The Orange Grove - Part 1

Have finally started a new painting…currently at the drawing stage, beginning to work all the elements in.

Lots more drawing to do…:)

The Broken Boy & The Smooth Girl

Had an unexpected painting day today…well some of the day…Jack was off school due to the snow, so in between snowball fights and Xbox’ing I’ve managed to finish off this painting…

Did a bit on this tonight…

Progress...

Blocked in the main colour of the second figure tonight…spent a LONG time, just sitting looking at it…might be the drink, might have been a profound moment of thought…who can tell the difference…anyway, VERY pleased with the way it’s going at the moment, not sure quite how well the end result will turn out…not actually too worried about that either…am learning a great deal from the process of painting it and currently think I’m onto ‘something’….will be VERY interested to see what you all think of the final picture…showed the first stage to some other people today and was surprised by the fact that they didn’t know exactly what it was a picture of…Seems VERY clear to me, but I guess it would be as I’m painting it…I actually really liked the fact that they couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be…I like the idea of the viewer having to do a little work to discover the meaning of the painting…

First proper post of the year

Started on this today - “The Broken Boy and The Smooth Girl”.

I was telling Lorna on Friday night, how I liked the freshness of the sketches I’d been doing, letting ideas form directly on the page resulted in some lovely flowing lines…but when I’ve transferred those sketches to paper/canvas for final painting, some of that magic in the lines is lost, the spontaneity is lost…

So, I’ve worked this up today directly onto some watercolour paper. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to paint thematically and an idea for the materials I wanted to use (watercolour and then ink lines over the top), but no plan for the composition.

I’ve spent around 3 hours working up the drawing, building different sections at a time, constantly rotating the paper, reworking and reworking. Then I spent a couple of hours working on the first figure.

As I’ve mentioned before the aim with this is to form a bridge between the watercolour landscapes and the allegorical acrylic pieces I started last year. I’m planning on doing a few of these over the next couple of months and then the one I like the most I’ll enter at the RA…off to an interesting start I think :)

a new year

Once again a long gap between posts. Christmas and then away for new year and now I’m working full time for a couple of months, so quite busy…but all that is really just an excuse for laziness…or not quite dancing with the artistic muse, something like that…I haven’t felt like painting for the last month or so…haven’t actually done much of anything…vegetating you might say…maybe I’m just worn out…

Anyway…here are a couple of scribbles I’ve done recently, some ideas for the RA summer exhibition (this years theme is ‘Making Space’), some just ideas from songs…nothing thought through, just a scream of conscious via the pen…one or more might develop into something interesting…or they might all end up in the bin, time will tell…

I’ve been thinking about trying some of these more allegorical ideas in watercolour and ink…I’d like to build a connection between the watercolour landscapes and the style of ‘The Golden Key’ painting I did…I want to introduce the ink over the watercolour and the swirls to add strength to the designs and give me more control over figurative elements within the picture…I don’t have enough control with the masking fluid to depict figures…

I find myself starting the year torn between exploring the swirling/golden key styles further or returning to the traditional methods to present ideas…subjects and themes can easily cross styles…and there are pros and cons to both artistic directions…but which one is the best use of my feeble time…any thoughts? :) x

Three Fennel on Stone

Finally finished the Fennel…I want to get back into using oil for a few paintings next year, so thought I’d get a bit of practice on this…it’s been ages since I used oil and the first couple of hours were…interesting…:)

I know a few of you find this one VERY boring, but I think it’s been a very useful exercise…I’ve been focusing on the swirly watercolours this year, so this kind of tight accurate(ish) oil is a big contrast…much more like the work I was doing before the swirls…somewhere in the back of my mind is the feeling that I can somehow fuse the two…I’m not quite sure how yet…but that will form part of what I do in 2009…:)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…Hope Santa brings you all you desire…X

The Rollright Stones

Ahhh, better late than never, here are the Rollright Stones on a cold wintry afternoon...Not much to say today, so I’ll stop there…:)

Oh dear...

I’ve been sat in the Bartholomew Rooms today, invigilating in the current art exhibition…very quiet…I was going to take in some paints and work on my next swirling watercolour, but there’s a limited amount of table space and I couldn’t be bother to take in all the bits I needed. So, again inspired by Lorna, I decided to take in a pencil, paper and a small mirror and have a go at a self portrait…how very out of practice I am lol. This makes me look like my grandmother…and lovely as she is, I’m not sure it’s a look I want to cultivate. However it was a fun exercise for a few hours :)…swirling watercolours tomorrow though I think :)

Just up the road from Lornas picture...

Well another long gap between pictures…better late than never… I’ve always done things at glacially slow speed…but I usually get there in the end…stick with me :)

Anyway, this is the third new Eynsham one, so I’ve got a full set for the autumn exhibition in the Bartholomew Rooms 22nd -30th November.

Alas the Woodstock painting didn’t win any prizes, but it did get sold…twice…which was quite impressive for an exhibition where it wasn’t actually for sale…so I must be doing something right…I guess there’s hope for me yet…?

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 ;)