David will be demonstrating at Hands Art Supplies, Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach Florida on the evening of Friday 27th January and Saturday morning 18th February. Times to be confirmed.
He will also be running courses in Delray Beach on the mornings of 27th/28th/29th & 30th January – venue and times to be confirmed. Please contact Sally& David via their website, http://www.paintfrance.com or email sally.mcewen@wanadoo.fr for more information.
Coming to Delray Beach, Fla in January
Dreams of fame and glory
The Judgement Of Paris: London 2010 by David McEwen
It’s all gone quiet. All the painters have gone home and all we are left with are echoes and memories of happy holidays. The South of France is yawning and preparing to slumber through the short winter, houses are being closed up and we are doing all kinds of things that we didn’t have time to do while Painting Holiday clients and those on vacation in general were here… sleeping and then sleeping some more !!!
Well actually our break won’t last too long because we just confirmed some bookings for November and December and today our first Christmas booking came in. Yes, we paint at Christmas but also we eat, eat and drink and then eat a bit more. We try to combine French and English Christmas food and the table groans. It’s amazing to think that Sally has been producing amazing meals for Holiday makers for fourteen years.
Although I usually talk about the sort of paintings that our clients do in our lovely villages, this time I’m going to write about something different. Something that we thought would change our lives, something new and very exciting.
You may have heard that Saatchi ( you know who he is…he’s the man who discovered artistic geniuses like Tracy ‘ Dirty Bedroom’ Emin and Damien ‘ Half a Cow’ Hurst is starting to collect Realism. (Shock, Horror.) Well it’s a sort of Realism, it’s Realism with anachronisms which are actually interesting and fun.
And then...
We have a neighbour who is a sort of super Art Consultant and something really important at The Tate Modern, well to show you how his finger is close to the throbbing pulse of GREAT Contemporary Art he thinks that Tracy is … wait for i t… the greatest Artist who has ever lived. So there we are then. You might be surprised, therefore, when I tell you that I contacted him a while ago and asked him to look at my website and offer suggestions as I’m trying to find an agent for The U.K. and Europe and although I don’t like much of the Art that he works with I’ll listen to advice from anyone.
He came to see me a couple of weeks later and looked very carefully at everything that I have at home including W.I.P.’s (works in progress) and we talked about all kinds of trends including Mr Saatchi’s Anacronistic Realism. Then he asked me if I could work from photographs that he had and gave me sizes of the wood panels that he wanted the paintings to be on…unsigned..because that is the new trend !
The photos arrived via the magic of e-mail and you could have knocked me down with a fairly large feather as they showed some ladies who had forgotten to put on their underwear….our neighbour is a lay preacher and his wife is a Vicar.
I looked at the photos and thought alot about what I’d been told, that these paintings could be the start of something HUGE, he talked vaguely about being the new Banksy etc., etc., so they needed to be planned with care.
The painting of three girls was to be called The Judgement Of Paris: London 2010 so I thought straightaway of the painting by Rubens and decided that as we’d talked about anachronisms that I’d introduce some of the figures from the photos into his background…..so…….this is the first version….a lot of work but interesting.
- …it’s not my sort of Art Work but a friend of our neighbour, a photographer, took his girlfriend into the pool and said, “Lift your dress.” by David McEwen
- Original concept…
The second was of an Art Work in an exhibition in Japan where people could enter a swimming pool from below and look up to see water over a sheet of heavy glass….O.K. it’s not my sort of Art Work but a friend of our neighbour, a photographer, took his girlfriend into the pool and said, “ Lift your dress ” …. the rest is history.
Let me take you back for a moment to the days of the Pre-Raphaelites, Ruskin and Millais. Poor old Ruskin, the well known critic and supporter of Turner, got married to a lovely young lady but when they arrived at the marraige bed he was so shocked to see that his bride had pubic hair he was never able to consumate the marriage. Later the Ruskins went on holiday with Millaise who started a painting of his host standing on a rock beside a waterfall……………soooooo…..I thought the girl in the swimming pool would have got on well with Mr Ruskin….and….the painting grew.
I got in touch with my Consultant neighbour and sent him photos of the finished paintings and sat back waiting for fame and glory……..ho, hum……well he eventually told me that he couldn’t remember talking about anchronisms and had really wanted the paintings to be copies of the photos and…and.. so I changed them.
