La Maialina Olivia

Most of the paintings shown at 54 the Gallery have been sold, with only three remaining.  This weekend, I am teaching at Nature in Art near Gloucester and am Artist-in-Residence the following week.  Luckily I have a number of commissions to do as a result of the Exhibition in London, so I shall have plenty to keep me busy.

  I hope I have not already added this to my blog.  She is an Italian Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig hence 'Maialina'.  Her sister was called Camilla and I must try to do another picture of them both.

Exhibition at 54 The Gallery, Shepherd Market, London

Four artists, Shan Egerton, Susie Arbuthnott, Clemmentina Raynsford and I are having an exhibition during the week of May 6th until the 12th 2013.

We shall be showing our recent work and it will be an exciting varied show with landscapes in oil, pastel and watercolour, portraits of people and animals as well as a few botanical works by me.  The following posts are some of the works to be exhibited by me at the gallery.  Sizes and prices are marked and where possible I have given a description of the frames.
If you are interested in any of the works and are unable to come to the exhibition, please contact me on:   alisoncooper@uwclub.net

Sunset at Bryn-y-Mor

Sunset at Bryn-y-Mor

A landscape in watercolour and pastel
Approximately 33cm x 56cm, mounted in cream museum board and a washed grey and natural pine reversed frame

£500

I have had to photograph this picture in its frame as I forgot to do it before I took it to the framer.
We stay at Bryn-y-Mor every year in September or early October and get spectacular sunsets every time as the house faces west and you can watch the sun sinking slowly into the sea.  There is an outcrop of rock called Dinas Fach, and as I don't speak Welsh, I have not got a clue what it means.  Our dictionary says Dinas means 'City' which seems a bit strange, except along the coast there are the remains of an iron age fort.  It looks a bit like an old man lying, with a very large belly,lying in the sea

Penny's Piglet

Penny's Piglet

Watercolour

approx 27cm x 37cm

Mounted and Framed

£500

Pigs have enormous ears and when they are young it seems all out of proportion.  This piglet is one of a pair that I sketched one morning.

A Dish of Sardines

A Dish of Sardines

Watercolour

approx 40 cm x 40cm

£450

I went to Paint with Neil Bally one day last year and he produced a dish of sardines, which I had fun painting.  They are delicious to eat, I just wish they did not have quite so many little bones.

A Sea Bass

A Sea Bass

Watercolour

approx 27cm x 37cm

Mounted and Framed as a pair with the Mackerel

£500

Simon Arbuthnott came over for a lesson and I bought a fresh Sea Bass from Waitrose.  They have rather splendid spines, which  we had to pin them down to keep them upright.   Sea Bass are caught mainly in the south and the Mediterranean, but increasingly are being farmed.It is a really  beautiful looking fish with a magnificent steely grey body. It is also delicious to eat.

A Fresh Mackerel

A Fresh Mackerel

Watercolour

Approx 27cm x 37cm

Mounted and Framed as a pair with the Sea Bass

£500

I spent a morning at Vin Sullivans, a fishmonger near Abergavenny, trying to paint a very large and ugly cod.  I had meant to paint a hake, but by the time I got there, he had sold it.  In the end I took a mackerel home and painted that in my studio, much more comfortable than in  the shop.

Dark Red Hippeastrums and Roman Bottle

Dark Red Hippeastrums

Watercolour
Approximately  35cm x 53cm
Mounted and framed in a lime washed oak frame
£650

I have had this hippeastrum  for  years and it faithfully flowers year after year.  It is just like the  dark red ones  we used for our son and daughter-in-law's wedding.  They looked wonderful in the church  with contored willow stems and we put white cyclamen, ivy and lots of candles on the windowsills. It was  December and there were 80 mph winds.


Roman Bottle with Vitis vinifera'Purpurea'

watercolour and traces of gold
approximately 32cm x 26cm
mounted in cream museum board in a gilded and greyish green moulding

£450

My father found this Roman bottle either in Libya or in Egypt in the early 50's. I have always loved   it.  It has  large chip out of the top, but otherwise is in good condition.  It is wonderful to think that something so fragile has lasted for perhaps 2000 years.

Two Little Piggies and Richard's Gloucester Old Spot

Two Little Piggies

Watercolour and  touches of white chalk
appoximately 27cm x 37cm

£750

at the framers now.

