Another new book!

As if my book shelf was not already bursting at the seams, I have just bought Shirley Trevina's new book 'Breaking The Rules Of Watercolour'. I pre-ordered it from Amazon, so it was eagerly awaited, as she has been a great inspiration to me in the past. I have also been to a couple of her demonstrations at the craft fair at Patchings Farm in Nottinghamshire, and I found her a most charismatic speaker and demonstrator!

There is lots to read and look at, some old friends and lots of new work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my initial delve into the pages, but I do have a couple of comments.... I feel that some of the paintings are photoed just a tad too close for me, they take something away from the work, which I feel should be viewed from a bit of a distance to get the full effect, and her green work in France is not really to my taste. I hope she does not go too far along this route, and lose sight of the style of painting that I so much admire. That said the book is gloriously colourful and does exactly what it says on the jacket!

The arrival of the book reminded me of how complex some of her paintings are, especially the backgrounds, and what an amazing amount of resources she must have collected over the years. I thought I might have a go at something in her style! My attempts are far too tightly produced, I so wish I could get the hang of this free approach to watercolour, but instantly the subject is complex and contains lots of small elements everything tightens again. Must keep trying harder!

Here is the resultant painting, hope you enjoy looking.

                                                        'Spring Flowers'   Watercolour on
                                                        140lb Fabriano Artistico Extra
                                                                  White

I am pleased with the way in which all the weight is in the top part of the painting and the bottom left area fades away to very little. Will try that again, we so often do it the other way around. I do find yellow flowers difficult to get right, I think it is something to do with choosing what colour to use for the shadow areas. They so quickly look dirty.

Daniel Smith Paints

Time to start a new painting, and I had a determination to see exactly what I could do with the new range of paints that I have recently acquired. That makes it sound as if I have bought the whole range all in one go, but that is far from the truth. Daniel Smith Watercolours are, in my experience, beautifully textured paints with lots of exciting colours, but they come with a heafty price tag. I already have a goodly stock of artist quality paints bought over time, 'just in case I cannot afford to replace in the future' which I must use up before they begin to deteriorate, but I cannot help but be tempted by the Daniel Smith range, so I have been buying one or two slowly over a few months every time Peter does us a mass order at Art Group (avoids postage costs). As others need replacing I will certainly acquire more!
At the moment I have seven or eight tubes with names such as 'Moonglow' and 'Rose of Ultramarine' and so I set about painting  something predominantly with these paints and only using the likes of Winsor and Newton or Graham and Co if I didn't have what I needed in Daniel Smith. It was lovely to mix the creamy paints on the palette, and also use them straight from the tube. The colours are really vibrant so they give the whole range from pale to really dark depending on the amount of water that is added. I have a green called 'Green Apatite Genuine' which I find a really natural green, and when mixed with Indigo, Paynes Grey or Burnt Sienna works well for my dark areas of background.

The full list of  of colours that I have at the moment comprises: Hookers Green, Pyrol Red, Green Apatite, Opera Pink, Quinachridone Magenta, Rose of Ultramarine, and Moonglow. I used the last five of these in the Iris painting below, together with a few others to produce a painting with which I am very pleased.

In order to concentrate on the effects of the paints, and to test them effectively, I am afraid that it was back to the comfort zone, and away with the freer experimental approach!

'Pink Iris'  35 x 50cm

Fabriano Extra White Rough 300gms

Maybe the shadows should be a bit darker, but I hadn't the courage to mix the colour any deeper, I was afraid of over doing it. I find this the hardest part of the painting, and as it has to be the last thing I do I am always afraid that all the preceding hard work will be for nothing if I mess it up, so I lack the courage to be really bold. Thank you for looking, hope you enjoy it.

As promised, a look at what I have been doing since browsing the second of my Christmas books. I have always admired the work of Mike Bernard and so asked my family to buy me 'Collage, Colour and Texture in Painting'.  Mike is very much a landscape painter, but I felt this was an advantage as I could respond to his ideas without falling into the trap of copying his work. I had hoped to develop some of his methods, but keeping generally to florals and still life.
The book is lovely to look at, the paintings are stunning, and I would love to be better at this collage business.
Not to be daunted, I have given it a go!
The first painting came about through my Art group. The subject was 'Clocks and Watches' Immediate thoughts were dandelion clocks, but I felt that this would not be totally in the spirit of the subject, so something mechanical had to be included! I am still a flower painter so .......how to combine the two! When I had finished the painting, I brought it home and added a number of cogs etc to the corners of the painting where I felt it lacked interest, so I had my first recent ( I say that as I have done some collage in the past) mixed media, including collage, painting and printing.

