Saturday Morning Market - next stage

20" x 30"

oil on canvas panel

I managed to get to this stage this afternoon. Nowhere near finished yet with still much to resolve but I thought you might like to see the painting nonetheless. There's a stronger narrative content in this piece with the crowd scene and several characters to focus on, all with their own tale to tell. I'm reasonably happy with it thus far :) 

Saturday Morning Market

20" x 30"

canvas board

I'm taking a different approach for this piece. I've drafted out the composition in charcoal which I don't normally do. I usually go straight in with paint, but the composition was fairly complex and I didn't want to leave too much to chance. Contrasts, both colour and value will be key in this piece in order to separate the abstract shapes and create the distance. I'm looking forward to painting all these different individuals from the man in the foreground reading his shopping list (buying for his dinner party that evening?)...to the woman way in the distance holding a cup of tea. You may recognise the two characters on the far right, the mother and son from a previous painting 'Ice Cream on a Cold Afternoon'.

Drawings from yesterday's life drawing session

2 x A2 

graphite on paper

                SOLD

These are two 20 min drawings from yesterday evening's life drawing session that I attended. I had twice as much time for the last one of the evening and didn't get it finished! I clearly work better under pressure!

'The Rage of Juno'

60cm x 60cm

Oil and charcoal on board

This piece is part of my on going line of enquiry into Roman culture and myth. I've been working on this painting for the last two days. This morning I wiped it off completely and began again! Drastic I know but, when I'd wiped it off I found I was left with a ghost of the original image with its interesting marks and which made a brilliant surface to work on. I'm experimenting with combining charcoal and paint and the difficulty is controlling the amount of paint to apply, so easy to overdo it which was the reason I wiped it off this morning. This version I'm happier with and feel I'm getting closer to where I want to be.

'Girl in Blue Jumper'

'Girl in Blue Jumper'

40cm x 30cm

oil on stretched canvas

I gave this painting a burnt orange ground which has given the work a lovely rich glow. I completed the painting in a relatively short time this afternoon and I find that a coloured ground works well when you need to work quickly. If some of the ground colour is left showing through the top layers of paint, it pulls the painting together nicely. 

Life Drawing

SOLD

What a lovely way of spending a Sunday morning...life drawing for three hours! At my own life drawing workshops I'm busy giving tuition and never get time to draw myself. It was very nice to have the time and opportunity to play around with media I haven't used in a long time such as stick and ink, quill pen and ink...I even got out my watercolour box briefly and that hasn't seen the light of day for a very long time! It was great to sit back and let someone else do the organising. So my thanks to Phil Bowman of Gallery at St Martins for inviting me (click on link to go to Phil's gallery website) and extra thanks for spoiling us at the break with the real treat of croissants and coffee! :)

Preparing my frames

I've been painting and waxing frames today ready for some paintings that are going into an exhibition sale soon. Unfortunately you can't see the colours very well in the photograph but three are blueish green and three are greenish blue. I layered three different colours, a warm colour at the base, then layers of blue and green, then rubbed them back a bit and waxed them. Et voila!..they're all ready now to put the paintings in tomorrow :)

Mosaic drawings

I've been exploring ideas relating to Roman culture for an exhibition scheduled for next spring. One line of enquiry I've been making involves mosaics. Some Roman mosaics are fascinating for their exquisite painterly quality but were extremely labour intensive to make. I thought it might be interesting to reverse the process of making and instead of gradually and painstakingly building the image with the components of colour, make the image first, then cut it into the components and finally arrange them in fragment shapes like archaeological finds. I'm not sure where this will take me just yet but I quite like the outcome in this first attempt. An unexpected element of the outcome was that the subject seems to be looking out of the picture from behind a layer of mesh. I'll update you on my progress as and when it happens.

LAS Summer Show at the Collection Lincoln

The LAS Summer Show is now on at the Collection in Lincoln. It runs from now until 1st September - opening times 10.00am - 4.00pm (last entry 3.45pm). There will be a member of LAS present to chat to each weekend in July and everyday in August. My slot is the afternoon of 19th August, so for those of you who live in the vicinity it would be great to see you there. I have two pieces in the exhibition. They are two of my street scenes which you can see below.  I'm disappointed I missed the Society's opening do but sadly it couldn't be helped :( I can't wait to see the show during this coming week and I'm looking forward to seeing my pieces hanging in their lovely new frames. It's a show well worth seeing and I really hope you will be able to get there.

'High Street Shopping, Saturday Afternoon'

8" x 8"

oil on canvas panel

'In the Rain'

8" x 8"

oil on canvas panel

Image in Leisure Painter

This image was kindly sent to me today. It shows an article from the Leisure Painter magazine and it features one of my paintings 'Delicious Biscotti' (you might remember it from a previous post). Leisure Painter wrote a piece about the Lincolnshire Artists' Sales website (great site...to visit click here) on which I have several pieces of work. I've had some wonderful feedback from people who have seen 'Delicious Biscotti' in the article and I'm pleased to say I have now sold the painting on the strength of it. Yay!