as an exercise to explore the subject more. .

ivy seed head sketch

© JANE MINTER
ivy seed head" 

watercolour sketch 

painted from life

........a small loose watercolour sketch of ivy seed head  in jam jar painted on offcut 

ivy branch

© JANE MINTER
"ivy branch"

ivy seed heads 

watercolour study

24 x 32cm  

.....posting another small watercolour study of the ivy branch with seed heads .....painted from life

ivy seed head

© JANE MINTER

"ivy seed head"

24 x 32cm 

watercolour study

painted from life  

.....the beautiful  clusters of ivy seed heads caught my eye this week  ...i'm posting an initial study of a single ivy seed head.

textures - watercolour + salt

© JANE MINTER
"watercolour + salt"
detail of watercolour wash 

© JANE MINTER
"watercolour + salt" 
section  of watercolour wash 

....posting another salt wash ... i used fine table salt here with  lots of water ....."washing off" some areas where i had already applied salt  and re - applying salt and pigment in other areas.

watercolour wash

© JANE MINTER
"watercolour wash" 

watercolour + salt

wired buttons

© JANE MINTER

"wired buttons"

watercolour 

24 x 32 cm

still life of a line of tiny old buttons threaded together with wire .

carrube

© JANE MINTER

"carrube"

carob pods
 "ceratonia" 
32 x 41cm 
 watercolour study painted from life 

..... the dark carob pods have started falling from the trees

olive branches

© JANE MINTER

"olive branch i " 

watercolour study 

32x41cm

painted from life ...no pencil

© JANE MINTER

"black olives" 

close up of "olive branch i"
watercolour  
painted from life ...no pencil

© JANE MINTER
"olive branch ii" 

watercolour study
32x41cm
painted from life ..no pencil

© JANE MINTER

"black olive" 

close up of "olive branch ii"
watercolour
 painted from life 

November marks the.time for olive harvest in Italy ....the olives are ripe and "olive picking season" has started ....posting a couple of  the watercolour studies of olive branches I painted this week  .

glazing techniques in watercolour

"orange + blue"

watercolour wash 

based on glazing exrecise from 

"MASTERING GLAZING TECHNIQUES IN WATERCOLOUR" 

by Don Rankin 

"yellow + red + blue" 
watercolour washes
initial glazing exercises 

 from 

"MASTERING GLAZING TECHNIQUES IN WATERCOLOUR" 
by Don Rankin 

....whilst I was parpicipating with 100 washes challenge Maggie Latham recommended an excellent book  "MASTERING GLAZING TECHNIQUES IN WATERCOLOUR" by Don Rankin .

I'd  like to thank Don Rankin  for his  kind permission to post my initial glazing exercises from his book "MASTERING GLAZING TECHNIQUES IN WATERCOLOUR"
below is the link to his website.

Don Rankin's website : 

http://www.donrankinwatercolorstudio.com    

ART and ARCHITECTURE

" Façade"

MUSEUM BRANDHORST 

MUNICH GERMANY 

designed by SAURBRUCH HUTTON architects 

 photos showing  glazed ceramic rods 
photos by JANE MINTER  NOV 2012 

....sharing a few photos I took of  the dynamic and innovative  façade of Museum Brandhorst which we visited this weekend . The design of the façade is considered as a work of art in itself.

" 
 http://www.museum-brandhorst.de/

 Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto :

 the current exhibition "Revolution" shows a series of  incredible nocturnal seascape photos by photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto
http://www.museum-brandhorst.de/en/exhibition-preview/hiroshi-sugimoto.html

Artist CY Twombly :
"The meaning of the work is in the doing of it"
CY Twombly


The museum houses a large collection of CY Twombly paintings which were fascinating to see
http://www.museum-brandhorst.de/en/collection-brandhorst/cy-twombly.html

MUSEUM BRANDHORST 

photo by JANE MINTER  NOV 2012 

Blogosphere

© JANE MINTER
"secateurs"
"forbici"
32 x 41cm 
pruning sheers painted from life - 2010

I've been blogging for 3 years this month .... I'd just like to say a big thanks to all my fellow bloggers who follow my blog and take the time to leave comments .

A special word of thanks to the following bloggers for mentioning my blog in recent blog posts :

Many thanks to artist and writer  Katherine Tyrrell MAKING A MARK  for kindly mentioning  my blog on her post yesterday "WHO'S MADE A MARK THIS WEEK " . Katherine writes  a number of very informative and  interesting blogs which you can find links to on her blogspot  http://makingamark.blogspot.it/


The other week  French arist  Anne Le Maitre Blue de Prusse  who illustrates and writes the most beautiful travel logs showcased my blog . Please look at  her delightful  blog http://alm-bleudeprusse.blogspot.it/where you can find all her publications.   I love how Anne captured the Spire -Benigne on the cover of Djon carnet d'artiste . ...thankyou once again Anne  .

