updating websites and work in progress

I've been working on these seascapes - they aren't finished yet and it's a very bad photo I'm afraid but I'll post better images when they are finished.

I like these long thin images hung in groups of 3, 5 or 7 - looking across them adds the dimension of time - the weather changes, the tide comes in or goes out, night falls. It's a speeded up version of a year spent painting on the beaches.

They are about 48 ins tall but only 12/14ins wide on gallery wrap canvas - I make my own - well that's not quite true! My father and my husband make the stretchers to my specifications and I then stretch the canvas onto them.

Some of the underpainting is thin acrylics on raw canvas - that way I can get some watercolour-like marks. Then it's sealed and I continue with oil paint. These have been done with Griffin Alkyds for speed as they dry overnight.

I've also spent hours revamping and rewriting my site. Katherine gave me lots of good advice on what the search engines look for. From being top if I googled my name, the website slipped down over the last few months to page 6 of 10, because of all the links people have put on squidoo and stumble upon and similar sites - it's very flattering - but I want my own site to come out top on my own name! So here's hoping ....

So if you feel like taking a look it's on http://vivienblackburn.com

I've also created a page of interesting links to artists and photographers who interest me and friends. All worth looking at :)

Tomorrow London ....