Credit cards

Back at my art class and trying something new again. This week we were painting with credit cards, pushing scraping and dragging the paint around. Took me a while to get used to using this cumbersome little bit of plastic but I think l started to get it in the end. Using the card and a loaded brush dragging it over the paper worked well, wearing gloves is a good idea as it does get a bit messy, some finishing touches with a brush and some enjoyable splattering; I think it worked out ok.

 

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Senses

I have been working on and off my senses project painting over the summer, started with a few sketches my first attempt didn’t  really work, inspired by my visit to Upfest and all the wonderful urban paintings I had another go, this seams to happen a lot with my pictures, anyways its about done now.

Spent some time working out how to paint some of the elements, its been a good learning picture.

 

Candy floss pink

Spent a wonderful day painting with Chris Guest in London. A first for me painting all day from a model, picked up a new approach to painting , a few tips on materials and how to mix candy floss pink. All in all a good day.

Thanks to Chris for his instruction, I have gesso and board ready to have another go. Just need to find me a model with candy floss pink hair.

 

BP Portrait Awards 2017

The standard of work in this exhibition is tremendous; I always come away appreciating the skill and talent of the artists. I have taken a few pictures of my favourites to add here.

It is a competitions so you have to select your own favourite, mine was (Rhyming slang for worth nix) by artist Janne kearney

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benchmark

I have been trying my hand at painting for about 3 years now, so I thought it might be  interesting to go back to the beginning and attempt another version of an earlier painting.

I have always liked this portrait by photographer Ronald Vogal who kindly gave me permission to use his  photograph as reference.

I have use oil paints on canvas as apposed to Acrylics on paper but still I am pleased with the marked  improvement in my technique.

I am certainly looking forward to trying this benchmark again in another 3 years.

 

 

Sixth sense

I have been working on my art class summer project Senses.

I had the idea of creating 5 tarot like cards one for each sense, trying to add a little twist to each illustration Sight being blindfolded  in the dark and Smell being roses and something rotting in a bag, I guess you get the idea.

The sixth sense is just suggested by a downturned card and the tarot.

Thanks for dropping in.

 

 

Pathways

We have come to the end of our art class pathways project, its been another interesting term first looking at perspective line and colour, then looking at maps and aerial views  finished up exploring something alternative.

Working with the idea that the body is  full of pathways, I found some vintage anatomy illustrations  and used these as the starting point for my painting,

Had a go using acrylic inks on paper in a very loose style, with big brushes and many layers, I am pleased with the results and it should create some reactions on the little gallery wall : )

Return to Reality

I try to think of a different approach to  my paintings and this idea came when I was photographing my pictures, I noticed the great distortion you get  from selecting a  strange view point.  The idea was to start with the distortion and perhaps return to reality when  viewing the picture.

It didn’t really work, l need to think this one out again.

like all my paintings it went through a few  different looks, I  am pleased with the final slightly graphic feel.

Got there

Been working on my  art class pathways  picture for a few weeks, this one has been a real journey, even with all my planning it kept changing direction , after the finish it made one final turn, l guess knowing where you are going in your pictures is not always straightforward.

I framed it up now so there’s no going back.

Window

Often I am left wondering why I started something especially when it does not go that well; my window painting was more about exploring different techniques, than the end result. Perhaps I should look at this as just one of the stages and take another go at a final picture.

One good thing came out of this  I was introduces to the work of Anselm Kiefer an artist who does grunge at an epic scale I am hoping to get along to one of his exhibitions this year.