© Anne Le Maitre

"Dijon canet d'artiste"

Travel log

And Lastly :

I'd also like to thank artist Bix Nash who runs the watercolour challenges on www.idrawandpaint.com for mentioning my blog as a reference for the recent challenge for experimenting with textures .  Bix is currently  running an autumn watercolour challenge for this month .

Bix Nash  runs painting holidays in France you can find her facebook page France Painting Holiday otherwise  www.francepaintingholiday.com

   

Spaghetti

© JANE MINTER

"spaghetti"

watercolour study 

56 x76cm 

Fabriano Artistico
...box of spaghetti painted from life 

dry dock ii

© JANE MINTER

"red + yellow + blue" 

waterline ii

dry dock inspiration ii 

watercolour wash

32 x 41 cm 

.....so much work is involved in maintaining and painting boats .Many of the weathered boat hulls in the dry docks are similar to works of art in progress.

dry dock

© JANE MINTER

"red + blue" 

waterline i

dry dock inspiration

watercolour wash

32 x 41 cm 

....inspired by boats in  dry dock  I 've started to work on an idea for  a series of paintings based on photos I have taken whilst wallking around  a boatyard.

pomegranates - melagrane

© JANE MINTER

"melagrane"

"pomegranates"

watercolour
25 x 35cm 

still life painted from life no pencil

discarded

© JANE MINTER

"discarded"

 found  empty shotgun catridge - birdshot catridge 
watercolour sketch 
still life 

Valle del Guà

© JANE MINTER

"Valle del Guà"

Veneto , Italia

view across the valley 

small plein air watercolour sketch 

A6 Format 

Lagoon of Marano

© JANE MINTER

"Laguna di Marano"

Lagoon of Marano

watercolour
.painted from memory 

orange rose hip

© JANE MINTER

"orange rose hip" 

watercolour study WIP 

32 x 41cm

painted from life with no pencil sketch

.....posting  a  quick initial wet in wet study WIP painted with a large  flat brush 2" /50 mm .

old wooden cotton reel

© JANE MINTER

"old wooden cotton reel "
red thread ii 

watercolour sketch
painted from life ....no pencil

red thread

© JANE MINTER

"red thread" 

watercolour sketch 

watercolour wash

© JANE MINTER

"watercolour wash"

32 x 41cm
inspired by wine press

Treccia d'aglio

© JANE MINTER 
"treccia d'aglio"

string of gralic

watercolour study 

32 x 41cm
 ....painted from life with preliminary pencil sketch

Treccia di Cipolla Rosso di Tropea

© JANE MINTER

"Treccia di Cipolla Rosso di Tropea"

"string of onions"

watercolour study 

32 x 41cm

 ....painted from life with no preliminary pencil sketch

SMALL WORKS CHALLENGE with Maggie Latham

 © JANE MINTER

  © JANE MINTER 

 © JANE MINTER  

 © JANE MINTER  

"Garganega"

white grapes

A6 Format

Plein air  sketches 
September Small Works challenge 
SMALL WORKS CHALLENGE  by Maggie Latham  

Start of a new challenge 

SMALL WORKS CHALLENGE  by Maggie Latham 

if you wish to join in with the challenge below are the links to Maggie's blog and facebook group

 http://maggielathamfineart.blogspot.fr/2012/08/small-works-challenges-open-to-all.html

http://maggielathamsmallworks.blogspot.it/

 http://www.facebook.com/groups/smallworkschallengegroup/

....posting a few of my first plein air sketches and washes from Maggie's  SMALL WORKS  September challenge .
The white grapes "Garganega" turn a beautiful golden shade when ripe ...with the sketches i tried to capture the colours  . I made an inital flat wash of raw sienna on a large sheet of paper before sub-dividing the sheet into A6 format to make 16 small plein air sketches in the vineyard. It was extremely hot so I had to work quickly with mixed results.

13" inches

© JANE MINTER

"13" inches" 

tape measure ii 

watercolour study  

32cm x 41cm fontenay canson 

inches

© JANE MINTER

"inches"

tape measure 

watercolour 

24 x 32 cm 

 painted from life 

toothbrush

© JANE MINTER

 "toothbrush"

 "spazzolino da denti"

watercolour

24cm x 32cm
....painted from life with no preliminary pencil sketch

Ionian islands - plein air sketches

© JANE MINTER

Ionian Islands - Greece

section of sandstone rock formation 

watercolour plein air sketch 

24 x 32 cm

© JANE MINTER

Ionian Islands- Greece

sandstone cliffs

quick watercolour plein air sketch 

24 x 32 cm

.... a couple of watercolour plein air sketches from a recent sailing trip .... we sailed from Montenegro along the Albanian coast to the Ionian Islands - Greece . The clear turquoise waters with the sandstones of the Islands are striking . I found the formation and patterns of the sandstone incredibly beautiful and inspiring. Sketching on deck is challenging as the boat is always in continuous movement !