Eynsham Square in the Sunshine

Eynsham Square in the Sunshine…and what a lot of sunshine…;)

Allotmenting and general chores have been taking up a lot of time lately…hence the lack of two paintings a week…but the weather should turn awful pretty soon, so I’ll have more painting time then… so there’s a positive in everything.

Missed out on my beer time this evening to get this done, but I’d been in and out all day doing little bits of it in between other jobs and I really wanted to get it finished.

Obviously I’ve pushed the colours a bit further on this one, It’ll be interesting to see what people think of it…overall I’m pleased with the final result, plenty of movement…:)

It seems like next months Eynsham Art Group exhibition will have lots of local flavours, Lorna, Sue and I have all been focusing on similar themes of late, should be a good exhibition, I know I’m really looking forward to seeing their pieces in the flesh...fascinating to see how we’re all interpreting the same subjects…

News!…I’ve got a couple of paintings in the Oxford Open show on at Saïd at the moment, so if you’re in town and fancy seeing them, pop in and take a look, or better still, take your cheque book ;)

Eynsham Toll Bridge

Three weeks since the last post…shameful…I’m going to put it down to good weather and too much time on the allotment…anyway, back to ‘normal’ service now hopefully.

This is the Toll Bridge in Eynsham (I’m not copying you honestly Lorna :)) Drew this out yesterday, painted the sky last night when I got in from the pub…and finished the rest of it off today. I’ve tried to paint the bridge in one sweeping motion and made some masks for the trees before painting the masking fluid on…I don’t think the effect is very clear in this painting, but it’s certainly a technique I shall try again…:)

A couple of quick updates…

The Woodstock picture got into the competition, so it’ll be on show at The Henmans Garden Gallery, The Oxfordshire Museum, during Art in Woodstock (25th - 2nd November)…competition winners are announced on 2nd November, so we’ll see if it gets any further…:)

Oil painting experiment is STILL wet, so I think we can officially say that masking fluid and oil paint do not make happy bedfellows…a new experiment for ‘swirly’ oil paints is penciled in for New Year…:)

Woodstock at night

I've painted this one for a competition in Woodstock which has the theme of 'Illumination'...Hence a view of Woodstock, at night, lit by the moon and windows. It's taken AGES to paint :) (Well, about 13 hours...) balancing the flowing, swirly lines with reasonably accurately rendered buildings was...a challenge...lots of drawing to start with and then lots of masking fluid...and then lots of water in with the paint...in lots of layers...hence, I've been working on this all day...However, I'm quite pleased with the results, it's got the kind of look I had in my head...anyway, It's entered into the competition, so we'll see how it does...off to sleep now...very tired :)

Land of the Sheep...

A proud and noble sheep...:)

If you zoom in you should be able to see that I've softened some of the lines by painting into them once the masking fluid has been removed. On some of the stones at the base of the picture I've done this in such a way that they still have a white highlight on the top. This has given them an interesting 3D feel...something to explore further at some point :)

Llyn Llydaw - The Miners' Track - Snowdonia

Allotmenting yesterday, but pulled my finger out and painted today...(after painting the raised bed I built yesterday...but that wasn't my best work, so I won't bother blogging it :)) ... This is Llyn Llydaw, one of the lakes on the Miners track on the way up Snowdon. Initially I'd drawn the mountains in the background, but I decided to extend them up a bit and do away with the sky altogether...I think this maybe the first time I've painted a landscape without a sky...anyway I liked the way the light hit the hills and wanted a darker background...so up went the mountains :)...I've actually painted them in a slightly different way...laying on lots of colour and then lifting off the markings on the cliff. I'm quite pleased with the way thats worked out, the slight blur gives a sense of depth and adds a nice contrast to the sharp lines of the masking fluid...all in all, not too bad :)

A quick update on the oil experiment...oil is still wet...I may have to rethink this ;)

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 :)

Oil Swirls Experiment

I'm trying a little experiment at the moment to see if i can use oils with the swirling landscapes...I've got a canvas and a board I've coated with Gesso. Both are divided into two and I've used masking fluid on one half, moulding latex on the other, I've made a variety of marks with both and then painting on some oil. Thin to thick across the surface. I need to wait for it to dry now, then I'll add another coat... then I'll need to wait a LONG time for it to dry fully....and finally, we'll see if the masking fluid/latex comes off or not :)

Also did a painting yesterday which I'll blog later...need to head off now and am late already :)

Just for a change...Ink...

I've been meaning to try one of these swirling landscapes in ink rather than watercolour...So today I did :) I'd taken a few photos on the path down from Snowdon to Rhyd Ddu (Where there is a fantastic tea rooms that does wonderful Dutch coffee...) and this was composed from several of those. I've wanted to try ink as i thought i might be able to get an engraving/print(ish) effect...and to some extent, there is an element of that...though this is still very much a painting...One day, I must get myself a printing press...and somewhere to put it... :)

Holiday painting 2 - Gesail Gyfarch

Here's the second painting, a view from the hill above the farmhouse where we were staying. I'm particularly pleased with this one, there's a nice rhythm to it I think...

I'm getting more confident painting these and that's allowing me to paint them more freely, which is exactly what the style demands...all in all, a reasonably productive holiday :)

Holiday painting 01 - Harlech

This is the first of two larger paintings i did while away, a view of some tumbled down walls over Harlech in North Wales (for anyone that knows the area, the castle would be directly ahead behind the trees and lower down :) the hills in the background are Criccieth and Porthmadog...:)

Broadly speaking, I've been trying to use three variations of mark making in these watercolours...it's a habit that's been forming as I've been doing them...in the case of the masking fluid, there are the outlines (done with a knife or masking fluid bottle), the brushstrokes (done with...yes you've guessed it...a brush...;) ) and a bit of splatter (with an old toothbrush)...I've really enjoyed having this mix of effects and trying to balance them...it's certainly something i plan on continuing to explore :)

Girl with Butterfly

Here's a little sketch I did while away...I want to try and find a slightly different way to depict the female form in the acrylic paintings i'm doing at the moment...so I'm playing with a few more flowing lines here...nothing even close to a finished idea, just a first step :)

Postcards from the edge...Part 3

...Like buses, you wait for ages and then these posts come along in threes...jump back a couple of posts and all should become clear :)

Postcards from the edge...Part 2

previous post continued...:)

...However, having created these little pictures I wasn't wildly keen on I started thinking about what might work on such a small scale. Inspired by the weather I started doing these bolder pictures of views through the rain covered windows. For these I used normal brushes and masking fluid, as with the larger paintings, but they were still very quick to do...lots of splashing water around and making a mess everywhere...I know Sue will be very pleased to hear that ;) The first ones were actual views through the window, but I ended up just sloshing the paint on to do the later ones, I enjoyed the effect I was getting, so I just kept going :)

Postcards from the edge...Part 1

Well, it's been a long time since the last post as I've been away on my holidays...lovely weather...;) Anyway, while I was away I had a play with some watercolour postcards. Quick sketches done with a little brush that you fill with water, so all very easy to pop in your pocket and capture something quickly (thanks to Lorna for the idea :)).

I'd have to say I didn't really enjoy doing these first ones, I hadn't done any watercolours for a couple of months and the combination of brush and scale really didn't get things flowing. But they were a good way of getting things started, I did a couple of full size paintings (which i'll post soon) and they turned out ok.

...Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me post millions of pics at once, so I'll split this post up...:)

Started on the box this evening...

The title says it all today :)