Nellie Windmill

Do those owlets look familiar? I can’t imagine why. Except of course that they’ve been in that state since last Autumn and I first blogged about them last November! Read the rest of this entry »

If you happen to follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably heard me whinging about being out of some staple art supplies these past few weeks. It’s currently Day 21 of what I’ve come to refer to as the “out-of-vital-art-supplies-and-my-order-still-hasn’t-arrived” saga. I’ve had a couple of kind souls offer to perform an emergency art supplies drop, which we’re calling “Operation Pigment Pusher”. Read the rest of this entry »

When I think of the new series I’m working on, I go “squee” in my head. It presents seemingly infinite possibilities and at this moment right now I want to paint them all. Having said that, I have zero track-record with sticking to a cohesive theme with my paintings so there’s every possibility this new-found obsession will last another 3 seconds. Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t made much progress in the studio in the last couple of months due to a spot of travelling, an emergency dash to Denmark for unexpected visa related issues and some health bother. Also, I had to re-paint the eye section on the big owl after completely ballsing it up the first time around. The little guys are my obligatory autumnal colours paintings of the season (although I’m in danger of it no longer being autumn by the time I finish them). Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve almost finished a painting that was done entirely with dry brushing! Do you have any idea how long a painting done entirely with dry brushing takes?! Nothing has ever taken this long. At the moment it’s my favourite way to create shading, but I’ve learnt from this experience to avoid it for fine detail work — bloody nightmare.

It always surprises me, the direction a painting takes. It’s rather delightful ending up with something that I couldn’t have dreamt up from a standing start. Sleepy French sheep certainly never would have crossed my mind! Read the rest of this entry »

There are people who take more satisfaction in beginning projects and those who take immense satisfaction in finishing them. Until recently I’ve been making art like the former, except it’s come to my attention that I am in fact of the latter persuasion! Taking this previously unidentified characteristic and applying it to the way I work has had a huge impact on my “job” satisfaction. I’ve been working on one painting at a time for the past couple of weeks and I’m actually finishing things! It’s a revelation! I think my word for 2011 is “clarity” — of the “know thyself” variety. How about you? Are you a finisher or a starter?

In other news, as can be seen in this photo, I’ve moved my “studio” to the back table in Nettle. It’s smaller but it means I can leave my art supplies out because that’s all the table is used for. No more packing up at the end of the day to make room for office space or dinner. I’m excited.

I have a problem. I am a serial project starter. When I get a new idea or want to try out a new technique, I get excited and will begin something new despite how many paintings are already in the works. Or sometimes, a painting won’t work out so I put it in a cupboard and come back to it a few months later. As a result, I have about a dozen paintings on the go at any one time and it takes the best part of a decade or two to actually finish one. It’s a nice problem to have as far as problems go, but I really would like to finish a painting every now and then.

I love seeing in-progress shots on the blogs of artists I follow. So even though I don’t have any finished pieces to show you, at least I can give you a sneak peak!

I actually finished this one ages ago but a couple of weeks later decided I didn’t like it (which is not uncommon). I’ve been revamping it on and off ever since.

This one has gone through many many phases. It started out usual enough. Then, I decided I would do a round-robin type thing with all of my art materials — I spread them all out and took in turns using each on this canvas. Lately, I’ve taken to using up any left over paint on my palette on it. Hence the crazy. I’m trusting that it’ll all just magically pull together into a cohesive something at some stage.

Originally, the background of this canvas was collaged. Again, I wasn’t happy with it and had it lying around for a long long time. I eventually worked up enough animosity towards it to completely paint over it.

I bought a big pack of these cute oval canvases when we were in Italy the first time around, way back in 2009! Against all odds, I actually managed to make some finished pieces out of them but still have quite a few left over.

I bought a few un-gessoed linen canvases from an art supplies store in Rome that’s been around since 1825. I really liked the colour of the linen so had the idea of only gessoing parts and allowing the natural colour of the linen to show through. I only got around to starting one of these paintings just recently though. This chick has been lurking in my sketchbook for ages! Have you noticed I have a slight balloon obsession?

This little guy is going to be part of a triptych of owls who have been on my brain for (you guessed it) quite some time now. I spent a good chunk of time in the past couple of weeks mixing greys with every combination of primary colours I have, thanks to this triptych. I’ve even been recording the results and the mixing ratios! Colour mixing is one of my favourite things to do, so I had a blast with this!

Finally, a landscape painting inspired by the colours of the Welsh winter countryside, which I blogged about not too long ago.

Phew! Not including all of the too boring to blog early-stage paintings I’ve got on the go, that is it!