He came to see them, eventually, and, well, he told me that, ”…it really is very difficult to sell paintings at the moment”. Haven’t seen him for months now. Bum. No contract, no fame, no glory.
Now then, if the Aussies who were with us recently have actually read this far… hope that you got home safe and sound, girls, miss you, it was fun.
Paintings to be on Show in Charleston, S.C. USA
One of David’s Paintings made it on the Charleston Magazine’s website!
Summer’s here. Holiday painters arrive. Trying new techniques
 |
 |
| In Progress | Finished |
| I’m trying out some new types of paintings. They’re slow drying acrylics and I paint them on small raw canvases. They’re fascinating to do because I push these pigment-rich paints around with brushes and my fingers and I leave them “unfinished” and I’m learning so much about painting “Painterly” paintings. I’ve put up some stage by stage examples of these new ones and some finished ones too. Questions are welcome. | |
So far it’s been a truly amazing Summer… with bookings for Painting Holidays here in La Belle France being the best that we’ve ever had, paintings going off to exhibitions in The United States, a new type of painting evolving and lastly, interest from Holland.
Let’s look at the Painting Holidays first. We have a number of different types of clients; there are people who have decided that they want a vacation with something “to do” so they wander through magazines, the internet or listen to friends and decide to paint… and then there are those who KNOW they want to paint. The painters can be beginners, moderately experienced, or very accomplished artists. The painters browse the internet too and the choices are amazing. There are Painting Holiday sites all over France not just here in the South and we know some of them….we talk to each other, we send guests on when we’re full and… of course we steal ideas from each other! Well, I’m sure we don’t do that, not really, er, um…though I must say that I’ve seen comments in other people’s publicity the seem vaguely familiar. (Ahem) So what do we offer?
With L’Atellier du Soulondre painters and holiday makers live in our house which is set on the edge of a town first settled by the Romans 2000 years ago. We can accommodate eleven in bedrooms surrounding our garden overlooking a babbling stream and the 11th Century Cathedral. Painters work with me in my large studio or in a number of amazingly beautiful Midi villages. You see, we’ve been here for 15 years and we know which villages or venues might suit each of our clients (some centres hire in people for the summer who don’t know the area…and can’t tell/show you good places to paint. People eat with us or we go out to village restaurants and talk about painting, art and food ‘cos Sally is Cordon Blue trained and the meals are fantastic ( some centres dump people in nearby hotels and guest houses and eat with them sometimes! Wow…I’d hate that. ) So that’s the comfort bit of the vacation.
Oh, yes. I got a prize for one of my paintings.
This year I won a "Highly Commended" for my painting, "Manon II" from a competition run by The Society of All Artists.
We’re at the real start of the Holiday Season. The town is full of voices from all over the world as people take their vacation in the “Gateway to the South” and sit soaking up the rays in street cafés with bottles of liquid sunshine, crisp new-baked bread and some of our four hundred cheeses. Painting holiday makers have come to us from all over the world so far, U.K., Canada, India, Germany, France, Belgium, U.S.A., South Africa, Switzerland and those places that I can’t remember at this moment. I want to mention Wales especially because we had a wonderful painter here a little while ago who not only painted well, she also sends me very funny stuff via the internet and sent me a fantastic book by one of my all-time favourite painters, James Fletcher-Watson, THANK YOU LAURA. It’s an amazing book and it covers his time in India…well worth a read.
So it’s busy, I’m busy, Sal’s busy… even the dogs are busy. We have a new puppy, Gigi, named The Dark Destroyer by those who have to pick up after her, but the Painting Holiday Clients seem to love her and ignore the fact that she’s run off with their sable brushes and Ella is being the ‘responsible adult. Hah. That’s like saying that Hannibal Lecter is a ‘caring healer’ as they are both as bad as each other, and Gigi is leading her guide astray.
Sam, our wonderful grandson sitting, in despair, with his school report in his hand.
