Wednesday 26 June 2013

WA - Summer Fruit / Veg / Garden

 
 
 
 


 
All I have ready in the garden are the radishes. I had a couple of feeble attempts trying to depict just one radish. Bear in mind that this is watercolour, yes, watercolour! With only one piece of paper left, I decided to 'go for it'!
I am a happy bunny. I like the single radishes, but the leaves are too feeble. I enjoyed painting the bunch but fear I overdid it, getting a bit muddy. You live and learn. The next time I paint radishes in watercolour it will be a mega-masterpiece!

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Stuart, Stuart and Stuart!






 
 Three Stuarts! I think I shall put them aside for a few days. But I have had a thought already..............................................................

 I think I need another one! Any ideas, super blogging artists, as to medium? colour?  There are two oils and a graphite...maybe charcoal? silverpoint? watercolour? Although I have no idea if they could be framed together, and I would always sell them singly ( hint) !


Friday 21 June 2013

Homage to Stuart 20" x 16" Graphite WIP

 
 
I decided on  pencil to complete the trio of Stuart Clark portraits, because he is a pencil artist, so what more appropriate!
 


Wednesday 19 June 2013

BP Portrait Award Winner

 BP Portrait Award winners

The portrait that won first prize reminded me of a portrait of my son I did 18 years ago, and funnily enough, submitted to the  Portrait Award, but  sponsored by John Player then. His averted gaze and awkward hands is why I wanted to paint him. They do say that everything has all been done before.
Adolescent    24" x 36"  Oil 
 
Congratulations to blogging buddy Sophie Ploeg whose self portrait made the grade, and who also scooped the Travel Award. Now THAT'S the way to do it.
I was hoping to re-post a lovely photograph of Sophie taken by Katherine Tyrrell but, alas, without her permission I cannot. This is her response to my request;
Sorry - I'm afraid not - one of the reasons being I'm afraid I don't know who you are
In addition, one of the things which has an impact on how blogs are viewed is the originality of content and the fact that it is NOT replicated elsewhere. I've had to put my blog on a short feed because of the extent to which people were trying to use my content to drive people to their sites. I now put a lot of emphasis on the protection of my content. The only people who are allowed to use anything are people I know e.g. I send photos to galleries and museum press people where I've got an image and they don't.
The set of posts about the BP Portrait Award are pretty unique on the Internet and that's the way I'd like to keep them - unique.
I'm happy for the prizewinners or one of the selected artists to use an image - but that's it. I have to draw the line somewhere and that's where I choose to draw it.
You can of course link to any of the posts - that's absolutely fine.

Friday 14 June 2013

Stare 20" x 16" Oil Progress

 
First glaze, Ultramarine, on top of the Red Oxide, in relevant places. I don't normally work this way, but thought it would be interesting to have a go. So far so good! 

Wednesday 12 June 2013

WA - Holiday Postcard

In case you are new ( welcome) or have forgotten ( no, I know you didn't), WA is the Wednesday Afternooners, aka the West Winch Art Club. We have a programme to follow, or not, which is what the title refers to. I took holiday postcard to mean 'paint small'.
 Cromer Lighthouse  7" x 5"  Watercolour + Ink
 Happisburgh Lighthouse  5" x 7"  Watercolour + Ink 
 Hunstanton Lighthouse 5" x 7"  Ink + Watercolour
 
Unknown Lighthouse 7" x 10"  Watercolour + Ink
from a painting in the book Sea and Sky by Arnold Lowrey
 
I'm not swayed to paint small more often, and these need a lot of 'tiddlng' to make them passable, but I'll admit to having a very enjoyable afternoon....as usual...must be the company!

Friday 7 June 2013

Stare 20" x 16" Oil WIP...or not.


By kind permission of Stuart Clark, here, who is a brilliant pencil artist, and this photo can be found in his Facebook albums. I had to paint this. I felt drawn by those eyes and the hair, both beautiful and impelling. The question now ............is this the under painting , or the finished piece?

Wednesday 5 June 2013

WA - 3D





 
Doodling, really, with plasticine. I so thoroughly enjoyed doing this. It is such a long time since I modelled with clay, but this made me go home and look up how much clay is. Of course I would then need a kiln and/or a forge!!!!!! Does anyone know where I can cast bronzes for free??? A girl can dream though, as I have since I was 17, at school and made this
 
Dream on, then.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Garden

Sorry, folks, no painting this week.
As the weekend was so nice we made a start on tidying up the garden. You may remember that last year we cleared the middle of all the overgrown shrubs, remind yourselves here!
 
Roy renewed the felt roof of the shed and I cleared the surrounding weeds.. I really don't enjoy battling with stinging nettles and brambles! 
                                                            We planted our veggies.
But I couldn't stop there....this was the scene on Sunday night when we packed up. Stinging nettles and brambles galore!
 And more.
 Yesterday the aim was to at least get rid of the stingers, and I did.  The plan today, is to sort out the piles of wood dotted about the garden........rubbish, kindling, firewood.
 
We planted grass seed on the bare patch in the middle......adventurous I know.
AND.......
Just what I was hoping for...lilac has found its way under the neighbours' fence into my garden...........a bonus.
 
 
Oh, OK, I don't paint gardens, but here's a reminder of a painting I did of a poppy from my garden.