Catherine Stock's Blog, page 20

Corot's house

Corot's house is the little one on the left, next to the river. The walkway leads into a tunnel that used to the circle the fortified island town of Crécy-la-Chapelle, under the ramparts.

Below right, is one of the many wash houses on the canals of the town, and behind it is an old defense tower.

It was too cold to sketch in January, but I would love to return in warmer weather with my watercolour pad.

Moulin de Saint-Martin

I wish I could claim to be the creator of this lovely mill, but it is painted by a member of the nineteenth century French School and hangs in the Musée d'Orsay. The painting is not attributed to anyone in particular, but the moulin is around the corner from Corot's house in Crécy-la-Chapelle. This area has inspired many artists from Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Fauvists and Nabis like André Derain.

The mill has been converted into a two bedroom chambres d'hôte and I am st...

Zane

A young Australian couple have come to house and animal sit for two months so I can escape the winter. Zane was talked into posing for the Monday group before he knew what hit him. Here are two drawings of him, which are rather nice but don't have much to do with his cheery and upbeat personality.

I found them though www.housecarers.com by the way, should anyone need these kind of services.

After the Kill

I am working on a picture book entitled After the Kill, by Darrin Linde, a zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History. The book is about what happens to a zebra carcass after the lions have killed it: all the animals that thrive off the kill until all that is left are a few bare bones.
I didn't know how I would illustrate the text which is graphic and realistic, until my eye caught sight of a postcard pinned above my desk of a small Picasso painting of a cat with a bird in its mouth. ...

Portraits from photographs

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone over the internet who asked me if I could turn a photograph of her husband and daughter into a painting.

I really prefer painting portraits from life, but sometimes its just not possible. I would not only have to fly to New York but time travel to someone's bedroom last year to capture this scene. I have spent a lot more time on this picture than I normally do. I have to capture the likeness of the subjects of course, but I also need to make an i...

Zoë

Another three hour portrait session. Patricia brought her daughter, Zoë this evening. She was wonderful, and watched Singing in the Rain in French and then English while we painted her. I have always preferred painting portraits of children in watercolour, but I think it's just as easy to paint them in oils. I will let my clients choose the medium from now on.

It's difficult to avoid a bit of glare on oil paintings when photographing them, even when the paint is dry. I suppose proper photo...

Paulo

One of the members of our Monday night life drawing group brought her son in as a model this this week. He watched a video while we painted him. Lovely working in oils from time to time- so rich and sumptuous after watercolour. It's a good exercise too- having to complete something in three hours. I was pleased with the result. Paulo is on the cusp of manhood and I think captured the transition quite well.

Film exercise

My good friend Ron McCullagh is here for the holidays. He is an award winning documentary film maker, and he has offered to make a short film on my class and studio. One of the first things he suggested we do is make a stop animation film of my painting a still life. I suggested flowers, as it is the last painting we do in the foundation week. It combines all the the exercises we have done: washes, overlaid washes, tonal contrast, form, colour value and hue, composition and definition and...

Christmas Eve- it's here...

Christmas caution