First week, first underpainting of 2017. I alternate between being excited when I start a new work and impatient to get down to the lights, darks and details which I know I have to wait for until the underpainting is done. Catch 22. Two good friends kindly let me use their house as a backdrop to my next photo shoot with my model and I am hugely grateful for this. Much as I would like to paint from life, in practice I have to work largely from photos, so every few months I will set up a photo shoot with a different model and take a load of images for future use. The lights work perfectly in this and the composition benefits from the wonderful abstract painting behind the model. I am not usually a fan of green in my colour palette, but this time the colour of the sofa compliments the lilac Grecian style dress and also the cushions which will eventually be purple shaded. On a different note, I am absolutely delighted to have been given an Award of Merit in Manhattan Arts International ‘s New Beginnings Exhibition http://ow.ly/xOba307yJKd for this painting :- If you would like to…
Read More ›
My apologies for being a bit late with the completion of this work and my blog update. For various administration reasons, my website went down and it has taken the best part of ten days to sort; not perfect timing for this sort of thing to happen ! This is a relatively small piece , 30 x 25 cm, 12 x 9″ and is painted on Ampersand board which I really like for smaller paintings. It will be up on Great White Art Gallery’s website in the New Year along with other work of mine so please have a look at www.greatwhiteart.com. Looking forward to starting new work as soon as 2017 is upon us. Until then I wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas and may all your dreams come true in 2017. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the next few months, please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of the Home Page. I will be sending out the next one early in 2017. Happy New Year.
Read More ›
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.” Vincent Van Gogh. This quote was completely right for this week’s post. I was certain this morning that the painting would be finished today. However, the more I painted in the detail, the more I realised I am still learning and that I have a way to go yet. Each time I thought I had completed one area, I would look across and see another area unfinished. I would work on that and then look back at the piece I had just been working on, and realised I still had more to learn. But at least I am learning. I think with a larger canvas, an artist can be freer, more expressionistic in style, using larger brushes and being braver with colour. With a smaller canvas like this one (10 x 8″) however, one has to tighten up, smaller brushes, more detail, less room for mistakes. Both canvasses work for me, and I enjoy the challenge of both. So it will be one more week on this piece to get all the details and colour right. Still not sure about a name yet either…
Read More ›
