‘Envy’ Week Two. 15 July 2015

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Getting somewhere this week, as was not sure I could pull it off last week. A handy tip I pass on, for what it is worth, is about perspective. If you feel you are struggling with this, or just feel something is not right, either hold the painting upside down, or hold it up to a mirror. You will straightaway see where you are going wrong. I think the eye gets too used to what it is seeing and can’t see the errors, whereas we all know the mirror can’t lie… At the life class I run locally, I sometimes suggest a student holds a small mirror to their shoulder so they can see their painting and the model at the same time. They will then (hopefully!) see immediately where they are going wrong. Interesting eh? For some reason, I have a horror or browns and greens in my paintings, and am not sure why. Maybe it is because I am a Piscean water sign and I always lean to the blues, purples and lights, I don’t know. So with the floor in this painting, I know I have to have it dark to contrast with the lilac chairs, but…

New work ,Envy, and updated photos of last two – pieces 8 July 2015

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Always good to start a new painting. This was a completely random photo of my daughter and a friend at a wedding and I just thought it made an excellent composition. The woman adjusting her new glitzy shoes is happily gazing into the mid-distance dreaming. Well actually, at the moment she doesn’t, she looks like a mad woman, but stick with me over the next few weeks I will get it right! Her friend, however, is looking covetously at the shiny shoes, even though she has her own (probably new) shoes. The title ‘Envy’ just jumped out at me, or possibly ‘Wedding Shoe Envy’, not sure yet. We all have so many pairs of shoes in our wardrobes, but a woman can never have enough of them. I do promise this will be the last painting relating to shoes for a while…. As regards colour, in the photo the colours are rather sombre, and I don’t do sombre if I can help it. The dress on the left therefore, will probably be a brilliant turquoisoe and I think the wedding chairs will be lilac with a sheen to them. At the moment the woman on the right has a white…

Finished work Modern Blonde and Waiting. 2 July 2015

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‘Waiting’ is now finished, in as much as I ever think a painting of mine is finished. There is always a terrible temptation to keep on adding in detail and refining the work and you end up with an overworked piece of art. I think most artists are perfectionists and are always finding fault with their work but you just have to let it go. So….this is 45 x 35 cm unframed and is up on the website for £225. It is oil on canvas. ‘Modern Blonde’ is also now completed and available to buy. I could not quite get the exact colour right in the final photograph. The skirts are a little more vibrant and yellow in the original and the blue tops have a slightly more turquoise hue to them. I apologise for this and spent some time trying to get the right colours in the photo but to no avail; first time this has happened…..sigh. I used an old toothbrush to add a little splash of colour on the walls as a finishing touch and like the effect. The painting is 50 x 40 cm and is priced at £325, not £350 as shown on the website,…

Week 3, work in progress June 24 2014 – TITLES!

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I would like to thank everyone on Twitter who came up with ideas for titles for these two pieces, I was overwhelmed with the response. In the end I decided on a short title for both so this is now called MODERN BLONDE. Everywhere I go, I see people on their phones all the time – it is a truly modern phenomenon – and not sure if it is a good one, but hey, I am just the artist. One follower came up with the interesting thought that both paintings could be about prostitution or call girls, something that had not crossed my mind. I should finish this next week and am keen to get onto the detail as this makes or breaks a painting to my mind – that and my pink and blue spirited touches! As regards a title for this, again a lot of good ideas and thanks. The word ‘Waiting’ featured in so many Tweets with or without prefixes, but in the end I decided little is more and will just be calling it WAITING. Someone suggested ‘He said he’d call’ but I thought that was too specific and gender orientated, after all she could just…

Week 2 work in progress – 17 June 2015

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I have a note written large above my easel. ‘Put pinks in BEFORE adding blue shades’. I learned the hard way that if you mix the blues, pinks, yellow ochres and naples yellow, you end up with a mud mix. So I start with the highlights, then the darker tones, a mix of ultramarine, Kings Blue Deep (Michael Harding paint) and Quinacridine Magenta and then the pink mix. Then, and only then, when all is good and dry, I start adding the blue highlights which for me make the painting sing. I will also start adding in more pink tones next to other shades as opposed to blending in. Blending does work in the initial stages, but it can look a bit bland if done in the final stages. These are just my thoughts of years of learning (and mistakes) so it may well not work for everyone. You have to find your own style really. I have started to put detail on the face but need to do a lot more work here, at the moment something is not right…..will also add pattern on skirt as we go along. Have block painted better with this work so far, i.e…

