Moths

 

Building up some pieces for a couple of new tree paintings...autumnal moths... :-)

 

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Tree painting finished

 

Here's this first tree painting all finished and framed up, really pleased with the way it's turned out and its given me lots of ideas for future possibilities....now i need to send this one out into the big wide world and see what reaction it gets :-)

 

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A new tree experiment part 1

 

I started work on this new tree painting the other day and today I'm getting the frame started as well. I want to get the artwork and frame to really work as a package.

This is going to be a more detailed, coloured piece than recent ones, with a landscape in the background a 'little' like my watercolours...very swirly and graphic. The trees themselves will be white, as will the inner tray of the frame...

 

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Natasha painting all finished

 

Well I've finally finished the Natasha painting this week. I'll order the materials for frame tomorrow then it should all be ready for delivery next weekend. Posting this from the pub, so I'm going back to my pint now...will post a new experiment I'm working on very soon. :-)

 

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Three offspring

 

Here's the latest forest painting, it's called 'Three Offspring' (the eggs in the nest...three little bundles of potential) ...too hot to type more... Lol :-)

 

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Apple tree painting part 2

Here's the second part of the painting being done :-)

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Apple tree painting part 1

I've been working on this painting for an up and coming solo exhibition at the SOTA gallery...more details to follow :-)

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Painting

 

Sorry it's been so quiet in here lately, I'm working really hard on the framing to get that business established...longer term this will hopefully give me more painting time...honest ;-) anyway, I'm not framing tomorrow, I'm in the SOTA Gallery in Witney doing a painting demonstration. I'll be working on the Natasha portrait...so I should make some progress on that which is long overdue. I'll be there between 10 and 4.30 so pop in and say hi if you're nearby.

 

I've been preparing some new painting boards today for an up and coming solo exhibition, also at SOTA, these are going got be an extension of the orange forest pieces...I'll post some pictures of those as they develop over the next couple of weeks.

 

Ok, off to sleep now, big day tomorrow...will tell you all about it soon... :-)

 

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Some little experiments

 

What a busy week....lots of framing and Artweekend fun, but in amongst that I've been working on these experimental pieces. The one one the left needs a few more bits doing, but the one on the right is finished...very different styles but both very interesting to work on...I'll take both styles further I think...:-)

 

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Natasha sketch

 

This is the initial sketch for the painting of Natasha, the design is all approved, so I need to get some stretcher bars to make up the canvas and then off we go :-)

 

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Mirror mirror on the wall...

First gesso frame all finished...:-) This one has been gilded in white gold, painted in off-white, limed and aged, then fitted with a beveled mirror. It's 19x23 inches and is on display in the shop now :-)

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Swirling house commission

Finally a commission I can actually show you ;-) I painted this piece last week as a present for a customers husband. They had actually moved from the house on the left to the one on the right! I needed to get them both in frame and bend everything around in my usual style, which was a fun challenge as this road is perfectly straight...it's the middle of Queen Street, Eynsham should you ever be there, see if you can workout which houses they are ;-)

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A sunny Sunday...

Getting some panels ready for the winter exhibition paintings and working on a commissioned painting this afternoon...nice and toasty in the studio, The Steeldrivers on good and loud and hot coffe flowing freely...very nice :-)

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Burnishing

Burnishing up the gold this morning....looking lovely :-)

 

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Gilding

Here I am starting to gild the mirror frame, I went for 12 carat white gold, rather than pure silver in the end as this will give a warmer feel to the final frame. It'll need to rest for a day or two now before I can burnish the gold...then I can begin work on the painted areas... :-)

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Burnishing the Bole

Today I'm burnishing up the Bole, until it's highly polished and ready for gilding...

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Last of the Bole...

One more coat of red to go on the top frame & I'm just going to go with a single coat of black on the mirror frame as I want as much warmth to show through the silver as possible. These need to dry out for a couple of days now before we move onto the next stage... :-)

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Bole...

This is the first coat of red Bole (clay & size), both frames will have 5 coats on the areas that are to be gilded, the larger of the two will also have a couple of coats of black Bole as I'm going to gild that one with silver.

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Silky smooth...

L

The two original frames have been sanded and water polished...silky smooth now :-) in the background are three more sample pieces, each of these is using a different profile of moulding, so I should have a nice little selection once they're all done.

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Gesso

More work on the handmade frames today. I realised I wasn't going to have enough size so I've made up some more, this time using rabbit skin, this comes in granules rather than parchment form. This is what it looks like when you've soaked it in water overnight...

Next, we just needed to warm it through gently and then add the whiting (chalk). Once that was done I started applying it to the frames...here's a frame after the first coat...

The tricky bit now is to keep adding layers of gesso at the right intervals, it mustn't dry out or the bond will be weak. But you don't want to add it too soon, or the new layer will pull up the one below... So basically, it's a case of keeping your eye on it, while dancing around the studio to kill odd bits of time in between layers :-) Here is the frame once its had 6 coats of gesso...

 

Now the gesso needs to thoroughly dry out, this will probably take 3-4 days in my studio...then it'll be ready for the next short stage...water polishing....more on that in 3-4 days ;-)

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