Sunday 7 September 2008

Two Farmhouses in Wales

I've been somewhat distracted with summer holidays, allotment building and general sloth like behaviour over the last couple of months...time to get on with things! I've got my oil experiments and the acrylic pictures to continue with but I need my main focus to be these swirling watercolours...I want to have 20 good ones to take to galleries next year and that means I need to crack on...17 weeks until the end of the year, so I need to aim for a couple of paintings a week, which is perfectly doable...if I focus ;)

Anyway I think I'm going to add this one to the good pile as I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out. I used some new tubes of watercolour for this one. I'm increasingly finding I prefer tubes to pans as I can get more pigment on quicker, hence the colours on this are a bit more intense and there is a bit more time to play with the paint while its wet on the paper.

So one done this week...need to do better next week :)

2 comments:

ian gordon said...

I should think you'll surely find a market for these. Although I confess to being the world's worst expert when it comes to guessing what galleries are looking for.

As I handed in a few pictures at a local gallery recently (no decision yet as to whether I'm accepted or not), I looked around at the other submissions. They all looked to me like they were done by the same 2 or 3 people. No individuality at all.

I think your work here is at one and the same time, distinctive and saleable.

Unknown said...

Thank you Ian, that’s great to hear :)

I know exactly what you mean about gallery pictures falling into very similar styles, especially with watercolours…So much is based on techniques, little tricks for doing things, which is fine, but as you say, you do then end up with a distinct lack of individuality.

When I started doing these watercolour landscapes, the little swirling lines were purely accidental…I was stood in a field, splashing paint around, not knowing what I was doing…but I liked the little swirling lines that I’d dotted in here and there…they had a sense of motion and I hadn’t seen them in anyone else’s paintings…Without those early lines I probably wouldn’t have continued with watercolours or landscapes. But as things have progressed I’ve realised I’m find a voice of my own, a way to depict what I see and feel in a way that interests me…and is unique to me…up until this point I’d always “borrowed” from other artists…

I don’t mind if I find a commercially viable market for these or not (though obviously it would be nice…;)) I’d really just like them to be seen…

I hope a little of that New Years luck rubs off on us and we both get into a few galleries :)