paintings prints and stuff

Birch trees in the snow in the early morning mist 16x20ins oil on canvas Nearly finished but I'll probably keep tweaking it for a bit! The earlier stages are here and here and other trees are here . ...   and one that just didn't work - using coloured pencils on a mid brownish pastel paper.   Not a mix to repeat, for me anyway. The colours are too dulled by the paper, the pencils simply didn't have the intensity to cover it. I've got a small piece of Fisher 400 to experiment with - a friend, Nicole Caulfield, uses it for all her portraits and loves it.   I think I have to give it a go with watercolour and coloured pencils together.  

Last Light, oil on deep canvas. 12 ins square. Vivien Blackburn Not a great photo as it's shining - but one of the recent series of 12 inch canvasses. I'm deep in Christmassy stuff and hopefully will catch up with the blog this week.

Mawgan Porth, across the bay, progress maybe finished This one may be finished now. The others are on their way as well so there will be more to show soon. It's based on a sketch done plein air - but I've used a lot of memories of being there and other sketches from the same place, to change things, move them around, adjust colour slightly and adapt it to a square format. I'm also busy with designing the fliers and poster for the exhibition. I've already done the press releases. I'm going to do a post soon on organising an exhibition with a group - delegating tasks, publicity, venue etc

work in progress, Mawgan Porth, 12 inches square, deep sided canvas This is one of the canvasses I'm juggling at the moment for the group show of small works (at the beginning of December). I'm working from sketches I did plein air in various media and trying to keep the immediacy of them. They aren't exact copies of the plein air work - they are altered a little and memory feeds into them. As I'm working in the studio (errrm much to himself's annoyance .... the kitchen for the best light) I can work wet over dry as well as wet in wet, scumbling scratching through etc Any thoughts?

Runswick Bay, 20x16ins canvas - details Runswick Bay, 16x20 ins, canvas, mixed media, maybe finished This is where this canvas is now. Maybe finished? maybe not ...... what do you think? more light on the outer edge of the cliffs maybe? sorry about the lack of posts lately - I'm snowed under at work and I've not been well, schniff

Runswick Bay, work in progress It's slowly evolving and decisions are being made - more to go though. Detail below: any thoughts?

Runswick Bay, detail of work in progress Runswick Bay, work in progress, 20x16 inches on canvas I've been experimenting on this one today by using coloured pencils and graphite to draw into it. It will continue with further glazes of paint and then possibly more drawing. Lots more to do. That strange walled structure contains huge seaweed covered boulders that protect the sea wall behind. The cliffs along this coast are really soft - almost mud - and collapse easily. The house is thatched and this has weathered to a soft silvered grey. Though the mud and weeds are fairly dark, as is the cliff, I want to keep the painting high key and the surround this time may stay white ...... but all is subject to change :>) any thoughts?

Runswick Bay, Yorkshire, work in progress I've put lots of subtle glazes of colour into this in the sea, sky and sand but they aren't picked up terribly well in the photo. It's at a very early stage and all is subject to change. The bushes and trees behind the houses are simply scrubbed in to get some colour there. I want to catch a steely pale blue-grey day. Everything pale and clear and cool. And in total contrast here is The Crowns at Botallack, tweaked a little. Maggie said that the sea seemed to come in front of the cliff on the left, so I've adjusted it slightly. A touch of gold on the edge of the grass and a swoosh of white over the water - does that work now ? The Crowns, Botallack, Cornwall. Mixed media on canvas 20x16 inches As always it's impossible to balance all the colours correctly :>( - the water around the rocks is greener - the sort of eau de nil turquoise green of water with trapped air bubbles from the waves crashing on the rocks. ...

The Crowns, Botallack. detail. Vivien Blackburn Looking at this painting, hung where I could see it and decide what might need editing and adjusting, I've made some changes and think it's now finished. (whole of the finished painting lower down) The balancing act of making the buildings visible but capturing the way they appear part of the rocks and the landscape, not jumping out at you, was something I wanted to resolve. Also, I've now glazed the top of the sky with ultramarine - and part of the sea and shadows on buildings and rocks. The Crowns, Botallack, detail. Vivien Blackburn The Crowns, Botallack - finished - I think! :>) better? Now to get on with the rest of the series ......

A sketchy start to the third one - again on 20 x 16 inch canvas - this time it's Runswick Bay, Yorkshire, a lovely, tiny little place. I think I'm going to do this one as a limited palette piece and may/may not incorporate collage - not sure yet. Icy blues and earth tones I think. Below is the almost complete Crowns at Botallack photographed in daylight. It still doesn't show the colours in the sea well :>( but maybe it picks up the greeny turquoise slightly better around the rocks.

The Crowns, Botallack, mixed media, detail This is the next one in the series for the forthcoming project exhibition. It's worked over an older painting that had turned into a total pigs ear. The parts I was happy with have changed drastically. Now I've stopped I can see several things I want to change - the direction of that gulley/ravine for a start and the too-even-at-the-moment stripes of colour in the sea. Full size image but not a good photo I'm afraid I'll try to get a better photo of the next stage. I particularly wanted to keep the sketchiness of the orinal plein air drawing, with its ragged edges. This one won't have a border in the sense that Saltmarsh did - but it will have that white edge and the sides of the deep canvas will be white.

