2nd phase...

Here’s a bit more work in progress on the first tree portrait…quite difficult to photograph as it’s a very dark painting…might add a few more leaves to the canopy, need to do a bit more with the ground and the main trunk highlights then need to go on. Once that’s done, hopefully all that’ll be left is a few splashes of colour here and there to balance the whole image…

A change of focus...

Well this blog has been rather quiet lately, but that is about to change!

Starting next month, I shall be cutting back my day job to 3 days a week, which means I shall have 2 full days to focus on painting...I've cleared up my painting space, purchased some new paint and brushes... and am getting all the boring little jobs out of the way, so I can have 2 proper working days at the easel...

My first aim is to start producing work that forms a cohesive series rather than individual pieces that bounce from style to style...this is something I've been doing to some extent with the watercolours already...I think I need to do it with everything I try, in order to explore ideas and techniques more fully than I've done in the past...I'm also hoping that a "body" of work will, ultimately, be of greater interest to galleries...

So, the first "series" I shall be exploring is called..."Portraits of Trees"... a slightly odd title, but what did you expect :) . I'm aiming to produce 10-12 largish canvases, in acrylic, pushing the lines I've been developing in the watercolours...I may also paint all of these trees at night...that is the trees are seen at night, not that I'm always painting at midnight...although that may also apply. The first stages of the first picture can be seen above...

Progress on this first one will take a little while, but once we're into November, things should pickup speed :)

Acrylics...

I've been wanting to have a go at an oil landscape for a little while, the plan being to try and transfer a few of the watercolour ideas across to see what happens... however, it occurred to me that the drying time of the oils might limit the usefulness of this when layering the effects and potentially painting them out in the open...Acrylics were obviously the way to go, but I've not been a big fan of them in the past...but, for some strange reason I was feeling very restless today, so went out and bought some large (and expensive) acrylic brushes and attacked a canvas to see what would happen...

and this is obviously the result of that...:)

I've only just finished painting it, so need to look with fresh eyes in the morning...but I think I'm reasonably pleased with it, there are some interesting effects happening...perhaps I'm onto something...I hope so :) certainly painted this one with some passion...I'm knackered now...;)

Varnishing...

Didn’t manage any painting this weekend as the day job is encroaching on painting time as we wrap up our current project…still, nearly done :) Anyway, I collected a few old friends together…and varnished them…it was quite interesting to see them together as a group…I must do some more portraits once work is out of the way…:)

Another sunny day...another painting...!

And here's another from this afternoon, found myself with a couple of hours free, so headed down the Cassington road once more. I spotted the view yesterday as I was walking home and it looks really good at 7.15...lovely shadows...might try and paint it again later in the week if the weathers good...anyway, gave it a go today at around 4.00 ish and came up with this...I've accentuated the scale of the hills a bit and shrunk the field...again, quite pleased, it's got a bit of life to it...am looking forward to assembling several of these...I might just get the body of work, to view as a whole that I'm looking for...was also reading from Hockney's "That's the way I see it" yesterday...I love the honesty in his painting...I find I take comfort and confidence from seeing what he does...looking at what he's done, seems to free me to try stuff like this...dunno why, that's just the way it is...

It's summer out there...

A lovely afternoon so I wandered off down the Cassington road in search of something to paint...after stumbling through the stinging nettles in a few fields, I settled on this view as I liked the shadows being cast on the crops...this also meant I could paint in the shade...:) quite pleased with the results... I'm finding a bit of a rhythm as I'm painting, getting a balance between the different marks and becoming more comfortable "letting go" and allowing the painting to find its own way...am feeling quite good about the watercolours at the moment...just need to keep the momentum going :)

Watercolours from Wales

Just back from my holidays at a farmhouse called Gesail Gyfarch, just above Porthmadog in North Wales, while the weather wasn’t perfect (for holidays or painting) I had a very enjoyable break and managed to fit in some painting time...and here are the results…

I’ve pushed the “white” marks on three of these further than I’ve done in previous paintings and I think the effect has worked well. I’ve tried to focus on painting what I feel about the place I’m in, rather than just directly painting what’s in front of me…Generally trying to inject the “passion” needed to distinguish my interpretations of landscapes from everyone else’s…I think I’m going in the right direction :) certainly something to explore further in future pictures…

lily

Nearly a month since my last blog…not very impressive is it…my day job has definitely been getting in the way of any evening artwork energy…must do something about that once my current project is finished (which should be in the next 6-8 weeks)…Did a little scribbling over the weekend and finished off this design for another card this evening, I still want to get a set of 6 of these flower cards together and these are quite nice to work on when I’m not overflowing with artistic juices…so to speak…

Just like a bus, nothing for ages and then 3 come along...

