Agapanthus

It is getting very close to the exhibition in Wells Cathedral and I have been busy putting together the flyers, posters etc. I realised that I was using an image of Agapanthus  as my contribution, (we both have a painting each on the posters etc) but I sold the painting quite recently. It felt necessary, therefore to produce another as similar as possible to hang in the exhibition.
This was no problem as painting Agapanthus could never be seen as a chore and I was pleased to have an excuse to get going.

The process was exactly the same as the last one I painted which is described in a previous post,(See post dated 30th December 2012) so I will just show the initial wash and the finished painting.

                                                                     'Agapanthus'

                            As usual the painting is on Fabriano Artistico Extra White Rough 300g paper.

Catching Up : The Squiggle and The Poppies

There has been quite a bit of upheaval over the past two weeks. I have been having work done on the kitchen and decided that this was just the right time to clear out and clean the kitchen cupboards. What a lot of gadgets we can acquire and then never use! They have all gone in the bin. Space is limited so I cannot be too fussy. Hence, no time for painting except at AVA.
We had the final session of the compulsory calendar, which is always a fun week. We are presented with a couple of squiggles, drawn by one of our members grandchildren and we have to choose one and create a painting or drawing. Our members really enjoy this session and it always produces lots of really creative ideas.
My choice looked like this.......

There were quite a few birds from this shape, but I chose to rotate the drawing through 90 degrees. The drawing has to be faithfully copied onto a piece of appropriate paper but it can be enlarged or reduced as desired. From this shape, I produced the following painting which I am quite pleased with.

The first week of the summer session, with freedom of choice, I was back to painting flowers. The Opium Poppies were out in the garden and so I took some photos ( I have never cut them to bring indoors so do not know if they would last long enough!) and had a go at painting them fairly loosely. I think they work reasonably well, but I would have liked the reds to be a bit fresher.

Its great to have a set programme as it takes us out of our comfort zone, but it is lovely to look forward to the summer months where we can experiment and enjoy our own special loves.

Bluebells Abstract

I have been quite determined to paint and put together another painting using my lovely doilies. I wanted to do something based on a bluebell wood, so thought I had better get around to it before I forgot what they had looked like. They grow quite well at the bottom of my garden under the trees, and because I am so used to them being there, I have never bothered to take photographs.
Anyway, not too important as it will be a very abstract interpretation.

I started by putting a fairly wet blue and green wash onto some rough paper, and where it puddled I used a straw to blow it into the centre of the paper which I had left white and dry. I tried to vary the strengths of the colour especially in the blue area.

When it was completely dry, I used some quite strong colour to try to define some flower shapes growing up to the pale centre. I then used the edge of a narrow strip of mount board, dipped into green paint, to add stems and leaf shapes.

I then painted a d'oily with the same colours as the original wash, but using less diluted paint as the surface of the paper has a slight gloss which prevents it absorbing colour very easily. I tore up the inner part into usable pieces and I used a hole punch to produce lots of small circles from the edge pieces.

I then used these pieces to collage the painting  ( can you collage a painting?) hoping to get the effect of lots of bluebells reaching for the sunlight. I never stick the pieces down completely, so that when the painting has a double mount and is framed, there is just enough room between support and glass for the strips of added paper to curl slightly to give a three-dimensional effect.

                                                                        'Bluebells'
                                     Abstract Collage on Fabriano Artistico Extra White Rough paper