AVA 'Along The Track' and 'Wild Life'

The studio is at last nearing completion and I am looking forward to painting at leisure in it when all the 'stuff' gets unpacked.
In the interim, I share with you the last two weeks at Avon Valley artists Group. They are not spectacular paintings but there are bits of bath that I am quite pleased with, and lots of room for improvement for me to work at.
Firstly, the subject was 'Along the Track' and I selected a photo taken along the local disused railway line which id now a lovely walk between trees.

This last week it was time for some 'Wild Life' and I chose to paint a sedge warbler, mainly because I was attracted to the lovely sprays of sedge in the picture which I found in an old copy of a wildlife magazine.

Both paintings were done on Fabriano's Artistico Extra White 300gm paper with my usual palette of colours

 

Playing with Texture

Every now and then, I have this urge to break away from the norm and try something new. I use the Avon Valley Artists group as a time to try out these new things, not least because I respect their comments, both positive and negative (in the nicest possible way!)

The studio is completely upside down, undergoing a major restructure, so it was a case of whatever I could lay my hands on, and as the subject was 'Flowers', too much resource material was not required.

I used a piece of heavy paper as I felt there was going to be lots of water involved, and I collected scrim, gesso, gauze, and cling film to provide the textural imput.

I pasted the scrim, gauze and gesso onto the paper, especially on the LH side of the sheet, and when they had dried, I washed over the paper in three distinct bands of colour, and covered it with cling film, pulled into vaguely stem shapes.
 I left the whole thing to dry over night.

 

 

I lightly sketched  a stem of foxgloves in the central gap, but became aware that if I continued in this way, I was in danger of producing a 'copy' of a well known artists piece of work

I'm not sure how this came about; maybe I had seen the piece recently and subconsciously been influenced by it.

Anyway, I changed the flowers to simple daisy shapes and painted these the paper in a freehand way.

 

 

 

 

 

I kept adding the flowers until I felt the balance was right, and added the centres and a good deal of splatter, and it was time to finish. Not my finest hour, but an interesting exercise, and as usual, lots of fun to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hollyhocks and AVA starts again!

Hi everybody!

I am so sorry that the blog has been quiet for so long, but I think I must be getting back to normal, as I have been thinking about painting again.

The garden is beginning to lose  a lot of colour, although I notice that the roses may be about to give me a second showing. Poking above it all, I can see the top heads of the Hollyhocks, opening their last few flowers, and they seemed a simple and pleasing  subject to get me back into the habit of painting.
There is nothing complicated about what I did to achieve this painting, just a simple series of washes, letting them dry thoroughly where I did not want colours to bleed, and in this instance painting the background after completing the basic shapes of the flowers. ( The question of when I paint my backgrounds was the  most asked question at my recent exhibition in the Cathedral at Wells)

The leaves were darker than the painting, but I kept them deliberately light as I wanted the whole painting to be very delicate. Maybe that, in hindsight, was a mistake, but I could darken them even now if I decide to do so at a later date.

Paints and paper were as usual, Fabriano Artistico Extra White, 300 gm.

                                                                      'Hollyhocks'





By complete contrast, Avon Valley Artists met formally for the first time since the summer recess ( they continued throughout the summer months to meet, but without any programme of subjects0
and of all things, the subject was Transport/machinery.
Having not painted for a couple of months, there could have been nothing further outside my comfort zone than that. So my instant reaction is to tighten up and paint far to 'realistically' for my taste, but I post the result so that anyone who has the same problem can see that it happens to lots of us!

 

'Approaching Train'

 

 

The train was like painting by numbers and is as tight as I could make it, but I did have fun with the steam, the major reason why I selected this photo!!

Catch Up - Poppies, Roses and Dandelions

Sorry that the blog has been a bit quiet recently, but things are quite difficult at the moment., I will write my usual style of post when things are calmer.
In the meantime, in order to keep the blog active, I will try to post my paintings, and hope you enjoy looking at them.....some better than others, but all taken from my own garden.