Saltmarsh - maybe finished? 20x16 ins, mixed media and collage on canvas, Vivien Blackburn The blue-mauve background that was surrounding the painting wasn't playing up the colours in the painting - instead it was fighting for attention with them. So I decided to change it to a deep bitter chocolate colour - burnt umber and cerulean blue, cooling and greying the brown. It's a colour that flickers throught the painting. It now highlights the colours and their subtle changes from warm to cool (that sadly don't pick up well in the photos) and emphasises the drawing. There is a very little black from the charcoal but all other darks are deep shades of brown and blue. I added flicks of copper in the leaves of the tree, in the tree on the left and in the reflections. I like the warmth against the other colours. That is also quite difficult to photograph being metallic. It's a bit more subtle in real life, the camera make it gleam too brightly - the second to last pho...

detail Dawn, the 40 inch canvas is finished but is proving a nightmare to photograph. Natural light was terrible, bleaching out the subtle yellows and ambers in the clouds. The best results were under the flourescent light in the kitchen but even then, the balance isn't quite right :>( details There is more colour in the foreground rocks - which shows ok in the detail but is lost in the photo of the whole painting - and the same with the loss of subtlety in the clouds which have a variety of yellows and amber, which is lost when photographing the whole. This is the best impression of it I can get I'm afraid.

Dawn, 40 inch sq canvas, work in progress, Vivien Blackburn This is roughed in over an old painting that I didn't like. There is more dark sky above the clouds that I couldn't fit into the photo - my arms weren't long enough to hold the camera far enough away to fit it all in. It's all wet so I didn't intend to get covered in paint trying to bring it downstairs - been there, done that, on Friday. This is the missing top bit It's a balancing act between getting the darkness and not making it too dark for anyone to live with. It's 40 inches square so that's potentially a big dark looming mass It's got a way to go yet - but , I'm insane - I've committed to put it in an exhibition later this month so I have to push on with it. Feedback welcome :>)

Pearly Dawn, Sennen Cove, Cornwall. 10 inches square, oil on canvas, Vivien Blackburn A calm sea, pearly colours of lavender, apricot and jade. This one is another oil on a 10 inch square canvas, It was a total nightmare to photograph as the subtle jades kept disappearing and the apricot highlights - not helped by photographing it while it's wet! The sky glows a bit more and there are subtle bits of the apricot sky reflecting on the tips of the swells that aren't being picked up very well in the photo :>( The last one I showed, of the harbour, has had the lower section of sky lightened and I think is finished. Botallack mine is moving onwards but large areas are still just blocked in. The foreground has a long way to go and the far cliffs and mine houses but the sea and sky are further forward. The sea is going to be wilder, crashing onto the rocks and cliffs. Work in progress, Botallack Mine. 16x20. Vivien Blackburn c&c????

Sennen Cove, Windy Day, oil on 10 inch square canvas, Vivien Blackburn I worked a little more on the 10 inch canvas today - the photograph annoyingly doesn't bring out the viridians enough. I'll try again tomorrow. Adjusting in photoshop alters too much and has tipped it towards turquoise too much but I thought I'd show that I am working! I will lighten the bottom of the sky a little when this paint is dry. I started another 10 inch canvas with an underpainting - it's from a sketch of a subtle pearly dawn -all soft peachy colours in the sky with mauves and pale jades and soft grey blues in the sea, all very pale. I think I may do a series of these little 10 inch canvasses as they work well together. I also worked on the 16x20 canvas below. It's just at the blocking in stage as yet and it all needs finishing and pulling together. Botallack Mine, 20x16, oil on canvas, Vivien Blackburn I decided to make the weather wilder and stormier in this one. It suits the ru...

Still Life, acrylic, 16x20 ins. Vivien Blackburn I decided today to paint the edges (deep pthalo blue to work with the painting) of the still life I did a couple of weeks back and finish off bits I hadn't had time to complete. Here is the original post showing it as it was Reducing the size to this thumbnail makes it look a bit tighter than it is really. It's quite loosely painted. I like the way that the colours move through it better now what do you think?

the 4 inch canvasses grouped - Vivien Blackburn Jean asked about seeing the small canvasses together - here they are Jean :>)

Beach, Winter Evening, 4 inch square gallery wrap canvas, 1.5 ins deep, Vivien Blackburn Winter evening light at the beach, acrylic on deep sided, gallery wrap canvas, another for the Etsy shop .

Winter Morning, acrylic on deep gallery wrap canvas, 4 inches square, Vivien Blackburn Another of the series of mini canvasses destined for my Etsy shop . A windy morning with the surf crashing on the sand and pools reflecting the sky. The sides are painted to match the painting so that framing isn't necessary.