In the style of Gustav Klimt

A number of people have asked if I am still painting. Apologies that I have not posted here for a while, personal pressures have meant that there has been little time to have fun, but here is another doodle.

The brief was to paint a portrait in the style of Gustav Klimt. This measures approx 8" by 14" and is painted in acrylics and other mixed media. While the portrait is not a great success ( can you guess the celebrity?) I am pleased with the overall effect.

Black Pearl Rising

This is a piece of nonsense, but a lot of fun all the same.

The task was to cover a piece of watercolour paper with random wet in wet colours. It was then covered in cling film and the cling film was scrunched up. After leaving it to dry a random coloured pattern was revealed. After studying it for some time, I could just make out a boat emerging from the sea. This initial "pattern" was developed using St Petersburg White Nights watercolour, Turners acrylic gouache and pastel to reveal the Black Pearl in all her glory.

A piece of hand-made paper from India was used, measuring approximately 15" by 11". The deckled edges all the way around it are just great.

Autumn leaves and berries

This is my latest pastel painting. It measures around 10" by 13" and was painted with Conte pastel pencils on Winsor Blue pastel paper.

A big thank you to Jane Denman for her help on this one (or it may never have been finished!)

AAT Exhibition at the Tin Church

The Art Around Town Group are holding their annual exhibition at St Peter's Church, High Salvington.

Work from eight different artists is on display, featuring a sculptor, a textile artist and my own Barn Owl will be making an apearance. Do pop in and have a look - the church is fascinating.

Pastel portraits on blue

It was good to relax on Thursday morning and just do some painting. The first image is the finished version of a portrait painted with Conte pastels on Blue Winsor pastel paper. Interestingly, the second image is the same painting, half-finished. Taken by a better photographer than me, and the colours have been boosted a little, it was at this stage that I thought about stopping. To me the unfinished painting has much more energy.

The final image is a clip of a painting done during the life-drawing session on Monday. It just serves to illustrate how effective the blue background is when painting portraits.

Life Drawing 09 September 2013

Another useful 2 hour session last evening. Suzanne was the model, and this is about the only sketch suitable to upload to a public blog.

Completed in around 15 minutes, it was painted with Conte pastel pencils on Sennelier Pastel Card. While it is a small sketch, measuring around 6" by 9", completed very quickly, I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Australian Landscape

This was fun. The idea is that certain colours can evoke the "feeling" of a location. The warm earth colours are used as representative of Oz. Having never been there, others will have to judge if it worked.

The piece measures approx 10" by 8" and was painted with St Petersburg White Nights watercolour paints on Daler Rowney 300g/m2 paper.

Yesterday also marked my return to Seaside Primary School in Lancing. Ten of my animal paintings are now hanging in the corridor opposite the library until the end of November. It was good to return there as part of the Art Around Town project - you receive such honest feedback from the children!