LOADS OF ADMIN FOR EXHIBITION ENTRIES

It's been about ten days since I lasted posted anything new or, in fact, looked at

anyone's blog. It's like being cut off from an essential part of life. Now in half an hour I am off to my daughters to look after the girls, so she can go out for the evening to celebrate her man's birthday.

I have spent so much time of late on my new project, which is almost complete and ready to reveal to my blogger friends soon.

On top of that, it's taking ages to complete entry forms, CDs, CV's, etc for many shows that have deadlines for entries during March/April. Biggest problem has been deciding which works go where and where I need to get down to creating more work. Here are some floral studies of old I am using to build up the number of paintings.

This first one is originally a watercolour to which I added acrylic to build up detail. Its in a square format with double cream mounts and light wood frame measuring 19 x 19 inches. It will be going to the church Celebration of Art at Grimston near Kings Lynn for an end of April annual show.
Number two is an acrylic on flat mounted and framed canvas for the Renewal Exhibition at the recently refurbished gallery at the Yarmouth Library . These cyclamen renewing in the woodland year on year reflect the theme of the show.

Must dash now as I am due to leave any minute. Happy blogging.

ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL WORKSHOP OIL PAINTING

I have at last finished my other project and and sent it away to be printed. More another time.

... so today I had the joy of getting out my Michael Harding oil paints and starting the second in the pair of paintings for the summer West Norfolk Artist show. Fortunately I had already worked on the composition so I could get the paints onto the palette, get out my brushes and wonderful Liquin orginal which improves flow and transparency.

Above is the first stage and as you can see (or remember) I am starting with much softer colours and application than the Rehearsal piece of work I posted some weeks back. I have used Kings Blue Deep, Brilliant Pink, Raw Umber and lots and lots of Titanium white, all blended with a wonderful soft mop brush to create a mix of tones. All these colours were in the other painting when I allowed the blue in the mix to be more dominant on the walls and screens.

For a first painting session, I am really delighted. I'm really looking forward to applying my shiny floor technique and hope I manage the figures well. . To vary the heights of the people, I added a young girl, which I might paint in red as a focal point - Sandra's idea when she saw the original sketch. Don't think this second piece will be as busy.

By the way, that painting hung on the right screen is Sandra's of Beckett's chapel in Wymondham. Maybe you'd like to pop over to her blog to see her stunning Norwich architectural pieces. http://sandrarowney.blogspot.com/

HILLSIDE RETREAT

Sorry I have not posted for nearly a week - due to two reasons. The first I had trouble with all scrolling. The minute I tried to move down or across screen, it jumped right back to where it had begun!!!! Absolutely no way to try to add text or images. Anyway completely sorted at last including purchase of a brand new ergonomic Microsoft keyboard as the other one was 10 years old. However, it turned out to be the wireless mouse I have had for some years.

Oh! yes, the other reason - I am in the middle of a major project, I will tell you about when its all finished. Patience now!!

Anyway, to return to my stay at Anita's, I played with another acrylic in the style of Mick Waite (remember the DVD we watched?) and here is what developed based on an Italian photo in a holiday magazine. Bit heavy really, with lots of thick paint applied with big brushes. Needless to say, being me, I really developed the flower border in the front.

Just a couple of close ups for you to see the simplicity and different ways the strokes were applied. Maybe these images will enlarge with a click to get even more detail.

Very bright colours though, but then I suppose I was thinking of the strong light in Italy, even if the sky looks overcast. It all really reminds me of my very early work when I first started using acrylics umpteen years ago.

ACRYLIC INK ORGANIC GROWTH

Whilst at Anitas, we had fun with layering acrylic inks and printing shapes to see what occurred. This little series shows what happened when I used the initial result and developed patterns I saw.

This first one made me think of the biblical burning bush ......




... so I went into the orange firy shapes and developed them with darker shadows and areas between. Here is a close up of the resulting centre.



Then I thought the areas at the base could be joined and harmonized to give the idea of the earth though somewhat egg shaped, with the firy shapes floating above it. Finally I turned it upside down and darkened the area below the globe.

Wasn't that fun?!

Something completely different in landscape and street scene style in my next post also created during my stay at Anitas.

FLYING OVER MARSHLAND AND A COUNTRY WALK

Just got back from four days painting with Anita and did we have fun.

This first painting was using the new Atelier acrylics on a coloured ground in my own style, making up the composition as I went. Since taking the photo, I have added a fifth gull just above the horizon of the water which appears further away than the group, as I felt I needed to bring this aspect of the piece further into the painting.

I had taken down our ordered new Atelier Interactive acrylics and a DVD explaining their use by a very free artist Mitch Waite, which covered compositions including the figure, colour and tone. After watching we decided to create something in his style including figures in the landscape.

Finding a photo in one of Tom's shootings magazines, I came up with the following - applied very simply in blocks and smudges getting away from all my normal detail!! Only took one afternoon researching the inspiration, blocking in and pushing the paint about a bit and even adding the walkers and dog with quick dabs. Only problem working Mitch's way, is you can easily end up with mud on your palette!

It was cold and at times sleety during my stay, so we buried ourselves in the bright studio and carried on painting into the small hours with nibbles, coffee, wine and gorgeous evening meals in between!! So I have lots of results to post to you. All very different, depending on how we played. Watch this space!