PAINTING A SELF PORTRAIT

Ian wanted to paint a self portrait, which is usually quite a challenge. 

So we spent a couple of half days in the studio...

... starting with a drawn and then painted outline of his head and shoulders on a black ground. 

Then he gradually built up the shapes, tints and tones that make up the face (his face, that is),

until it started to take on a likeness...

... and eventually, after about eight hours hard yakka, he got to the end product. 

This is Ian with his own self portrait. 

ANOTHER MEDIEVAL VILLAGE

This is Ian's watercolour painting of Larressingle, the nearby tiny medieval village near the well-known town of Condom.
My French petanque playing mates often ask me why English speaking people are always having their photographs taken at the road signs outside of Condom. This is because condom is meaningless in French - they use préservatif, which is, in turn, a strange concept in English.

PAINTING A FRENCH VILLAGE

Fources in the Gers is a round bastide village dating from Medieval times. It's always on the agenda for watercolourists who come to do a painting course at La Petite Galerie in Mézin.
This is Ian after a morning's painting en plein air. 

IAN'S FLOWER GREETING CARD

Greetings cards in English can sometimes be a little difficult to find in France. Ian wanted one to send to his daughter to wish her good luck for her GCEs. Solution: paint one.
Here it is.

WARTS AND ALL AGAIN

This is Ian from Cornwall who is doing what Oliver Cromwell insisted that all portraitists should aspire to - paint, in this case draw, the subject "warts and all."

Ian and Ray in the garden and a detail of the final result below. Ian is at La Petite Galerie for a week, so watch this space for further developments.

GRANNY BAKER

This is Granny Baker who has four children, five grand children, and..., sorry, I've forgotten how many grand children. She'll be 95 next birthday, so, only five and a bit years before the queen comes to tea.

SOME RAMBLINGS ON DRAWING

This is a pencil portrait of Gilbert Chini, the village electrician and TV expert.
I drew him again because he has such an interesting face. It was done on a cold wintery day in what should be spring in Southwest France. And I really enjoyed the exercise, probably because it was a way of escaping from the deplorable weather, and rediscovering drawing.

Here's what some great artists have said about drawing:

An artist draws with his brains and not with his hand (Michelangelo),

Paul Klee said that drawing is taking a dot for  a walk.

The pleasure Van Gogh got is expressed in his thought that 'I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.'

I also found one recently attributed to Salvador Dali that encapsulates my ideas on abstract art. 'Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing.'

Now go and get a pencil and paper and start drawing.