"The Parents" back at home

Here I am with my painting in the Royal Academy!...albeit out back in the storage area :) (thanks to Ian, for the inspiration for taking this pic ;))

According to the handlers who fetched it out of storage, this was their favourite picture in there…So someone likes me :)…perhaps next year, a few of them will be on the selection committee ;) Then again, they might have said that to everyone…or it might have been the last one in there, but either way, it was nice to hear :)

Went for a lovely wander around the embankment after picking up the pictures, ate too much, drank too much …saw this sand sculpture and lots of buskers, jugglers etc, sat in the sun talking about arty things we might all do in the future… all in all had a lot of fun…swore next year I’d take a smaller painting though…but I doubt I will :)

Golden Key - Finished

Came down with a bout of man flu this weekend, so didn’t get much painting done, however I’ve finished this one off today. I’ll put it in the Eynsham Art Group Summer Exhibition 5^th – 13^th July, should you want to go see it…or better still, go and buy it ;)

I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out. As with the watercolours, I think the techniques I’ve used here are giving me an interesting, unique vein to explore further…will get another canvas gesso’d up this week ready to go…:)

(Have attached a couple of close-ups for anyone that wants to view the mysterious lines in more detail ;))

Nearly there...

Day 4. and I’ve done a lot on this today, nearly finished in fact…:)

More shapes...

Day three and I’ve added some more detail to the background.

I spent a LONG time just looking at this today…there are some elements that I like (overall composition, sky, pose of the figure, sections of the outlines), but the general application of the paint is not yet working…it’s too like a lino cut and not enough like a painting…this is partly due to the nature of acrylic paint and my love/hate relationship with its properties(or lack of skill in using it), but mainly due to the fact that this is an experiment and I don’t know exactly where I’m going…

I need to find a way to blend the acrylics, that gives me a ‘painterly’ look, without having that ‘messy’ look that you can get from acrylics when sections are drying before you’ve had a chance to work them…the current blocks of colour are too lino cut ish….too like a cartoon…

Phase 2

Day two of experimentation and some of the lines are starting to come together nicely. I’m painting the background spaces rather than drawing the actual lines, which is giving me some interesting details along the lines which I really like…the effect is a little bit like a lino cut…anyway, there’s a bit more blocking in of colour to go yet, then I’m going to work the lines themselves, pulling out a few details here and there while tiding up balancing the weight of the lines…Once that’s done I’ll start working on the internal painting…all in all, I’m please with the way this is going, I’m certainly picking up some useful tips :)

Experimentation part 1

I’m doing a bit of experimentation this week. It’s an acrylic, playing with lines, figures and storytelling, based on a very short story called The Golden Key by the Brothers Grimm.

For quite a while now I’ve wanted to take the strong lines used in the watercolours and get them onto canvas in some form. I’ve considered several different methods, some very similar to the watercolours themselves, but part of my desire to use canvas/oil/acrylic is to gain more control over the lines in order to depict figures... The looseness of the watercolour method just doesn’t allow me to achieve that. However, I want to retain the spontaneity that I’ve been getting in the watercolours, which is something that is sometimes missing from some of my ‘traditional’ oils…

So this is it, phase one, blocking in the composition. I’m not entirely sure how it’s going to develop…we’ll see as the week progresses…:)

The Hills are Alive...

Woodstock Church seen from over the lake in the grounds of Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim 07

Column of Victory, seen over the water, Blenheim number 07. I’ve two more Blenheim sketches in my little book, so perhaps I’ll get those done over the weekend. Then there are a couple of Burford sketches, with lots of curvy flowing buildings and giant lollypop trees, then a Cornish sea view waiting to be done…I should stop typing and get a move on :)