Sunday 14 October 2007

A change of focus...


Well this blog has been rather quiet lately, but that is about to change!

Starting next month, I shall be cutting back my day job to 3 days a week, which means I shall have 2 full days to focus on painting...I've cleared up my painting space, purchased some new paint and brushes... and am getting all the boring little jobs out of the way, so I can have 2 proper working days at the easel...

My first aim is to start producing work that forms a cohesive series rather than individual pieces that bounce from style to style...this is something I've been doing to some extent with the watercolours already...I think I need to do it with everything I try, in order to explore ideas and techniques more fully than I've done in the past...I'm also hoping that a "body" of work will, ultimately, be of greater interest to galleries...

So, the first "series" I shall be exploring is called..."Portraits of Trees"... a slightly odd title, but what did you expect :) . I'm aiming to produce 10-12 largish canvases, in acrylic, pushing the lines I've been developing in the watercolours...I may also paint all of these trees at night...that is the trees are seen at night, not that I'm always painting at midnight...although that may also apply. The first stages of the first picture can be seen above...

Progress on this first one will take a little while, but once we're into November, things should pickup speed :)

7 comments:

MissT said...

G - I'm really glad that you've cleared a space for yourself. Looking forward to seeing what that produces.

SueC said...

Agree with Miss T....and anything that allows you to increase speed from the glacial has GOT to be good ;-)....

...sorry that was a bit cheeky. I'm really pleased for you. Things seem to be falling into place for you and having the extra freedom can only lead to more fulfilling times ahead and I'm looking forward to seeing how your tree series develop.

Unknown said...

Ty Miss T, I’m looking forward to seeing what I produce too :) you’re quite right Sue…anything that speeds me along my way has got to be good…I got some decorators brushes and a paint kettle for mixing larger quantities of paint at the weekend, I’ve pretty much just used those on the tree painting so far (apart from the black lines). Very liberating to be sloshing the paint on and hopefully it’s producing some interesting marks too…which is ultimately what I’m after…definitely a step in the right direction I think…:)

SueC said...

Paint kettles?? Decorators brushes???!!!

Just HOW big is it then?

Unknown said...

It’s 30”x40”. So a reasonable size…I want to do some bigger than this also…but I just happen to have this canvas, so I started with this one…the decorators brushes are actually very good…and a LOT cheaper than the equivalent artists size acrylic brushes…:)

MissT said...

I think someone has been rather inspired by a certain picture by Hockey 8-)....

G - be careful, make sure you can actually get the picture out of your 'studio' when you've finished. *-)

Unknown said...

You’re right Miss T… Hockney’s large woodland picture probably was what got me thinking about the “tree portraits”…and his work in general is VERY influential in how I’m looking to approach things in the future…I love the way he switches styles and media…but always produces interesting work…not a bad thing to aim for me thinks :)