Iron Latch Lane, Autumn
Iron Latch Lane, Autumn
This is the very last painting for my Family History painting project – which has been an on-going work for the last two years!
Iron Latch Lane is a footpath which runs from Halstead Road at Stanway through to Fordham Heath. Part of it runs alongside a nature reserve, part is through woodland, some of it is just a narrow field edge path, and some parts are a wide track.
My 5x-Great Grandparents lived in Fordham in the mid-1700s, and down the generations they lived in Fordham, Eight Ash Green and Stanway, so this path seems quite significant and one with which I am sure they would all have been familiar.
I can remember walking it as a small child with my Dad, older sister and Grandparents at different times, when we lived at Stanway for a few years.
Last week I finished the first draft of my family history book. It tells the story of the Pudney family from the first mention of the name in 1379 to my childhood. It will be illustrated with approximately 26 of my paintings, plus some photos, maps and drawings.
It still needs a bit of editing, but I am planning to self-publish it during March using blurb.com which I have used for my little Twelve Months books (which are all available to order on the Shop page).
I aim to have a few copies available at our next Anglian Arts Project show in May at Little Bentley.
Flowerings: January
Flowerings: January
The third art work from my January visit to Markshall for my Twelve Months on an Essex Country Estate painting project: you may remember that each month I was going to choose something flowering in the grounds to draw or paint. It was quite difficult to find something in January! I settled on these witch-hazel blooms because of the vibrant yellow.
The little painting – about 9 inches square – is on Saunders Waterford hot pressed paper, so a very smooth heavy paper.
I started by putting in some background colour using Schmincke Horadam Aquarell watercolours, which are super granulating – in other words they do not make an even wash of colour, but dry as a broken variegated colour. Once this was dry I used Caran D’Ache Neocolour II to draw out the twigs and flowers.
I felt the colours of the flowers and twigs weren’t bright enough, so emphasised them with mixtures of Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow, Titanium White and Sap Green gouache.
Finally, I used a very fine nibbed Coptic Multi liner 0.1 to add some definition to the crinkly petals!
It was all very exploratory – and definitely ended up being ‘mixed media’!
First painting and first Pickings drawing
Essex Country Estate: January
Here is the first completed painting in my new Twelve Months on an Essex Country Estate painting project. It shows the far end of the lake with the frosty silver birch trees, under-planted with red and ochre yellow dogwood.
The painting is 40cm square, on Winsor & Newton canvas board. It is a mixed media piece, with acrylic and oil pastel, and some Neocolour II soluble wax crayon, too.
I’ve also completed my first Pickings drawing. I planned these as pastel pencil drawings of things which I picked up as I walked around the Markshall estate. In my last post I showed you my collecting tin, with an assortment of bits and pieces that I found – larch cones, oak twigs with leaf buds, a broken small branch covered in lichen, an oak leaf and a feather.
I arranged some of these on a piece of white foam board, so that I could see the details clearly.
The drawing is done with Pitt pastel pencils on Daler Rowney pastel paper.
You may remember that I have chosen bright colours for all twelve of the Pickings drawings that I shall do during the year, so that the twelve drawings can be printed as a colourful tea-towel when the project is finished. I was very pleased with how the bright blue shows up the soft greys and browns of these natural objects.
This drawing is in the Small Paintings and drawings gallery, and the painting will soon be available to view in the 2025 drop down menu under Gallery – I am just waiting for my webmaster to fix that up!