Once more into the art shop

Some dramatic light and shade on the hills made me realise what a visually interesting time of year this is. Thus inspired I ventured into the art shop in town and bought a tube of artist's quality Winsor Green (yellow shade). I was after just Winsor Green but it wasn't available, so I'll see what happens when I start mixing colour. I read recently that it makes a good base for a travel kit when outdoor painting and I really am trying to restrict my palette. I seem to remember about twenty-odd years ago I read that James Fletcher-Watson, a watercolourist, used Winsor Blue and I bought a half-pan at the time and enjoyed using it. It made very intense darks when combined with burnt umber. This afternoon I worked on the Morlan exhibition pictures, I shall post them in due course...

Pochade dusted off...

Today I showed my students my rather dusty pochade box. It seems to have been in storage for a couple of years and perhaps it is time for it to see daylight again. This box is a clever little item, with space for three small (around 6 x 8 inch) boards, paints and brushes etc, and it reminded me that I should do some outdoor painting again in oils. It seems that pochade studies are having a renaissance at the moment and there are several available from manufacturers online.
I am tempted to get a new one, maybe a bit larger, but then it wouldn't really be a 'pochade' box at all. If you don't know what pochade means then look it up! I want to try a limited palette and do some quick landscape studies so I'll post any results in the fullness of time.
A cold, windy day but at least there was some bright weather and it was useful to see the rapidly changing light on the landscape around Aberystwyth - the colours were 'greyed' out and not really bright apart from sunlight directly on the near fields. I wonder how closely we actually do observe when we see...

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I am hoping to share with you some of my thoughts on painting - the struggles, the whys and wherefores, the happy moments - yes, there are a few! I'd love to hear from fellow painters out there, and while I can't promise my blog will be a daily or even weekly event, it will be good to have the chance to exchange views.

I have a website which I am in the process of rebuilding, it is www.juneforster.co.uk so lookout for news on that.
What am I doing now? Well there is an exhibition by Aberystwyth PictureMakers coming up in April at the Morlan Centre and I need to finish off some small works for that...I'd better get busy. I am also painting some larger canvases as part of my art practice PhD and these involve a different approach - or do they? That's something I'll be pondering during the coming days.