It’s episode number 14 and this time I am in Ploubazlanec in Brittany, France.
My wife grew up here and I am lucky enough to visit this magical place once a year. I always find it inspiring. While my wife spends time with her wonderful Mum I walk around Ploubazlanec and neighbouring Paimpol looking for something to paint. I have a lot of time to myself but I also find time to be social plus enjoying the local food and the great hospitality.
I hope you enjoy the video, comments are always appreciated.
Cheers,
David
Not being able to sketch at my own life drawing class
It’s ironic that I don’t have the time to draw at my own life drawing evenings, I visit other places like Konstnärshuset (The Artist’s House) and sketch there instead. I don’t mind at all, it gives me a great deal of pleasure organising life drawing sessions, making sure the lighting is good, getting excellent models and making fantastic coffee.
My life drawing session is today (Thursday) by the way at Dieselverkstaden 18.30 – 20.30, a shameless plug 😉
These watercolours where sketched at Konstnärshuset last Tuesday, number one and two I spent a few minutes working on the day after. The actual poses are between 10 and 5 minutes long.
Life drawing by Meldrum #1 
Life drawing by Meldrum #2 
Life drawing by Meldrum #3
Exhibition over, my thoughts
With the help of my wife I gathered up all my watercolours and packed them into the car last night. It’s always a strange feeling coming to the end of something, be it a holiday abroad or an exhibition in Stockholm.
The exhibition was a success in many ways but to be honest I didn’t sell so many watercolours, enough to break even but no more than that. On the positive side though I really appreciated the words of encouragement I received from all the people who dropped by. Words of praise like, ‘you have developed so much in such a short time’ to ‘your art is at a real high level’ – this really charges my enthusiasm to keep on trying. One stroke at a time, a little better, a little wiser.
Right now, the way I feel is that I will not be having a solo exhibition anytime soon. I just want to focus on improving, I look forward to getting back into my routine of painting in the morning, I have many ideas on where I want to go with my art. That was one of the good things to come out of the exhibition, I had all my art from the last two years up on the walls, I had time to look and analyse them, to see which direction I would like to go. Some watercolours represented the old me where as a number show hints of where I am heading. Really exciting, I can’t wait to get back painting again. In that way, the exhibition was indeed a success.
Two days left to see my watercolours
My watercolours are on show at Rääf Gallery, Hornsgatan 32, Stockholm. Exhibition ends 25th of September 18.00.
12.00 – 18.00 Tuesday, Wednesday.
Summer, I miss you.
To be fair, we are having a beautiful week here in Stockholm, it could be summer, it feels like summer on the skin, the sun is so warm – I have to take my jacket off but I don’t put it down. No , I don’t trust this little bubble, I feel it will burst at any moment. We are heading into autumn and soon the trees will be a fantastic orange and I will suffer from SAD which I successfully deal with through light-therapy.
The importance of sketching
It is so important to sketch on a regular basis, everyday if possible. I was so busy before the summer, it was quite stressed to be honest so my daily sketching habit got broken. In fact, a whole I missed a whole term of life drawing which is ironic because I run my own classes (Meldrum Kroki), it’s impossible though to sketch well when you are running a life drawing class.
So, this autumn I have promised myself not to stress as much and to sketch, sketch and sketch, …. and to watercolour too of course!
These drawings are from Tuesday evening when I attended a life drawing class at Konstnärshuset here in Stockholm.
Nude 1 
Nude 2 
Nude 3 
Nude 4
An exhibition of my watercolours!
Hello and welcome,
My watercolour exhibition opens at Rääf Gallery, 11.00 Saturday 21st of September, Hornsgatan 32, Stockholm.
Exhibition ends 25th of September 18.00.
It’s kinda spontaneous this exhibition, I knew I was probably too late to book a gallery for the autumn but I checked and Gallery Rääf did have a free week in September. I said, great! I’ll take it. That was two weeks ago. If you follow this blog you know that I have been in France since then so now I have only two weeks to get the exhibition in order.
There is nothing like a tight deadline to focus the mind!
My watercolour exhibition runs from the 21 – 25th of September 2019. The opening is Saturday the 21st at 11.00.
See you there if you live in Stockholm I hope,
Cheers,
David
Life drawing begins today
Painting Outdoors – Watercolour Demonstration Ep.13
This watercolour demonstration was a real challenge because of frequent showers while painting. I was on the island of Björnö close to Stockholm a few weeks back and it was a wonderful day really because I learned a lot about my patience as an artist. It was also a day of discovery as I’d never been to the island before so it was fun cycling my trailer through woods and winding paths along the shore.
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