Autumn leaves

 

All resined, framed and up on display in the gallery :-)

 

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Framed tree sculpture 1

 

Lots of sawing and sanding today...I'm calling these framed sculptures, as there's no, or minimal painting, just lots of cutting, carving and sanding. You get an amazing sense of parallax as you move in front of the piece, so I hope people will find these very unusual...:-)

 

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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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Long time, no post...

 

Hello :-) even by my standards it's been a long time since I last posted anything in here. I've been working really hard of the framing side of things and a couple of months ago I was finally able to leave my job in the computer games industry, so I am now a full time picture framer/artist...and all the merrier for it :-)

I've now managed to clear the backlog of framing jobs, so last week I was FINALLY able to schedule a little painting time. First on the list of things to do is this portrait of Natasha...long overdue...great to get back to some painting and I made pretty good progress, getting in the most of the dark shade and starting on the light, hopefully over the next two weeks I can get this phase all done and then I can start work on the flesh tones...

I'm aiming to have 1 to 2 days a week painting and the rest framing, so with any luck I'll start posting once a week (ish). I've got some commissioned work starting next week, which I won't be able to post, but I'm working on the next phase of the forest paintings, so the plan is to get a little of those done alongside the commissions so you...and I, can see some progress...:-)

You can seeing the currently available forest pieces at the SOTA gallery in Witney and the Burford Art Gallery, Burford. And with any luck I'll add some more locations as the year progresses :-) if your local gallery doesn't have any in stock...ask them why not ;-)

 

 

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Apple tree painting part 2

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

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New prints going to SOTA

 

Here

Here are a few prints that are going off to State of the Art gallery in Witney in the morning. They're also showing one of the original girl paintings along with a selection of the forest paintings...which are selling well...:-) they're open late tomorrow night for the switching on of the Christmas lights, so if you're in Witney call in and take a look :-)

 

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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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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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The Forest Paintings

I realized I hadn't added images of all the latest pieces finished and framed...so here they are :) Have been building some new handmade frames today, will post some pictures of those later in the week :)

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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