New work at last – 10 June 2015

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So new work as cold gone and roof mended (sort of) and ready to paint after wonderful holiday. I noticed on my travels in and around San Francisco that blonde is still the norm and mobile phones are everywhere, so am not going to apologise for another ‘blonde’ painting or two, but will move on after these two! I liked both poses so much that I decided to have them both in the one painting and I think this works well. Early days mind you…..In the photo the model is wearing black skirt and black shoes, but I always shy away from black for some reason. If I have to use black, I will mix ultramarine and burnt sienna to get various shades of ‘black’. Bright mediterranean colours appeal to me far more as they are happy colours. I may add more orange to the skirt as I go along as complimentary colours always work well (Google colour wheel if you get a chance to see more about complimentary colours – simple but effective use of colour). I am not sure what to call this yet, so any help from my Twitter base would be great, not rude please! Originally…

Recent work, new painting next week, illness….3 June 2015

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I really meant to start new work this week on my return from holiday, but I came back to a flu type virus and water leaking through the ceiling of my front room, so painting has had take a back seat for one more week. So…this painting, called ‘Thinking’ is a mix of two images in my head. I saw this woman sitting in the old square of Prague and just loved her serenity and other worldliness (at least in my head). In the photo her eye was visible, but I decided not to show that because I am learning that buyers do not always want a recognisable face. Interesting eh? You will notice in other artists’ paintings that people are sometimes painted back view, or in profile or with sunglasses etc. I think the naked eye can make up its own mind what is or is not there in a picture. The background to this painting was somewhere completely different. A cafe in Clifton, Bristol which had this amazing wall with faded lettering all over it. I just thought it might make a more interesting composition than the original background which was a bit mundane. The painting is available…

More recent work on website 27 May 2015

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It has been suggested to me that this painting looks as if the couple are in an arm wrestling match! Not my intention at all I assure you. This is a couple toasting their future together. They could be engaged he could be married or she could be or they could be toasting their divorce – who know these days? It could be cheesy I suppose, but this couple were both going through divorces and were just very happy to have found each other and I wanted to paint that. It is available on the website framed or unframed. With the painting on the right I was very tempted to call this Does My Bum Look Big in This but decided it wasn’t very professional. However it’s every woman’s nightmare when she tries on a new dress however slim she looks and I felt most women would identify with the image. However again the viewer will make up their own idea as to what is happening. This could indeed be The Tailor as I have finally called the painting. It is painted in oils and is on the website available framed or unframed . This Line Art is painted in cream…

Recent work on website and Line Art

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This is one of my favourite paintings with one of my favourite models. However the art dealer I work with would not take it on because of the unpolitically correct cigarette in the painting, something I had never thought of. I think the viewer can make of this image whatever they like. I deliberately put a ring on the guy’s finger so that it could be the start of an illicit affair or it could be completely innocent, it’s up to the viewer. As always I use the palette of blues and purples that I love so much. This work is available framed or unframed and prices are on my site www.michewatkins.com. The second painting is of the same girl just having some downtime, relaxing and enjoying herself . I cropped this work as I don’t think you always have to have the whole face, the eye of the viewer can interpret the rest of the image. I LOVED using the pink palette here . Framed and unframed the size and price is the same as The First Move on my website and is available. This is one of my Line Art paintings which are cream acrylic with a touch…

Recent work on my Website. 13 May 2015

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I used two of my favourite models for this painting as they interact so well together. I explained what it was I wanted from them and the ideas I had in my head and then left them to it while I snapped away with my camera. Very quickly they forgot I was there which was great. In an ideal world I would always paint from life, but this is just not always possible and I have now got a great set of reference photos for future use. I feel with this painting the viewer can make up their own mind as to what is happening here which is why I so like painting narrative figurative works as opposed to the straight portraiture I used to do. I have used strong colours here deliberately, as I feel this is a strong painting and have therefore framed it in the white tray format which compliments it. It is available in my website www.michewatkins.com and can be bought framed or unframed. This is is a small fun painting which I decided to crop and with the help of one of my friends on Twitter is called ‘Friday’ – a great name for that…

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