Running and painting

Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself running intervals along the River Kent yesterday morning at 0655. Sheep and lambs looked up blearily at me. They'd hardly stirred from their night's slumber and must have wondered what on earth was going on as I lumbered past. Anyhow, I managed to do 5 x 30sec intervals as hard as I could and was shocked at how hard I found it. I was up and out that early (for me) because I've developed, over the years, the ritual that I have to have been out for a run before I watch the London Marathon on telly. And as I wanted to get Match of the Day in as well, it meant I had to get going early doors!
Normal service was resumed today, when I went out for a gorgeous run mid-morning. Basically, I just went out and ran around, linking routes together, with plenty of ups and downs, for about 45 minutes. It was fantastic. My average and max heart rates were a bit high; this probably just reflects my lack of fitness.

One reason I'm not in the best shape at the minute is because I've just come back from being in Spain on a painting holiday. One of the exercises we did was to use a small viewfinder and select a detail to paint. This is a great idea, because it really helps you to focus and cut out all the visual clutter that you get when you look at, say, a landscape. I did one of the wall of the hotel from the garden:

And another of a lemon tree The whole thing was a mass of abstract shapes:

Another exercise was to do a charcoal drawing in the olive grove and write notes about the percentages of each colour that was present. Back in the studio we had to cut up the drawing, rearrange it and paint the result, being true to our colour analysis. This gave a great abstract feel:

 I've been trying to use oils since Mrs HF bought me some for Christmas. I love them, but I've got a long way to go to get proficient with them.  I did this of Kate Rusby from a photo. (Sorry Kate, you're much lovelier than this). I quite like the hair and the jacket.

Before we went away, we went to see the Lucien Freud exhibition in London. Now that's proper portrait painting!! If you like that sort of thing, go and see it. It's fabulous.

More running next time...