53. Pink House, Cumbria

Landscape, oil on Pebeo canvas board, 30cm x 30cm (approx. 12" x 12")

Hello again, everyone.  I'm sorry I have not posted since mid-November (shocking!). Although I've done a fair bit of artwork, it was nothing I could post.  Some of it is for a friend's upcoming wedding, the last bit of which I finished yesterday so am now able to return to my own work for a while.

You may remember the underpainting above, done for Day 29 of Leslie Saeta's September challenge.  A week or so ago, I quickly blocked in some of the colour (middle image) but had to abandon it again until last night when I painted the distant mountains, tree, gate, road and finally the house.  I also tidied up the background trees and the dry stone wall.  I had originally shortened the fence (which in real life runs behind the gate and past the tree) but eventually ditched it altogether to achieve a more open space.

The only four colours used are from one of my major bargains - a pack of Royal Talens Rembrandt oils: Permanent Red Medium, Permanent Yellow Light, Ultramarine Deep and Titanium White.  I've heard it said that Rembrandt paints can be too oily but I get around that by simply using less medium than I would with, say, W&N paints.  My mix is Refined Linseed Oil, Stand Oil and Gamsol OMS at a ratio of 2:1:1 (Carol Marine's recipe).  I buy Gamsol from Stuart R. Stevenson on Clerkenwell Road in London - my first bottle was a free sample!  This time, I used two Liquitex brushes (soft, synthetic and great with oils) and a tiny palette knife for the pink blossom in the trees.

Anyway, thank you for visiting my blog and for reading this far!  I wish you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous and colour-filled 2014.  xx

52. Yellow for Friendship

Still Life, oil on black gessoed panel, 6" x 6"

This was a gift for a friend's recent birthday.  She has shown us so much kindness over many, many years and I just wanted to create a token of our friendship for her. 

This time I used W&N Griffin alkyd oils.  I use them from time to time and don't mind them.  My first impression each time is that they are very thin and rather transparent but it just requires a few more layers to achieve more opacity in areas and, as they dry quickly, this is not a problem.  Now and then it needed a little 'Liquin Fine Detail' to increase the flow so I had a couple of 'high' moments - LOL!

51. Hertfordshire Study - Not Stockwood!

 

Landscape, Digital Painting on iPad using the ArtRage app.

Did this digital painting as I had difficulty sleeping.  Mea culpa!  Looking again at my resource photograph, I realised it was a photograph of a walk in Hertfordshire so I've renamed the post (and the image).  It looks uncannily like the south side of Stockwood Park as you walk down from the main road.

I still love Stockwood Park!

50. Bluefields - Stop the Car!

Seascape, oil on Daler Rowney Canvas, 12" x 4"

This is a view of Bluefields Beach that we pass on the way to Montego Bay.  I have stopped to photograph it so many times over the years that now, every time we approach it, the gentleman who drives us automatically asks me if I'd like to stop and take a photograph! :D
I painted the yellow boat with a palette knife so the paint would go down nice and thick.

 

I meant to photograph my pen and ink drawing but only realised once I'd got this far with the paint.

49. Mini Master - Still Life, Pitcher and Fruit

Acrylic on Saunders CP watercolour paper, 3" x 2"

 

Here is another 'mini master'; this one is Still Life, Pitcher and Fruit by Paul Cezanne, painted in 1894.  I thoroughly enjoyed painting it and discovered quite a few things that I had missed just looking at the painting over the years, such as the difference in temperature in the colours in the foreground compared to the background and the way he unified all the warm and cool colours in the pitcher.  Great fun!  I hope you are all having a good weekend. 

48. Mini Master - On the Beach

Acrylic on watercolour paper, 3" x 2"

This is one of my 'mini masters'; it is Edouard Manet's On the Beach, which he painted in 1873.  (In my Sketchbook Scribbles, I accidentally titled it 'At the Beach'.)  I was surprised that it was taking me as long to do as if it had been larger but realised that it was because I was trying to get it as accurate as possible because it's a fairly well-known painting. The frame itself is 8" x 6"; had I stuck to the correct ratio of the frame, the long side of the painting would have had to have been about 2.5" but instead I stuck to the ratio of the original Manet painting - I think I got away with it.

(The beady-eyed amongst you will notice that I've re-posted the image.  This is because I clean forgot to acknowledge Manet in the first photograph.)

47. Sketchbook Scribbles

Pen and ink in A5 sketchbook

We have a project coming up painting 'mini masters' for a charity event so I've been doing some quick sketches.  Don't look too closely - LOL!

46. Trees on Whinlatter Pass

Trees on Whinlatter Pass, oil on W&N canvas board, 7" x 5"

This painting went into Leslie Saeta's '30 in 30' challenge nude!  I had only managed to finish the under-painting by the time the challenge was over.  It's done now though and I laid all the colour on top using a small diamond-shaped palette knife for speed.  I have corrected the background shape as it looked like a line of trees instead of a mountain range.  My initials were put in using a colour shaper which, believe it or not, was the fiddliest part.  Have a good weekend everyone! 

45. New Paint Colours

Clairefontaine Oil Paper

I went to the Mall Galleries to see the Threadneedle Prize and, as I was in London, I popped over to Cass Art in Islington.  It was their student day and, even though it was evening, we had to queue to enter the shop and inside it was heeeeaving!  It was encouraging to see so many young artists embarking on their art journeys and great that they were able to get 15% off everything that day, including sale items.  (I'm not currently a student but the discounts were still really good.)

I bought the three luscious colours above.  They are Old Holland Classic Violet Grey (probably the heaviest 40ml tube of paint I own), Michael Harding Manganese Violet (looks good enough to eat but please don't!) and Michael Harding Yellow Lake.  For my paint samples, I blended them this time with MH Zinc White in order to retain the brightness of each hue because, as you can see, Titanium White makes them look a bit chalky).

 My very useful oil colour chart... also handy as a fan in summer!  :D



I haven't had to spend a fortune on oil paints; often, I've just been in the right place at the right time.  When I bought two Gamblin Radiants from Stuart Stevenson, I received three really nice free sample tubes of Schminke oil paints (including Madder Root Tone and Cadmium Yellow Tone).  At another art shop, they were selling heavily discounted packs of four Royal Talens Rembrandt oils as a promotion and on another visit I was handed two free tubes of Schminke Lemon Yellow and Ultramarine Deep, both of which are lovely.  At a recent watercolour workshop at the Mall, we were each given two 21ml tubes of Winsor & Newton oils (Winsor Lemon and Winsor Blue, two workhorses).

Happy painting!

44. Workshop Project

Watercolour on cartridge paper, A4 sketchbook

I only had time to attend a third of Christine's workshop on Saturday.  The plan was to layer images and make collages using dried leaves together with gel and impasto mediums.  The end results were really interesting but, as I wasn't around for the full day, I just painted straight into my sketchbook, using flat images but following one of the shape structures she gave us.

43. More Underpaintings

 

7" x 5", thinned oil sketch on Winsor & Newton canvas board

Included in my '30 in 30' collage for Leslie Saeta's September challenge but omitted to post separately here.  Hopefully, as they are small, I can complete them this weekend.  Have a good weekend everyone!

42. Collage for September 30x30

Ah well, I managed two full paintings and a few sketched underpaintings.  Thank you, Leslie; I might not have done any artwork had it not been for your challenge. 

Well done everyone else who painted anything at all.