paintings prints and stuff

South Stack, near Holyhead, A3 pastel plein air  This is at the framers at the moment,  in preparation for an exhibition, along with lots of other work from the week painting in Wales.  It will be going in a lime washed frame. Vivid memories of a lovely day sketching on the cliff with friends somewhere near, doing their own views - that's a steep drop down via the path and then another steep cliff edge.  One friend was working down there, another much higher up looking way down at the lighthouse (just out of sight on the right).  What did we do before we had mobile phones?  so easy to coordinate coffee breaks and moving on when we spread out and aren't near each other. I used a sheet of Sennelier sanded paper for this and the Rembrandt and Inscribe pastels I'd thrown in at the last moment.  Oh dear, I did NOT like the Sennelier paper - luckily I'd swapped a sheet with a friend as she didn't like it and I got to try it without having to buy a ...

Old Church Graveyard, charcoal and pastel, approx 16 ins square, Vivien Blackburn An old churchyard in Norfolk - again done in charcoal (willow and compressed) on pale grey paper, with touches of pastel for a little colour. I think it's a subject that works with this limited colour scheme. I do love charcoal. The textures and marks on the stones and the lovely light interested me - and the pigeon obligingly posed :>) details: just done because it interested me - I don't suppose many would want a graveyard on their wall???

I decided to frame the pollarded willows with a little more of the work showing - this is it popped into a frame, showing the new crop. Sorry about the reflection from the window/door! Framed it's just over 2 feet (guesstimate) you can see the previous crop here I think I'll change the mat to a slightly deeper wheat colour to match the field beyond the water. I think it looks better larger - how about you?

Pollarded Willows, Aylestone Meadows, Pastel. approx 16ins. Vivien Blackburn Another look at those pollarded willows. Behind me is the canal, just a few feet across the towpath and in front is Ulverscroft Brook. The dried grass of the winter field was pale in the bright light and the sky a pale cold blue. Late afternoon sun warms the sunlit side of the willows with an amber light. The patch of darker blue sky on the top left is a shadow not part of the painting. c&c???

Drizzly morning, clearing up pastel on Pink Pink paper, approx 12 ins square, Vivien Blackburn I need 3 pastels for a show next month and set out to do a large piece based on the pollarded willows. I got half way through one and it's at the ugly stage just now and needs thinking time, so I got side tracked into completing this one. The attention span of a gnat Never mind! this one can be one of my 3. It's mostly Unison pastels as I love them - velvety soft and rich but they don't break up and flake away to expensive shards and powder like some. What I do want to get is some white Schminke pastels, as I'm told they are the richest, whitest white with brilliant covering power. I often underpaint when I use pastels but this one is just pastel and no other medium. I love pastels with the mix of drawing and painting they allow - my skin doesn't like them much though and dries out terribly. I've tried wearing those thin disposable gloves but I use my f...

Swithland Woods by Vivien Blackburn. Watercolour and mixed media approx 12 ins sq Tina Mammoser has written a really good blog post today on abstraction at http://tina-m.blogspot.com/ - do go and read it. It gives a good insight into the way she thinks and the preparatory sketching that goes into her lovely abstracts of the English coast. I like working on the edge between abstract and representational, sometimes slipping into total abstraction and sometimes working more representationally. The work evolves from observation and sketches, which are essential to me to understand the subject matter, the colours, form, composition I want to work with, perspective and tone. Sketching plein air in the local woods led to the first painting shown here - a watercolour/mixed media done from memories of different days working there over a long time. Sometimes I find I work best this way - lots of studies done over time but then putting them away and relying on visual memory. Degas believed in t...

One of my pastels to start off with as the post is about pastels - done plein air at local allotments (plots of land, rented to grow vegetables, home made sheds, recycled baths and barrels and all sort of 'useful' objects). The allotments were only half let - the one on the right of the grass path neatly tended and the one on the left running riot, nature reclaiming the land. I loved the tumble down sheds and junk being recycled and the contrast between the neat plots and the luxuriantly overgrown ones. You can see a lot more of the work that I did there on my sketchbooks site http://www.sitekreator.com/viviensketches in The Dying of the Day. Unison pastels are my favourite as they are lush and velvety but don't break easily - and they come in a great range of colours. On Saturday the pastel society I belong to went to the Pastel Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. I try not to miss it as it’s usually a very good show. Glen a friend and fellow member, and I, met up with Ka...