Rose on pillow

Had a day off work today and thought I'd spend a few hours on another Freud(ish) experiment...Having been SO impressed at the speed with which Sue is producing her artweeks work, i thought I'd have ago at painting something in one sitting and here it is. The picture is only 6" x 8", I've TRIED not to overwork it too much, I think the pillowcase stayed nice and painterly, I used a fair large bush, which helped...The rose petals work nicely, just smeared paint :) The leaves I'm a bit unsure about, there were certainly a few points in the process where they were becoming overworked...hopefully I've managed to pull it back. Need to hide it away for a few days before looking at it again, to know for sure...Anyway, I had a very enjoyable time working on it :)

Jacks back...

Did some work on "Jack" tonight, just a little on the water, some of the skin tones under the water etc. I've tried blending the brushmarks here to give it a watery feel and and some interesting contrast with the stronger brushmarks I'll put on the rest on the picture...also started splodging in some colours on the bubbles...they're going to be a major challenge...:)

Finished one !

Had a very selfish 5 hours on the picture this afternoon...and finished it off, did a little more on the apples, but mainly worked on the leaves - What idiot thought painting Chard would be a good idea...Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the results, It's been a really interesting exercise...have tried to focus in on the mark making, holding the brushstrokes together etc...very challenging :) It should have time to dry for Artweeks, so I'll put it in the Bartholomew rooms for those of you local ish who want to see it in the flesh...:)

more leaves...

a bit more work on the leaves today...not much to write other than that, so I thought I'd post a pic of the CD's I listen to while painting...I need constant background noise to clear my head...comes from being bought up in a pub with a loud jukebox :)

Chard

Did a bit on the chard tonight, again it's taking a while as I keep working into things to try and get it right while holding an interesting brush stroke...all in all, a very interesting excercise...

Apples...

Did a bit of work on the still life this afternoon...spent AGES trying to get the apples right...Quite happy with the ones at the bottom of the picture, so starting to work into the chard leaves now.

Also played around with the portraits of Neil, Steve and Ant last night. I think I might have got them all working as one image again. Plus came up with some surreal elements to pull things together and add more interest...I'll try and get a bit more work done on that this week and see if I can get a sketch posted....Off for beer now :)

A post with no picture!!!

Been in the pub tonight, thus no new painting done, but I was chatting with my friend Neil about what I was planning on working on next, so thought I’d list some of my cluttered thoughts here…perhaps they’ll be vaguely interesting?…perhaps they’ll just serve to remind me of what I was planning on doing when I sober up…First, I need to finish the still life of the chard and apples for Artweeks. I’ve portraits of Ant, Neil and Steve to do…again I want to push the painterly effects on these, so they’ll be an excellent learning experience. I’ve got the ongoing portrait commission, which I’m looking forward to getting stuck into :) I need to continue and finish the Jack in the bath picture. I’ve been thinking of an idea for a “portrait” of my grandfather and have worked that one out while in Cornwall…he was a fine gardener and I was thinking of showing this side of his character by painting many gardening tools in an allotment setting…but I’ve fine tuned this to an abandoned pair of Wellington boots, left on a window sill that’s all overgrown with ivy…it’s a bit of a sad/fond way of approaching things, but it reminds me a little of a painting by Freud – a view from the rear of his house, over rooftops, which I love – and I think if I paint it large and loose…it could have the potential to be a beautiful picture…so I’m looking forward to that one too. I’ve also got an idea for another “still life with a hand” similar to the “pears” – this one would be of a set of shelves with a hand placing…or picking up a note mysteriously left there…the note might say “sorry”, it’ll be up to the viewer to decide if the note is being placed or picked up…And I’ve got a strange idea for painting some feet in the bathroom…laying on the floor…passed out…dead…asleep….? Again the viewer would need to draw their own conclusions…that one sounds REALLY weird, so you’ll definitely need to see a sketch at some point…also thinking about doing something with some clothes abandoned on a chair…might do that just as a pencil drawing, haven’t done a finished one of those in a while…Anyway, that should keep me busy for a bit…if you don’t see these appearing on here…start complaining!...thanks to everyone who posts comments, it really help to encourage me/kick me up the ass…;)

Trip to Cornwall

Have just got back from an Easter break in Cornwall, got a couple of watercolours done while I was down there. The first is Rocky Valley near Boscastle and the second Rough Tor up on Bodmin. I was playing around with lifting more colour off to get the stone textures working... and generally glazing the colours on a bit more than I usually do and I'm quite pleased with the results on both pictures. Both paintings are a little bigger than the ones I've done before, which also helped... So all in all a successful trip :)

I've also been taking a few photos for some future oils, more on those to come soon :)

and then it was done...and...

Took off the masking fluid and added a couple of extra marks today, all done now and ready to be framed. I'm pleased with the water in particular...Hopefully it'll go down well when it goes on exhibition at the Farmoor Reservoir in late May, I'll post the exact dates nearer the time...

Here's the painting I'm entering for the Summer Exhibition at the RA, just before I wrapped it up in bubble wrap... As always, it'll be an exciting time waiting to see if it's accepted. On the one hand you dream of getting in and on the other, you try and tell yourself it'll come down to getting a bit lucky with the judges, if they don't like your particular style, that's just bad luck, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your art... No big deal, just one of those things, no need to feel rejected if it doesn't get in...but deep down inside, I really want to get in...:)

I need to take my painting forward and something like this would be a great boost of confidence...:) Anyway, I'm delivering it Tuesday afternoon and we'll hear back by the 1st of June...so time will tell. Good luck to all those other artists entering and if you didn't enter this year...start on that painting for next year...:)