Using the landscape

Inspired by the most magnificent display of cow parsley on the central reservation of a duel carriageway, I was tempted into trying to paint some flowers in the landscape rather than as specimen blooms.

I tried the cow parsley first, and although I had no source material for the background, I was quite pleased with the result for a first time effort. The sky got a bit muddy, so I put that part of the painting under the cold tap and managed to wash away a bit of the top paint, but it still remained a bit dark.

I then had a second go using foxgloves, trying to keep it a bit lighter and fresher, but the same scene more or less, but adding a tree on the RH side for a bit of balance.

Both paintings are done on 'Andalucia' paper from Hahnemuhle, ( something new I bought from a recent art fair ) 500gm weight, rough on one side and smooth on the other, both side suitable for painting. I used the rough side, but I did find the surface a bit soft for using with masking fluid. It needed to be removed as soon as possible.

 

I now need to get out and take some photos of fields, hedgerows, pathways etc so that I have a few more background ideas to use!

Rhododendrons and Things

After a totally disastrous few weeks at Avon Valley Artists, trying to paint the compulsory subjects well outside of my comfort zone, I was determined to find a little time to paint something I really enjoyed doing. First, though, in a spirit of 'Wart and All' as Peter Ward would say, there was the 'Cityscape', followed by 'The Sky' and finishing for the summer with 'Interiors' They say it is good to be pushed beyond that which we all know, so hopefully I did learn something in the process!!

                                                   'Cityscape' Pastel on Black paper
Would help if the buildings were upright and the RH green building was a lot more subtle. It looks much better on the pc with the light shining through, than it does in the flesh!

 

'Storm Clouds At Sunset'  Watercolour

Again a painting that looks better here than it does in reality. Turner never seemed to

have a problem with keeping his colours fresh. Mine are VERY sludgy in the middle.

 

                                  Interior.........'Sunny Corner'  Watercolour on Cornwall Rough
Far too tight and unimaginative. I wish I could paint this sort of subject really loosely, but just do not seem to know how!


Back then to the painting that gives me such pleasure...........
This week, I have been finishing a painting of Rhododendrons from the garden. They have been splendid this year, I just wish I could do them justice, but I have really enjoyed it. Sorry there are no progress photos, but I have been working in late evening and my cheap camera does not render the colours very well except in good light. Must get a better one!

                                  'Rhododendrons' Watercolour on Leonardo 600gm rough paper

White and PinkTulips

Whilst doing my weekly shop at the local supermarket, I could not resist adding this lovely bunch of  tulips to the trolley.
What really attracted me to them - apart from the fact that I love painting tulips - was the very delicate colours which had a sort of sugar icing feel to them, which I thought I might attempt to capture. The darker flowers had the same sort of bloom to them that can appear on plums and grapes etc, so I knew it was going to be a challenge.

 

There is not a lot to say about the process, my palette and paper were the same as always, and I started with colours dropped onto wet paper which I allowed to merge into themselves, being especially careful with the greens to avoid losing the freshness, which can happen when they run into other colours.

When the wash was dry, I drew in the shapes of the flowers lightly in pencil, placing the shapes where the background suggested they should go, looking for areas on the perimeter where I could lose some of the edges, to keep it loose.

Then it was just a question of painting in the shapes, using a selection of pinks and blues, blotting out areas which I wanted to keep white, and making sure the stems looked natural as they passed behind other flowers.
I painted both flowers and leaves together as this helped me to see how the composition was developing, and as usual, I painted up to but not over the lines, so that when the paint was dry, they could be erased.

I tried to keep the leaves as delicate as the flowers, but I am aware that they would normally be a stronger green than this.
I finished by adding some white acrylic gouache to some of the tulips to hopefully give that 'bloom' mentioned earlier, and then my normal light splatter of the same gouache to hopefully loosen up the image a bit.

                                                              'Pink and White Tulips'
                                          Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White
                                                                 300g rough paper