We are going out to paint more and more often and The Languedoc is blooming, colours are bursting from the hillsides, grapes and olives are swelling and we try to catch them in watercolour, pastel, acrylic and oil. In between teaching group after group I’m trying to get some big paintings ready for an exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina where my agent ( doesn’t that sound grand ) Jaynie runs a beautiful gallery called Dog and Horse which she has owned for ten years. To celebrate the birthday she’s asked three European based artists to show their work…and I’m one of them…cor ! You’ve seen some of the paintings already, the old lady with the dogs, the girl in café on the Cote D’Azur, the blacksmith so there’s just one more to finish and it’s probably the most difficult. It shows Sam, our wonderful grandson sitting, in despair, with his school report in his hand whilst his raggedy dog tries to comfort him.
Earlier this year I entered a competition run by The Society of All Artists. The Society exists to encourage and help painters all over the world, supplies insurance for member’ exhibitions, runs a great postal Art supplies service and each year holds a Painter of the Year Competition. I was Runner Up a few years ago and I’ve entered each year since but to no avail. BUT…this year, well, this year I got a Highly Commended for my painting, Manon II, which is Runner Up again. So, bloody Hell, runner up out of over 6,000 entries, not bad, even if I say it myself.
I had to sneak a little time away from the American paintings to paint a quicky of daughter, Jo. A friend who is a 'retired' but very gifted forger gave me a beautiful frame which he had made so I needed to do something very classical to fit into it...Jo fitted the bill, and this is her on her wedding day.
So, I thought that since I didn’t have any Painting Holiday students last week that I would make a flying visit to London to pick up my certificate, meet up with e-friends, buy some supplies and also go to see “heaven”, otherwise known as The National Portrait Gallery. It was great…I met so many people, didn’t spend too much money, and saw such wonderful paintings by both members of the Society but also the splendid B.P. Portrait Exhibition and in The National Gallery such things that only dreams are made of….Vermeers, Carravagios, Stubbs, and dreamy Turners…Oh my God, it was magnificent. Realism is back…maybe…oh, how I hope that it is.
Sunday a day of rest for the old lady too
The Old Lady by David McEwen
Sunday, yes the Sabbath, everybody else is resting but as they say there’s no peace for the wicked and I must have very bad indeed because it’s 8:30 in the morning and I’m in the studio looking at my little old lady. I’ll tell you now that I’ve never made a painting without thinking that this will never come together, I’m told that marathon runners feel the same at twenty miles and if they push they’ll finish. So today I’ve got to get through or over my particular wall.
What I’m going to do is try to forget that its a unified painting and just work on bits here and there. A bit of detail here, a touch there, taking some very bright colours back if they stand out to much or a touch of highlight to bring another shape from the darkness. Then step back and look and look and look. If you squeeze up your eyes it helps you to see the painting as it might look when you’re finished.
One of the differences between Oil paintings and watercolours is that you view watercolours more closely than oils…so in close up oils can seem to be roughly or even more brutally painted than their more delicate cousins.
Other than doing a little bit here and there to the big oil we wandered off to a beautiful village called Salasc to do a little drawing, painting and pastel work. More of that later.
So now, to slob in front of the telly and it’s Fish and Chips for supper………Oh my Cod…..sorry.
Who will come for a Painting Holiday?
It is strange that each years’ bookings are so different and impossible to predict who will decide that they must have a holiday. Not just a holiday — but a painting holiday and not just any old painting holiday, but a painting holiday in The South of France, the Midi to be precise. So each year we wait with baited breath to discover just who is coming to paint with us, and when some years it seems as though the world is suffering a shortage of painters who wish to rest from their labours and take their vacation with us. This year has been no different, things have been so quiet of late but then… the wires have been hot and the e-mails have been arriving from people all over the world who want a Painting Holiday, or more correctly a holiday with painting, which has one of the best cooks in the business and the books are looking better so we may be able to buy shoes for the children this year !
Over the past few weeks we’ve had painters from Wales, England, Ireland, India, France and America. When we were in Florida this year I did a demonstration of Acrylic painting outside an Art Shop in Delray Beach and a lady, amongst many others, stopped to watch and a short conversaion later Jean booked in for two weeks painting. When she arrived we wandered all over the district, painted in watercolour, acrylic and pastel, she dragged me up hills and down dales and she painted some wonderful stuff but she left this morning and we are exhausted ….. when you think that she’s, well, I’m a gentleman so I can’t say ….. but she’s a certain age and I need to lie down, she’s tired me out! Still, we’ve all had a great vacation and she was such fun.