                                           'Clocks' Mixed Media on Fabriano Extra White
                                             (45cm x 35cm approx)

I then had a go at something a bit more radical! This time it was to be a painting of very free Marguerites and the background would be made up in part of some photos of Marguerites taken in the garden last summer.Then using acrylic ink, gouache and watercolour. I would paint in the flowers. Not as easy as it sounds. It was difficult to decide where to place the picture bits and how many to use, and in some ways was quite difficult to visualise how it was going to end. However, nothing tried, nothing gained, so I pressed ahead and at least managed to finish the painting.
Interesting to note that subsequent efforts have all ended up in the bin.....but I will keep trying from time to time between more traditional stuff which is within my comfort zone!

                                                    'Marguerites..Experiment' Mixed Media
                                                   Fabriano Extra White (35cm x 45cm)

What I need to resolve is the hard edge of the collage pieces. To get a really good reproduction, I have used a photographic mat paper and it is obviously much thicker than tissue or newspaper and therefore does not blend readily with the background support. The result is a series of hard edges which I would like to get rid of so they are less prominent in the finished work and blend more into the background. Any ideas anyone?
Hope you enjoy looking and may be you will be tempted to give it a go!

Realistic Abstracts

I was fortunate enough to receive a couple of art books for Christmas, and have enjoyed dipping into them both from time to time. The first is Realistic Abstracts by Kees Van Aalst, and the second one is Collage, Colour and Texture in Painting by Mike Bernard. From my perspective, they are, neither of them books for beginners, but are for artists who have mastered the basics and are ready to develop their paintings in a less than figurative way.
I am quite excited by the concepts in each of the books and have been ready for some time to try some new things. Kees Van Aalst's was the first one that I have really studied as I have been trying for some time to loosen up my paintings and to introduce a bit more freedom into the finished work.
I do not find it easy!! Even with the help of the text and the lovely examples given in the book, my finished results were still more realistic than abstract, but it is a start and I will persist!

                                                   
                                                        Cherry Blossom

                                                Delphiniums

In both paintings, I painted the background first, using a limited palette, leaving white where I thought it needed to be. It was easier to work from one of my photos at this stage as these highlights are easier to see on a photo. I then spent some time looking at the resultant sheet of colour, decided where the flowers were to go and did a very limited drawing to keep me on track.
Whilst painting the flowers and leaves, I tried to keep in mind that all I wanted was just a suggestion of flowers, leaving the imagination to fill in the rest.
Sad to say, that each painting is still too realistic for my intended goal, especially the cherry blossom, but maybe I am getting there. I do quite like the delphiniums! And it was really good fun!

I have had a go at a bit of collage from Mike Bernard's book, and this weeks subject at art club was 'Clocks and Watches'. Quite a challenge for a flower painter!! So I used some of the tips that I had picked up for the painting,and did a bit of collage in combination with the watercolour, but I will save that for the next blog.

Composition

As the Christmas season rapidly approaches, I have to think about closing down the studio and converting it into the guest bedroom. I have always known that the price to pay for having sole use of the second biggest bedroom for my studio has meant that whenever we have visitors, I have to give up the space whilst ever they are in residence. My mother is about to join us, so can see no possibility of doing much painting until the festivities are over.
I have, therefore been making a bit of a push to finish a piece of work which has been on the easel for over a week now, and that it quite a long time for me.

It was really coming along nicely, until there was enough work completed to be able to imagine the end result. Some bits of it are lovely, but I am sorry to say that the composition leaves quite a bit to be desired!

Now that it can be seen as a whole, it is almost a painting of two halves, which bothers me each time I look at it. My husband thinks I am too critical, but I do wish that I had arranged the flowers a little better and not followed my photograph quite so slavishly. In hindsight I would like to move the central yellow rose across to touch the spray of white roses on the left and slot another white rose between it and the lower right yellow rose.
I also wish that I had not had all 4 white roses on the left facing straight towards me. It would be more interesting if at least one of them was turned slightly away from centre.
I really must do a compositional, tonal sketch in future before I start, but I am always too keen to get on with the actual painting. Will I ever learn!    