A friend Penny Johnson, a brilliant cook, fattens pigs every year and then I am afraid they are then enjoyed by others as roast pork and sausages.  These had just arrived when I went to draw them and were running about in their little paddock.  They had a happy life, albeit a short one.  A limited edition print run of 25 has been made of this image, which will be signed and numbered by me.





Richard's  Gloucester  Old Spot Sow

Watercolour and touches of white chalk

Approximately 36cm x 54cm

£750
At the framers

We stayed with friends in  Shropshire for my God daughter's wedding last September, and on the Sunday morning had a tour of his estate, including going to feed his pigs.  This sow had some quite grown up piglets and they all enjoyed the apples we gave them. The boar was a really ugly brute, and not very kind to the young ones either.


Dave and the Lily

Watercolour
approximately  53cm x 36cm
mounted in museum board and in a painted Farrow and Ball frame (Down Pipe and Green Smoke) with some gilding

£750

Dave, the Saudi Cat, has been living with us for the last three years and I am beginning to wonder if he is a fixed item.  He really belongs to our son, but he is happy snuggled up to the Aga and as long as he is warm and gets his three pouches a day, he is quite content.  Although he was  just a  stray in Riyadh he is very handsome and has a noble bearing. He is indeed a very lucky cat.

Pink and White Hippeastrums

Watercolour with touches of gouache and  pencil

Approximately 36cm x 46cm

Framed in a lime washed oak frame

£550

Just after Christmas in 2011, I noticed that Waitrose were selling these Hippeastrums at half price.  I bought two and this beautiful pink and white striped flowerhead emerged.  I have managed to keep it going and it is in flower again as I write.

A Camel in The Desert

A camel  in the Desert.

A watercolour  54cm x 36cm .   
Mounted in cream museum board with a washed grey and natural pine frame
£750

I was born in Libya, and although I cannot remember living there or our time in Egypt in the early 50's, I love camels and the beauty of the desert.  In the last ten years we have been fortunate to go to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.  The Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia is a beautiful yet quite forbidding area, we camped in a tiny part of it.

Walking in the Rain at Newgale

Walking in the Rain at Newgale

This landscape is in watercolour and pastel and measures approximately 26cm x 35cm
It is mounted in cream museum board with a washed grey and natural pine reverse frame.
It is priced at £480

It was a wet windy Sunday afternoon in early October and a walk on the beach seemed to be a good idea.  The tide was out but the sand was wet with the rain.  After I had photographed  this picture I added a little black dog to the couple.  It is the perfect place for taking the dogs for a walk.  Newgale Beach is almost three miles long.

Low Tide at Newgale Beach

Low Tide on Newgale Beach

This pastel landscape is in Pembrokeshire.
 It is approximately 33cm x 48cm
 mounted in cream museum board with a washed blue and natural pine reversed frame.
 £550

For the last 10 years or so, we have been renting a delightful house overlooking Newgale  and the sea.  The rocks beneath are majestic and when the sun glints on them, they literally glow.

Charles Martell's 'Dymock' Fruit

Gloucestershire Black Kidney Potatoes

Dymock fruit trees

 Back in 1997 I painted a Dymock pear, plum and apple for Charles Martell, who makes artisan cheese

 in Gloucestershire.  He has sourced old varieties of fruit trees and is doing his best to preserve as many as he can on his farm near Ledbury.  He now makes a perry liqueur out of the pears.  This morning I went to his home to deliver another painting he commissioned from me, of Gloucestershire Black Kidney potatoes.  They are almost purple in colour but sadly on opening them, they were creamy inside, not purple as I had expected.  He let me photo the old paintings.  The photos have not come out too badly considering they were in their frames and I had forgotten how to stop the flash from working on my camera.

I went to +Vin Sullivan's near Blaenavon last Thursday, hoping to paint a large fish.  The only large one Johnny had left was a brute of a cod, who looked rather ugly.  Anyway, I set to and did a rough sketch of it along with a whole lot of bass, trout, mackerel, sardines and whiting.  Incidently, whiting was thought to be fit  only as cat food, but now seems to have reached a more respectable status.

After an hour or so I had had enough and returned home to thaw out, but bought a mackerel to paint. They have fascinating colouring, and I had a bit of fun painting it.  I ended up putting it on a bed of ice and seaweed as it looked a bit strange floating in mid air.  I am not sure whether to continue with the cod......