paintings prints and stuff

The first one I've shown before,it was done with a carbon pencil the second is a quick sketch of paintbrushes done with coloured pencils from a Portrait set by Lyra. I really like Lyra pencils to use. These belonged to the college but I think I may invest in a set - they'd be interesting sketching in the landscape - just working tonally but with lovely warms and cools to play with.

Looking at some snowy photos a friend showed from a 'little walk' I wondered where our ideas of what scenery is beautiful start. Clearly she loves her area very much. Snow is not my idea of fun! I like to see it - but from somewhere safe and warm and no 'little walks' in it at all for me thanks! The scenery that I love best is the coast. Particularly the wild Atlantic coast of Cornwall, with small coves, wild seas, clean washed sand, rocks, rock pools, beautifully every changing colours of water and flower studded turf coming down to the cliffs. The lanes are very very narrow, one car width often, with high banks just packed with wild flowers. The small ancient stone harbours with old houses clustered round. That was the north coast (it's a peninsula) - the south coast is tidal creeks (drowned valleys) with wooded hillsides and trees overhanging the water, herons, tiny hidden villages and a gentler quality. In spring the woods are totally blue with bluebells...

I just realised that I'd put details of this in an earlier post - but not the full image! It's a work in progress and a little way from being finished. So far it's acrylic but now I'll continue in oil paint. 40 inches square on gallery wrap canvas

I'm feeling very sorry for myself as I've got an awful cold and with asthma it isn't fun :( so I was investigating google analytics (instead of painting) and looking where people who've read this blog came from. It was fascinating to see you came from all over the world including: US Seattle, Coquille, Tacoma, Sherwood, Hayward, San Diego, Winnipeg, Oklahoma, Denver, Sioux City, Kansas City, Abilene, Bellwood, Villa Park, Spring Lake, Lake Orion, Houston,Opelika, Nashville, Rock Hill, Washington, Laurel, Horseheads, Chesterville, Amherst, Cornwall, South Burlington, Bethlemhem, Amherst, Laurel, Washington, Belleville, Rock Hill, Nashville, Rock Hill. Opelika, Bryn Mawr, Palm Harbor Europe: High Valleyfield, Salford, Caunton, Leopardstown, Sheffield, Rogiet, Caunton, Llanishen, Bubbenhall, Plymouth, LLanishen, Zaanstad, Oxford, Heytesbury, Watford, Warsaw, Belgrade, Motta Visconti, Rome, Sant Just Desvern, , Vence, Madrid, Murcia, Malaga, Mapledurham East: Baidayingzi, ...

I've taken photos of the progress to date - I've worked on in oils as I was at the point where acrylics didn't give me the marks I wanted - I particularly can't get the subtle gradations in skies with acrylics and I wanted a blue clear winter sky, graduating from dark at the top to a softer blue at the bottom. I may yet glaze the top with a thin layer of ultramarine to get the change in blue that occurs between the sky overhead and the horizon. I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole canvas in the picture :( and I haven't got time to bring it downstairs. I've added some close up details below. Next stage is to introduce a greater range of greyed blues and a hint more of complementary colour - there's a little added that may not show up in these pictures.

I was just taking part in a debate on the use of grids or projectors and whether using them is 'cheating'. I think it is partly to do with the way your brain is 'wired' . Many old masters used camera obscuras which is only the equivalent of projectors etc or using the computer. I don't like grids or tracing - so for me it doesn't work. It makes my work go stiff and and I hate it - I need the slight inconsistencies, the natural distortions that I add unconsciously, that emphasise lines and compositions. I like my lines to be fluid and rapidly drawn and none of that is possible with tracing - for me anyway. If you draw a fluid flowing line fast and then copy it slowly, tracing or gridding, it loses the spontaneity of the original. To me that's important but it isn't in everyone's work - so it depends on the work you do whether it's better to work freehand or not. I'm totally right brained on tests (with zero organisational skills! ) and I thi...

When I started this painting I roughed it in with Prussian Blue but never intended it to remain a blue painting - I've decided I'm enjoying playing with the image in shades of blue and I'm going to continue, making it winter. I'm taking part in a group project in a few weeks, doing work in response to Picasso - not one of my favourite artists I'm afraid. It occurred to me that I can use this, relating it to his blue period :>) So far I've only used Prussian Blue acrylic, some blue acrylic ink (pthalo blue-ish) and white with some tissue collage. I will introduce further blues and mauves and greyed blues as I go. The next stage will probably need to be done in oil paint as I need the qualities that oil paint has - the ability to scratch through to the underpainting through the buttery texture of it and using a palette knife. close ups: It's going to be interesting making it work in a limited colour range. I may introduce a very very little complimentary c...