Post 16 - Isle of Wight Residency

Painting en plein air 6 day residency Northtcote House

One of the best things about painting there is the continuity of care given to the gardens. The same family have lived there for 40 years and we were given a tour of the gardens by the man who has devoted himself to the design, planting and care of the entire 15 acres. The stream, kitchen gardens and the terraced walks are all grown according to their position (were the sun and wind affect them etc), and co-dependant on one another, the kind of knowledge that has helped it be so successful in growth and layout is only gained from living and working on the land. I am not a gardener but once immersed in the landscape it becomes clear the interlinking of each plant and how there is never a ‘wrong’ design in nature. Organic forms are so perfect to draw blind contour (not looking at the page), and using colour washes to describe tones and light got easier with practice.

learning new skills and methods

disposable pallet

primed board

Gardens Northcourt House

Gouache and pencil on heavy weight paper

crab apple Tree

Oil on board

east view from kitchen garden

Learning about different light at different times of the day. Also considering shadows. concluding that is was best to stay in one spot for the morning then move for the afternoon, even if I went back to the same place the next day, I tried to do it at the same time of day. A method employed by impressionists such as Monet, who would return again and again to a designated place, to capture the light at differing times.

disposable palette, creating a ‘mother’ colour that then becomes others.

Learning new yellows and blues

views through

vistas

favourite tree of owner (planted magnolia 40 years ago)

hydrangea

interlocking forms goauche and pencil on weighted paper

4.The Victorian sensibility.

Visit to Osbourne, Tennyson’s and Julia Margaret Cameron’s Houses

Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition at her cottage in FreshWater, Isle of Wight