It has been a while since I posted on here. Summer visitors have been a pleasurable distraction. But some kind man lent me a couple of dog skulls which inspired me. A few sketches and an early morning walk looking at a post in a field of wheat, covered in snails and I thought, I could paint the skull on top of the post….so I did.
I am now continuing with my art course so won’t be posting on here much for a while. But thanks for dropping by and catch you soon!
Wendy x
The cork oaks have recently been harvested, or stripped of their cork. This always, to my eye, leaves them looking rather naked and vulnerable…. I imagined dressing them again. What would they wear? This cheeky cork oak tree has managed to get laced into a rather lovely red basque. The knickers wouldn’t go on and have been discarded on the woodland floor in disgust.
If you are interested in the whole (real!) process of the cork harvesting in Andalucia, my good friend and eloquent writer, Grandolfo, wrote about it here: https://grandoldfarts.com/2015/01/29/how-did-that-cork-get-in-your-bottle/
A2 canvas board. Acrylic and ink pen.
After a wonderful early evening concert held in the cloisters at the convento in Los Angeles, just down the hill from Jimena, I imagined a dead goat (I know, I am strange like that :-)) attracting down the griffin vultures we have here, looking for a tasty meal. I wanted to juxtapose the beauty of the church with the image of death, but showing the wonderful recycling that the vultures do here! I have no idea if they have ever in reality landed on the church roof…..This is an A1 canvas (a bit puckered in the corner – I must try and fix that!) with mixed media – mostly acrylics and felt pens for the detailed bits.
Acrylic on almost A2 canvas block. Study of a very tiny flower that is currently blooming down by the riverside here in Jimena de la Frontera. A bit like a ‘forget-me-not’ but don’t know what they are called. I wanted to try doing a huge version of something really tiny! I had to use a magnifying glass some of the time… I did an abstract background based on some seedpods that I had found before. I was thinking of Georgia O’Keeffe’s wonderful, huge flower studies (however I am not in any way comparing this to her amazing work! 🙂 )
Real flower to show size
I had a lovely, wood framed mirror which fell off the wall and smashed into smithereens. I kept the frame and the wood back thinking I might one day paint something on it. And now I have. My two Spanish tabby cats. Sadly, we only have Sabi now; Purdi died nearly two years ago.
Acrylic and ink on long canvas block. This is my last stork study for now 🙂 I had managed to get some great photos of the storks in flight and wanted to use them against the background of Jimena. I am not sure if they do indeed fly in the early morning with stars; this is art, not ornithology, after all….
Acrylic on A2 canvas block. Early morning red sky and mist pockets between the hills out to Gibraltar. Yes, I am fascinated by the storks 🙂 – just one more stork painting to finish…
Acrylic on A2 canvas block. I have completed the first module of my course and am now free to paint whatever I like! I have decided I like using acrylics and have been working on some storks using this area as a background. The storks are here at the moment having baby storks, and I have taken masses of photos to use as reference.
To those of you reading this, thanks for not un following me and I hope to catch up with your blogs very soon!
Wendy x
As I am not really blogging these days, I thought I would just re blog this wonderfully edited and hugely improved true story I wrote for fellow Jimenata Alberto, of the Grand Old Farts blog. Happy New Year to anyone out there who still follows me! 🙂
Spanish scribbles 