‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep’. Scott Adams I have to confess I had to look up Scott Adams as had no idea who he was but liked the quote. He is an American cartoonist and creator of the Dilbert comic strip apparently. I make mistakes in my art all the time, but as I gain in confidence in my work I think I agree with Mr Adams in knowing which ones to keep. This painting was nearly abandoned twice through my impatience, but am growing increasingly fond of it as I work through the problems. Patience is not one of my virtues unfortunately. The peppers are now coming to life clearly as are the two bottles and the toaster. Still some work needed on getting all the perspectives correct but getting there. The skin tones have proved more difficult as the girl’s face is in shadow whereas her hands are not, so have been battling to get the shadows and tones right; not completely there yet, but on the right track at last. Next week the details in the hair and dress. The oranges and tea towel mentioned in last week’s blog…
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‘Bedsit Dining’ work in progress, week 2. 1 June 2016
Having twice wanted to abandon this work, I am suddenly feeling my way into the painting, deciding it WILL work, and getting excited about the details next week. A supporter on Twitter (and buyer, thank you David) of my work, suggested the composition was too cluttered and that it looked more like a Bedsit – et voila, a title came into my head. From my experience of living in bedsits, life is indeed cluttered and rather than paint an elegant dinner party I would rather portray what is perhaps more real for most of us these days, smaller homes, clutter and familiarity. I am still thinking of adding something more at the front to the work, possibly some oranges and/or a blue and white teatowel as Mediterranean colours always work for me. On the other hand that might just be too cluttered…. The toaster will stay after all (nearly got axed last week!) but it is now smaller and slimmer. Will probably be redder too as time goes on. Lastly, I will be painting a burnt sienna glaze over the skin tones when the paint is drier as at the moment the poor young woman has the look of a…
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A new piece, relatively small (14 x 10″) to compliment Should I Stay Or Should I Go and Waiting, Wishing,Wanting which are both on the website. Again, a quieter work after the excitement of the water in The Pink Hat! I need a bit of a rest before I contemplate painting water again, much as I loved tackling that subject. I think I need an object in the foreground of this painting as the area in the right hand corner is a bit dead at the moment. I don’t want to overcrowd the composition but think perhaps a bowl with a couple of oranges in it to add colour. I was toying with putting a glass of wine there but realised I have quite a wine theme going on with a lot of my work, so perhaps not with this work…. I feel this girl is making a special effort with the preparation of meal, hence the title but am open to any suggestions as always for titles. Really looking forward to getting in the bright Mediterranean of the peppers and the toaster … Will probably add some red to the hair too to link the work. A lot of…
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