Category Archives: Painting

Update on Open Studios

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My studio at Open Studios July 2009

My studio at Open Studios July 2009

 

Ring O Roses for Auction July 2009
Ring O Roses for Auction July 2009

Last weekend was my first Open Studios at Northlight Art Studios, which I moved into in January this year.  It was a very busy weekend, with lots of visitors.  I found that people seemed more comfortable looking in my space when I wasn’t in it, so spent most of the time welcoming visitors at the door, or visiting other artists.  By the Sunday afternoon, however, I was ready to reclaim my studio, so sat in it and did some drawing, which didn’t seem to disuade visitors from coming in.

The painting is one that I did especially for Northlight’s 20th birthday group exhibition, which consisted of 20 pieces of work which we sold by silent auction.  This piece is acylic on paper.  Sadly I forgot to photograph it before I framed it, so it is also a self portrait as you can see my reflection in it.  I was delighted that it sold and raised quite a bit of money for the studios. 
Now I am heading into the summer holidays, I might have time to think (and paint!) again.  That’s after I get some sleep. 

New Painting – Bathtime

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Bathtime baby painting

Bathtime baby painting

Oil on canvas, 2′ x 2’6″

It’s quiet around here, as I am busily preparing for a number of shows – of which more later.  I recently commented on Ronell’s website about the difficulty of weighing up how much you fiddle with or ‘fix’ a painting, and how much you leave the initial marks.  This is one of those where I’ve decided to leave it alone.

Dad’s Hat painting

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Child wearing hat and holding mirror
Child wearing hat and holding mirror

Oil on canvas 2′ x 2’6″

I felt it was time for a bit more colour around here.  This was completed in January, soon after I moved into my new studio space.  I’ve tried photographing it indoors with a daylight bulb, but I’m still not happy with the results.  Clearly I’m going to have to wait until we get some reliably dry and bright weather, and drag the whole lot outdoors to photograph them. 
I’ve even tried searching on the net for a local professional art photographer, but failed miserably.  Just goes to show that there are opportunities for business out there if you can design and optimise your website effectively to let your target market find you!

Bathtime

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Bath
Bath

Sepia watercolour on fabriano paper.  I was inspired by the watercolour drawings of Marlene Dumas to have a go at drawing with a very loose watercolour wash.  I invested in a decent size watercolour brush, which cost what seemed like a ridiculous amount of money.   But it is superb to use.  It holds a lot of water, but also goes down to a tiny point at the end so that you can actually make very fine marks with it if you need to.  I drew directly with the paint, without doing any pencil drawing first and I do enjoy this spontaneous way of working.  You get what you get, basically, and that can be quite interesting.

Can you tell what it is yet?

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Kiss

Kiss

Oil on Canvas
I enjoy looking at paintings that are a little bit ambiguous – where everything isn’t spelled out, and your eyes and imagination get to play with the image.  I aim to achieve this in my work, but sometimes it is difficult to know when I’ve given too much information, and when I’ve given too little.  So my question is – what do you see in this image?  Is it blindly obvious, or are you totally confused?

Boy with bike – oil painting

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Boy with bike oil painting

Boy with bike oil painting

Oil on canvas.  Much of this was painted by taking the paint back off to expose the canvas underneath – rather like using an eraser on a charcoal drawing.  I like the soft effect that this creates, consistent with an old faded photograph, or a fading memory.