Portrait : The lock keeper

The lock keeper

Portrait painting in oils

Canal boat

New work for the New Year. Best wishes to all,

David

Manor House

Manor house

Oil painting on canvas
By David Shaw

Painting : Carnac standing stones

Standing stones

New painting of an old subject : these ancient standing stones in Carnac, Brittany have been there since around 4500 BC. There are over 4000 on the site, spread over 4km. I tried to capture some of the light there. Here's a detail :

Standing stones detail

Seascape : Wall by the sea

Wall by the sea

Well, here we are again. This seascape is what it is really : a wall by the sea. If we look a little further, we could say that it's a brief moment of freedom in this world of written and unwritten rules! Below, is a close up detail of the painting:

Wall by the sea : detail

Sail school view

Sail school view

New work. Acrylic paint on stretched canvas.

Apparently this is my painting blog post number 100: I think I'll celebrate with a nice cup of tea!

Detail

Light on river revisited

Light on river revisited

I don't normally go back to a painting once finished, but I've made an exception to add color to this one, with more blues and pink over the greens I found too drab. You can scroll down to the older version if you want to try and spot the difference.

Cobbler's Shop

Cobbler's Shop

New work. This cobbler's shop can be found on the Wirral in northwest England. I used water based acrylic paints to paint this picture. I'm quite happy with colors. I chose some shimmering metallic paints: gold, copper, blues and reds that change color when you move around the painting and when the light moves over its surface.

Red fire engine

Red fire engine

Green tractor on show day

Green tractor on show day

Mousehole, Cornwall

Mousehole, Cornwall

Acrylics on canvas
This is a new painting depicting a village and fishing port in Corwall called Mousehole.

Bedroom in Arles, after Van Gogh

La chambre à Arles

detail

Oils on canvas
I enjoyed paintng this copy of Bedroom in Arles, one of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings. It's a great way to really observe another artist's work, something that Mr Van Gogh did throughout his painting career. He actually painted 3 different versions of La Chambre à Arles. My painting is based on the last version he painted and can be found in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. I've tried to keep the feel of the original picture without trying to exactly imitate the artist's brushwork. Also, I tried to stay close to the colours of the painting today (the colours will have changed since he painted it in 1889). My version is actually 30 cm less wide than the original (57.5 x 74 cm) and I will be hanging it on my wall presently!

Light on the river

Painting : Light on the river

Oils on wooden panel
Light on the river

Seascape : La Côte Sauvage

Seascape : La Côte Sauvage

Oils on wooden panel

Painting : Boy with Beret

Portrait : boy with beret

Oils on wooden panel

Hay Bales

Hay bales

Detail

Acrylics on canvas
Here's a painting I've been working on using a palette knife, Liquitex acrylic paint and light modelling paste.

Thatched cottage

Thatched cottage (detail)

Acrylics on canvas

The Harvest

The Harvest (detail)

Acrylics on canvas

Submarine base / base sous-marine Lorient

Base sous-marine, Lorient

Oils on wooden panel
A new painting to kick start the new year and a new decade!
The picture represents the imposing German U-boat submarine base built in Lorient, France during the World War II occupation. It took 15, 000 workers and 900 000 m³ of concrete to build in 1941. In 1943, allied bombers tried in vain to destroy the base dropping 4000 tonnes of bombs on the town, flattening most of Lorient's historical buildings in the process (source: Wikipedia).

Detail

Lorient buildings / bâtiments

Lorient buildings

Oils on canvas
I enjoyed the creaminess of the oils for this one, compared to the more fluid acrylics I normally favour. When I saw the flags against the blue sky I thought of Claude Monet's 1870 picture : Hôtel des roches noires, Trouville.  All the best for the New Year by the way!

Detail

Lanvaudan church /église

Oils on canvas
I recently did an art exhibition in the garden of a building facing this church. During the exhibition, this view caught my eye, with the church 'framed' by the other stone buildings. And now it's a painting!

Robin Redbreast / Rouge-gorge

Robin Redbreast

Detail

Acrylics on canvas
Portrait of a robin. I had to paint very quickly before it flew away :)

Church door

Acrylics on paper (400g/m2)

Light through church window

Soft pastels on paper 30 x 40 cm
Same church, different window. This time a view from inside the building. I think the soft 'dusty' pastels lend themselves well to the subject of light and the 'dazzle' effect I've tried to recreate.

Pastel portrait

Soft pastels on paper

Homeward Bound

Soft pastels on paper

Blue mountains, closed shutters

Soft pastels on paper 30 x 40 cm
Another picture completed during summer travels

Pastel view

Soft pastels on pape
Your colour palette comes to life
In the morning sunlight
You're forever twenty years or more
Like a rose before the storm
You're my world, my heart, my soul
A circle around my life

A picture worth a medal!

This painting 'Vines and Mountains' has won a bronze medal at a 'salon des arts' in southern France. It can sometimes be difficult to put a price on a piece of artwork... but it's good to know that someone, somewhere thinks this one is worth a medal!

The Starry Night

Paint on canvas 65 x 54 cm
A tribute to the great artist Vincent Van Gogh
Detail :

Summer field

Acrylics on canvas board
This landscape is quite small. About half of the work was done with a palette knife. Small brushes were used to add colour and texture, especially in the foreground. Here's a detail :

Trees in meadow

Acrylics on wooden board
These 3 trees caught my eye, standing proud in the summer heat, offering their valuable shade to passers by...

School for girls

Acrylics on wooden panel

A beach with a view 2

 

Acrylics on wooden panel

The wooden panel had 2 coats of acrylic base coat (a creamy pale yellow ochre) with a light sanding between coats. All good painters do a couple of undercoats, and the really good ones do 3. I'm working my way up to that!

Impressions Of Snow

Acrylics on canvas panel

Fireplace

Acrylics and oils on wood panel 30 x 40 cm
I was nice and warm painting this!

Red Tractor

Oils on wood panel

Fiddler on the chair

Acrylics on cold pressed paper 400g/m2

Breton and horse

Oils on wood
In the silky morning, the man watches over his younger comrades filling the cart with 'wrack' (seaweed), a natural fertilizer for the local crops...

Town hall building / Hôtel de ville

Oils on wooden panel
A few more brush strokes here and there and I think it's just about finished!