Some weeks are fun.
When I have painters with me, I can’t work on the big oils that I’m getting ready for an exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina, so I decided to prepare some drawings on tinted Canson paper that I could work on with pastels when we went out…but when we worked in the studio I found some little stretched canvases so drew up four portraits. They are raw, brown canvses and I’m going to make rough free portraits. At the same time, well not really all at the same time… no brushes in each hand and one in my mouth, you know what I mean…I’m doing a portrait of our daughter, Jo.
The end of the affair…and the mess.
End of the Affair by David McEwen
I’ve taken a break from cleaning the studio, a job that I hate in one way… but welcome in another. I hate tidying up, I know where things are in the chaotic mess which is my studio and once I tidy them away they’re lost forever, but, on the other hand, it means that more students are arriving…or I’m using the clean up as a means of putting off doing something that I’m finding difficult…Procrastination is positive sometimes.
I’ve reached the stage with the old dog lady when I’m not sure if she’s finished or not. I’ve been so close to her for so many hours that I can’t see things clearly, so I put the painting on an easle at the far end of the studio and look at her. After a couple of days I’ll start to see some of the things that are wrong or needed. More of this in a few days.
I do this with all my paintings so the studio usually has five or six paintings hanging on the walls at any one time. Over the past couple of days I’ve been working on two particular pictures. The main one is a sort-of repeat and it’s called The End of the Affair. The first version just had the girl in it…this time I’ve added to the story. The girl looks out of the window towards the darkening evening sky while ( if you have tears, prepare to shed them now ) one of her dogs look towards the departing lover, the other looks at her, neither understanding what’s going on. The dog who looks out of the painter is our Leo. I won’t forget you, old friend.
No Painting on Monday or Tuesday
Painting on hold... by David McEwen
I have to put on the teacher’s hat and I miss her. Oh, I can sneak round to see her every so often and it’s becoming rather like having an affair with a demanding mistress whilst doing a demanding job…. well so I’m told, I wouldn’t know about things like that.
I have done a little work to the chairs on the left and the shadows behind them, with Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Vandyke Brown and Paynes Grey. I painted them and then thought that things were too sharp, too clearly defined so I had to blur them in a sense..not by rubbing the edges but by using subtle colour changes especially in shadowed areas of the chair backs.
I deepened the colours of the dogs. It’s not just a case of putting on lots of layers that would only make things thick, muddy and flat so I’ve used transparent colours to build up glazed layers to try and make each dog three dimensional.
The floor boards were underpainted with lines, knots, lumps and bumps using a colour a shade or two darker than the first tones used. When that was dry I glazed them with Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and a little Raw Sienna, then added some highlights. And thats about all on the big picture.
So, how have I filled in the empty hours? Well, with my students, but I knew that if we stayed at home I would sneak away to my darling girl so…we went out.
St Guilhem le Desert is one of the most beautiful villages in France so we went there. Well, if I couldn’t work on my mistress then I was going to work somewhere stunning. We packed our stuff and off we went…. deep joy …except I forget the painting that I was working on, all my pencils …. well, everything that I needed to work …. er, bum. So instead of working I took photographs in order that you would see what you’re missing ! We had a lovely picnic in the main square while they drew what they could see and I did some drawings of my little old ladies face.
Painting on Friday
I‘ve looked at this latest photo and it does look as though I haven’t done anything at all…but I’ve worked with very small brushes for about 5 hours. It was a short working day as we had some old friends for dinner ( I’ve got to say that they were delicious, by the way ) so a major clean up was called for.
O.K. so today I worked on solidifying the warmth in the background of the painting using Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Vandyke Brown, Naples Yellow, Mixing White and Light Red. For the deep dark tones ( have I said that I consider Tone to be more important than colour, probably, I’m told that I tend repeat myself, it’s called nagging, it’s called nagging ) I use Paynes Grey and Burnt Umber. So parts of it are starting to look 3D. It’s slow and painstaking but it’s the way I like to work.
I’ve got students coming today so I’m not sure how much work I can do with the big one BUT I’m into this again so I’ll call in every now and again to show you what we’ve been up to.
