new painting-Ballet Dancer

I have always loved and admired Degas’s paintings of ballet dancers and women bathing especially  his vibrant and freely drawn pastels on paper.  So inspired, I set out to paint a figure bent over tying laces; quintessentially feminine adorned in silk and netting and the ribbons of a ballet dancer.  I have been looking to Russian textiles from the late 19^th century for my next solo show in 2015, and have been so absorbed in those wonderful home-spun Ikat coats worn by the men and women of that region.  Dramatic graphic designs of purples, greens and reds criss-cross and intersect the outer garment, which is so beautifully lined, and embellished with bold floral patterns of pink and red roses, peonies, hollyhocks and lilies, contrasting with strips and patches of material depicting delicate garlands of forget-me-nots, daisies and pansies.  The women look strong and challenging ( like Augustus John’s partner Dorelia)  as they stand for the camera and seem timeless and still translatable to me, despite the centuries between us. 

Ballet Dancer 42x24inches oil on board


Ballet Dancer has now been framed in a contemporary limed-wood frame
making its outside dimensions 122x76cm oil on board.

It is now available
 for further enquiries please contact me at lucy@lucydoyle.com

original idea for Ballet Dancer

Eduard Degas

one of my life drawings

Moonlit Garden!!

Planned a moonlight garden painting last month, and started working on the composition and staring at the moon at every opportunity .  With all that in my head I decided to paint it in situ outside during a sunny day but try and think moonlight colours!!..... and this morning was the day.  No trace of wind, warm and sunny, no distractions except for Biscuit who I had one eye on the whole time.

Biscuit- not much help!

Painting in garden

Bloom

Garden Flower Arrangement 92x76cm oil on canvas

I have been working on new work for my next solo show in 2015, and have been working on a lot of flower and flower-based paintings. So armed with my secateurs I raided the hedges and flower beds around the house and managed to collect enough for a large flower painting.  Finally finished it on Friday and mindful of our annual Bloom in the Park and not being able to get there this year, have painted it instead.

Earlier this week in my studio

brought the flowers into the house

Ordered Chaos

This is me in my studio earlier today working on my latest painting......

Working from still life objects in my studio, and composing them into a painting.

Hampstead Affordable Art Fair 2014

Still life with garden produce 71x71cm oil on canvas

Garden Terrace 71x71cm oil on canvas

I will be showing these new paintings Still life with Garden Produce and Garden Terrace as well as work from my recent show Scheherazde  at this year's Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead, London from 11th -15th June 2014, represented by The Doorway Gallery stand H2

Spring is Sprung

Daffodils 2010

Spring is here, screaming its song and steam-rolling its way directly towards summer.  It's turmoil out there: the birds are desperately nest-building, while trying to control their patch, defending it from rivals, predators, high winds and torrential rain storms; and then there is a lull... the sun comes out and its so beautiful - full of promise.  I love this time of year, the earth has been cleared and stands black against the gaudy  colours of the  newly planted  bedding plants.  The grass is beginning to intensify its dense greenness, and the daffodils reign supreme.    Gathered up and crammed into vases, they help to cheer up the dark corners and north -facing windowsills inside the house.  I always find myself painting a vase of daffodils around this time of year, I find them a painting challenge, and they continue to evade me, so I will continue to try and capture in acid yellow, their startling beauty.

Daffodils 2009

Daffodils from my student days 1980

Daffodils in my studio

Daffodils 2013

Daffodils 2012

Recent Daffodil painting

Painting Heroes - Sir Matthew Smith 1879-1959

Matthew Smith Nude, Fitzroy st.  

I can never get enough of Matthew Smith's paintings, and his work is frustratingly under exposed, very rarely will I see a book or postcard or anything that gives this master colourist a mention.
It was way back in 1983 that I made my way over to the Barbican Centre in London to see his major retrospective and it was a wonderful experience and still lives with me today.  It is no surprise to me to find out that this painter spent a short while at the Matisse Art School in Paris, and was very influenced by the Fauvist and Post-Impressionists that were working in Paris before the First-World War.  This painting Nude, Fitroy St. No.1 1916, was obviously painted when he was back in London.

As can be seen by this landscape painted during his war years, how influenced he was by the Irish artist Roderic O'Connor who would have been living and painting in France at the same time that Smith was there.