Only two more weeks to posting!

I have been so busy over the past couple of weeks, that I have given no thought to adding a new post to the blog spot. As the work has involved the production of my christmas cards, I thought I would share that with you.

The first task is to paint and produce our main christmas card. I need to have a good idea - in short supply after a number of years, and an inability to paint winter scenes - which then has to be executed and printed for about 100 recipients. Our friends are very supportive and are always keen to see what the current season will bring, which adds to the pressure. I usually paint it reasonably large, and then reduce it on the scanner using Abode Photoshop. I do not like cards which have their fold across the top, as they invariably do the splits in time for Christmas. I get my card from Halcyon Fine Art and he is able to supply an A5 landscape format card with the fold on the left hand side. There are lots of others to choose from, and they all come, if required with proper card envelopes with a diamond shaped flap.

This year's design is very simple.

This card comes to all who read this post, with my very best wishes for a peaceful Christmas  and a prosperous New Year.

In addition to the general card, I have 4 specials to make. I have 3 friends with whom I used to paint on a regular basis, but due to a variety of family reasons we are no longer able to do so. We have always, however, met together in the early part of December to swap gossip and wish each other well for the comming year. It became a tradition of the meeting that we would produce individual, hand painted cards for each other. I decided to stick to the same theme, and then had the great idea of using the original painting of the three pointsettia  for these three individual ones.I carefully cut around the flowers, painted more holly and red petals and stuck them all together to make three three-D cards.

 



Now I was only left with the most special card. Every year I have produced a hand painted card for our daughter. She is always very appreciative, but no matter how hard she tries to tell me otherwise, I know when she does not like it, so I do always give it my all!

Sticking to the same theme, I have adapted the ideas fron the three Pointsettia, and produced something similar but more refined. I am encouraged by the fact that she really liked the general card, so am hopeful that the theme, at least will go down well!

I am really pleased with the result, although the photo does not do it justice. It is difficult to see the effect of all the individual petals and leaves which are raised above the surface of the card. I am sure she will love it. Of course all the special ones have bits sticking up on them, so there is no way they can go into envelopes. Better get some boxes made!  A very Happy Christmas to you all.



Contrasts

Whew! What a week of contrasts! Last Thursday at club it was a case of abstract art, and this week I have just finished a flower painting as traditional as you could get. It certainly makes for an interesting life.
Last weeks club subject was abstract music. I do enjoy thinking about this type of subject, but lots of the members find it incredibly difficult to disassociate themselves from figurative shapes. Hence most members finished the morning with either surreal paintings involving musical associations like bits of notes or instruments etc, or graphic patterns with similar motifs. My take on abstract art is that if you know what it represents, then its not abstract. Having such a passion for flowers, I chose the musical rhyme....'Lavenders Blue, Dilly Dilly, Lavender's Green' and I am delighted to say that everyone who was interested had to ask me what it was, and where was the musical link.
In point of fact, I was much better pleased with the result than I had hoped, and will certainly look forward to trying some other subjects as starting points. I put lots of emphasis on texture, and included the use of clingfilm,salt,splattering and blowing the paint around the picture as well as a bit of collage of circles cut with a hole punch. The paper was quite wet at certain points so I was glad to have used a good quality paper,and I included watercolour paint, acrylic inks and watercolour pencils to produce the colour.

                                              300gm Fabriano Extrta White Not Paper with
                                                            mixed media 55cm x 45cm


A few weeks ago, I indulged in a few tubes of Daniel Smith watercolour paints, and one of the colours I chose was his 'Moonglow' which is marketed as a beautiful colour for creating shadows. Eager to try it out and see what it could do, I painted a cluster of lilac edged clematis. These flowers have very wrinkled edges to their petals, so lots of delicate shadows are needed to show this feature. I mixed tiny amounts of the flower colour ( Quinachridone Magenta ) with the Moonglow to paint all the leaf curls. Then strengthened the mix with a little more Moonglow to paint the very light cast shadows around the centres etc. I also used the Moonglow as part of the mix of Hookers Green. Prussian Blue, Windsor Green and Quinachridone Magenta to paint the background. In this painting I decided to limit the dark background to the centre of the painting and leave the edges pale. Hope you like the results!

                                                       Fabriano Artistico Rough Paper
                                                      Extra White 300gm  30cm x 45cm