"Lollipops and lace" Summer ice cream painting and Firle Vintage air

The Vintage Fair at Firle Place, Sussex

I have been hoping for another good seaside trip but the best sunshine days seem to only fall at the weekends. I don't like crowded places so the weekends are no good to me.
We did however spend a lovely day at the Vintage Fair that is held at Firle Place in East Sussex.
Firle place is a splendid house, nestled at the foot of the South Downs with stunning views over the Sussex Weald.

Firle Place, East Sussex

It was a glorious Summer's day and the grounds were filled with traditional fair ground rides, vintage cars and a large selection of stalls selling various retro themed items. The cider tent also seemed to be very popular !
It was a very English  "strawberries and cream" sort of day.
For several months now I have wanted to find a colourful ice cream van to paint and add to my Summertime collection, but the only one that I really liked was a van called Vintage Scoops
 that I had seen in Lewes town a few times. Unfortunately it was parked in the shade  which wasn't ideal as the colours didn't look their best.  Imagine my delight when I spotted it at the fair!
I love the creative and fun thinking that they have put together and I'm going to love painting it even more.....
Work in progress.....
                                           " Lollipops and Lace"
                                                 Acrylic on canvas 24"x 18"
 It's taken a couple of days to get the composition sketched out as there will be quite a bit of detail involved. I need to build up areas of opaque colour first to give me a base to work on...

Starting to paint the ice cream van

I've spent several hours today on the inside of the van. There's quite a lot of flags and bits and pieces that need painting then putting into the shade before I can progress onto the outside. A large area of the windows have writing on so I need to make sure the paint has dried right out before I can continue.

Starting to paint the inside of the van

I have been working on some of the detail which puts more colour into the composition. The embroidered table cloth now needs the shading added ...

Adding a bit more detail to the composition

I have spent today painting bits and pieces all over the place! I made a couple of small alterations, there wasn't really anything wrong but there was a few things that were niggling me.
The van is beginning to shape up a bit more now and adding some of the shadows has given it more depth. I'm happy with it so far.
I have a busy Bank Holiday weekend ahead so I shall continue painting on Monday.  :)

Adding the shading to the painting starts to give it more depth

I'm back after spending a lovely weekend with my children and grandchildren, luckily the weather stayed dry and we even saw a bit of sunshine! Today I'm back home and it's raining once again!  Oh well, a good excuse to get on with the painting.  It's been another day of painting a bit here and a bit there but I'm happy with the progress and expect to have it finished in a couple of days...

Good progress being made on the painting

It's been an interesting and fun composition to paint and the ladies from Vintage Scoops love it :) ...

                                               "Lollipops and Lace"
                                                      Acrylic on canvas 24"x 18"

Painting of the Vintage Scoops ice cream van