Also meant to post this the other day, have been playing around with the colours for this lino/painting. This is where I'm at so far. Needs a little more thought and the outlines will obviously be much stronger when printed, but you get the general idea of where it's going...

Bubbles

And here are the (still wet) bubbles I should have posted a few days ago. They'll need glazing to get shadows in the right places and generally knock them back a bit, but the overall texture works pretty well, so once they're dry I'll continue with them.

Experiment Number 1

Have been experimenting tonight with ways of taking the lino style designs into larger paints. Specifically how I might deal with the texture of the "blocks" of colour in a painting. This is the result of that...not a particularly thrilling work of art, but I feel like I'm on an interesting path...I'm going to experiment further with a stronger design and clearer colour "blocks", then I want to work more distinct patterns and textures into those blocks...So, water might be blue, but if you look at it closely you'd see a wave pattern...etc...anyway, I'll explain more fully when I'm awake ;)

more scribblings...

Have been adding some detail into the design tonight, trying to balance the textures that'll make it into the final print. Still needs a bit more work, but it's nearly there. Need to see how many colours I can reduce the printing down to...that should be a challenge.

As I've been doing this, I've been toying with the idea of approaching an oil in this way...drawing/designing everything first and then collecting the reference material to do the final image...I tend to sketch the ideas for the oils, then take reference photos and then piece the final design together from those before doing the painting...Perhaps by finalising the design first, I'd get a more flowing final image...sacrificing a bit of realism, for a more flowing line and a more interesting composition is probably something worth exploring...certainly something worth trying :)

Quiet class…

As promised here’s a quick run down on all the things you’ll need should you want to do some lino cuts of your own :)

1. palette knife for mixing inks

2. ink – I’m using a water-based printers ink called Nerchau. You can get both water and oil based inks, the water-based ones have the advantage of not smelling and being easy to clean…very important if you’re doing this in the living room.

3. rollers – one for rolling the ink onto the lino, one for rolling the paper onto the inked lino…don’t mix them up while you’re working…;)

4. a piece of Perspex to mix the inks on…as you’re rollering the ink around you’ll need something at least A4 in size and flat…that said you could mix it on a sheet of paper if you needed to.

5. lino - MUCH easier to carve than wood…

6. pencils for marking up design

7. cutters – the red handled cutter comes with interchangeable blades, which come in many shapes and sizes. I’m also using a scalpel…in fact I mainly use the scalpel…

8. Cutting board – you can buy these, or make one like this. The piece of wood at the top is to push the lino up against and there’s another piece of wood under the base that pushes against the edge of the table…so it’s all nice and solid…just remember to keep your fingers behind the blade and everything will be fine…

£25 would easily buy some of all the above and allow you to have a go with lino, so what are you waiting for…Class dismissed ;) Have fun...

something new...

Well here’s something a little different for you. A non card lino design.

I went to an exhibition of Picasso prints a couple of years ago, most of which were etchings (which I didn’t particularly like…) but there were a few lino designs which I really enjoyed…that was when I thought I should take another look at lino…hence the recent lino/card/flower work…

Anyway, I’ve been doing the flower designs partly as a possible “commercial” avenue but also as a learning exercise, so I could move onto something a bit more….expressive, in lino…Well, this sketch is the first design for something along those lines…

I had a rough idea of what I wanted to get into the image, but basically it just developed as I sat down and started scribbling…as with the watercolours I find I’m really enjoying this freer, “less accurate” way of working…it’s something I’ve been making progress with in the watercolours and definitely something I need to try and work into the oils…

So, here it is, see what you think…still lots more to do, I think I’m aiming for a sort of Picasso, meets Klimt, meets Manga, meets Graham type of image…fingers crossed.

lino

Finished this one tonight, again decided not to add a final black outline as I liked the effect of the green on its own.