by Clare Bowen | Oct 3, 2019 | Artist Life, Boats, Oil Painting, Seascape, Studio, Sunrise, Venice
It’s like unwrapping old friends once back in the studio seeing all my paintings again and in such better light than the house we had in Venice. Felt quite excited seeing them all as a group. Several unfinished but wont take long to get them done.. Extras I...
by Clare Bowen | Nov 19, 2018 | Artist Tips, Autumn, Landscape, Oil Painting, Reflection, Waggoners Wells
An area close to me with 3 pools of water. It’s quite a challenge as there a lot of trees and a little bit late for Autumn but still wonderful rusts and lemon yellow on the Silver Birch.I wanted water to reflect the colours which is why I went there.Tips for...
by Clare Bowen | Nov 15, 2018 | Autumn, Clouds, English Landscape, Oil Painting, Orange, Sky, Trees
This scene is about a 15-20 minute walk from our house. Autumn colours really improve this subject and I couldn’t wait to paint it! I liked the track leading in to the orangey oak tree. The sky was a bonus with fluffies. I put them in straight away as I...
by Clare Bowen | Jul 6, 2018 | England, Flowers, Oil Painting, Still Life, Sunflowers, Yellow
A busy week, hard to keep on top of all the artists jobs to do, including this one!I am lucky that my Mum supplies me with great flowers to paint, like these :-)I decided to paint outside again as the natural sunlight works well on a still life especially flowers. I...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 30, 2018 | England, Garden, Green, Landscape, Oil Painting, Summer, Teaching, Trees
I did a 1 to 1 plein air day with Elizabeth St John this week. She wanted to paint the view from our garden as we focused on mixing greens. Sheltered by a big pine tree we weren’t too hot and managed to get two paintings done. I suggested she mixed her...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 29, 2018 | England, Flowers, Jug, Oil Painting, Peonies, Pink, Still Life
Peonies by Mary Oliver “This morning the green fists of the peoniesare getting readyto break my heartas the sun rises,as the sun strokes them with his old,buttery fingersand they open -pools of lace,white and pink – and all day the black ants climb...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 24, 2018 | Countryside, England, Green, Landscape, Oil Painting, Summer, Surrey, Surrey Hills
I was feeling confident from my previous large scale peonies painting so decided to go large on this one as well. I wouldn’t usually on a new subject but was egged on by Sarah Manolescue who also went big.We struggled a little with noise pollution – young...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 19, 2018 | Chickens, England, Garden, Green, NEAC, Oil Painting, Summer, The Mall Galleries
Back in our friends garden, I didn’t plan to paint this but thought is had a charm. I made a quick ‘Notan’ sketch before – which is a Japanese name for light and dark design:This allowed me to see that most of the painting was mid and dark...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 16, 2018 | Artist Life, Daisies, England, Flowers, Oil Painting, Open Studios, Pink, Still Life, Surrey
I am enjoying these still life paintings as you can experiment so much with colour & harmonies, composition, subject…I tried with no hard line background this time, bigger in size and reflected vase on the table.I can’t write so much today as just...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 12, 2018 | Bridge, England, Landscape, Oil Painting, Reflection, River Wey, Summer
It was a toss up between Waggoners Wells and Tilford Green. I was painting with Sarah Manolescue when we got to Tilford there was bridge works happening and it wasn’t obvious what to paint. We walked around thinking we should maybe try Waggoners, but often the...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 8, 2018 | Albert Bridge, Boats, England, London, Oil Painting, Teaching, The Thames
A one to one plein air teaching day with Christopher Michael, choose Albert Bridge area and we were lucky with lots of sunshine!I helped Christopher with the practicalities of working outside, equipment, layout of paint and using a viewfinder and then tonal values and...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 7, 2018 | England, Flowers, Glass, Jug, Oil Painting, Peonies, Still Life
I saw these lovely white peonies in the supermarket, a sweet scent and blousie look. I managed to paint them while our Open Studio was on last weekend. Quite a challenge to get the tones and colours right. The tonal scale in the flower is so small e.g. Light...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 3, 2018 | Artist Life, England, exhibition, Flowers, Oil Painting, Open Studios, Peonies, Pink, Still Life
Painted with haste and gusto! The background a blue black to set of the light pink flowers peonies which are so fun to paint, quite addictive! (There will be more 🙂 I think they are a good subject because of the globe shape so you get great light and dark on...
by Clare Bowen | Jun 1, 2018 | Artist Life, England, Oil Painting, Open Studios, Portrait
My first attempt at a portrait!! I haven’t even tried to paint one in my studio, just felt quite scary and uncertain, so went on a ROI painting day at The Mall Galleries to make me do it! I decided to act as if…. pretend I felt confident even though I...