Sunday 21 December 2014

Last of the chocolates and a tangerine

Amaretto Truffle                                                 Layered Praline

Two stripey chocolates from the bottom of the little bag. But if it's Christmas (and we know it almost is, because we've all been hearing Noddy Holder's cry on the radio or in shops... ), then there must, surely, be tangerines, too...

That's alright, then.

All acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm

Saturday 20 December 2014

Caramel Meltaway and Chocolate Mousse

Slowly working my way through the little bag of Thornton's Premium...

Both acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm

Friday 19 December 2014

Four little squares

Muted Duck                                          Police Car

 Praline                                                  Bear

All acrylic on canvas, 7x7 cm

Monday 15 December 2014

Peacock Turmoil and other leftover paint

Peacock Turmoil
26 x 20 cm, oil on box canvas
I've been thinking more about abstract art of late (while trying not to think too hard - abstract art does not seem to repay intellectual efforts on the part of the viewer, being better approached via the emotions, I suspect). However, I cannot tell you what emotions are reflected here - no, really, I can't, because I do not know. Mostly I was trying to make the colours and the shapes work together well, and that is neither emotional nor intellectual. I think it must be instinctive.

While Peacock Turmoil did start off as a home for the paint leftover from Linear (there was a lot), I added more paint (mostly blues) from the tubes.

The bicycle, however, was just an opportunistic sketch. (The yellow bit is the inside of the lid of my box of oil paints.)
Oil sketch of (part of) the bicycle lurking in my studio

Linear






This is the finished version of the painting I was working on over the weekend (between visitors).

Based on a photograph taken on Porthtowan beach this August. A sort of companion piece to Curve.


Oil on natural linen canvas
38 x 61 cm

Sunday 14 December 2014

Two Days of Being Unilaterally Open

Whiteboard, redrawn for the second day
It seemed to be a lengthy process getting the studio into display mode, but part of that was DIY that won't need doing next time (there is some different DIY that is planned but we ran out of time).

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Sunday 7 December 2014

#C2C15 Seeing and Not Seeing

I have somehow completed the third sketchbook theme early. This is "Seeing and not Seeing".
All five of my double page spreads are in the box below; click left or right to move through them:


The images are:

Big Yellow Taxi (double page)

Because, "Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone."
Acrylic and Derwent Drawing Pencil.

Interference and Spectacles

The former is a physics experiment that demonstrates how light waves interact (reinforcing and negating each other); and the latter make all the difference between seeing and not seeing if you're short-sighted.
Graphite and acrylic; Derwent Drawing Pencil.

Eyes (double page)

I am more shortsighted in the left eye; this is, of course, a mirror image. I portrayed the left eye without glasses and with an excess of water. The idea was to create a blurry image; the dribbles were a bonus. I was more measured in my treatment of the bespectacled right eye.
Watercolour.

Schrödinger 's Iron Man (double page)

Science meets art with bonus Black Sabbath. Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that uses observation to "fix" a previously indeterminate state (is the cat alive or dead?). The atom just happens to be Lithium (added Nirvana?).
Mixed media.

Painty Water (double page)

I see therefore I paint (and draw). The murky water in the jar obscures and distorts the paintbrush(es) and, in the final view, the lettering on the place mat.
Various media - exploring the utility of different media to illustrate the murk.

Friday 5 December 2014

Tintagel Cove

Oil painting of Tintagel Cove (Seascape, Ladscape, Rockscape) from the Beach based on sketch and photographs.

I had a brief opportunity to visit Tintagel this August. It was packed full of people. I gave the castle (nice though it is) a miss and went down to the cove, where I made a sketch and took lots of photographs.

Thursday 4 December 2014

Cornish Farmhouse

Painted as a gift, posted with permission.

Oil on canvas, 22 x 16 inches
03 December 2014

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Informally Open ...

This is a flyer that hasn't quite yet arrived from the printers (shhh, don't tell anyone, but it's the ubiquitous Vistaprint). As you can no doubt see, it proclaims that I will be opening my studio, on an informal basis, during the weekend after next, in the afternoons.

I'm mostly expecting folks from the village - probably people I already know - to poke their heads around the door and see what's what. I'm hoping one or two of them will decide that a painting (or a print) is just what Uncle Quentin* would like for Christmas.

In the meantime, I have a bit of sorting out to do... mainly so that the walls can be reached and things can be affixed to said walls.

----

* Name plucked from memories of the Famous Five. I expect he would like Corfe Kirrin.

Beech Line


Impasto Oil painting of The Beeches, Litchfield Down, North Hampshire. Painted with a palette / painting knife by landscape artist Amanda Bates of Kingsclere

This is The Beeches, again: the line of trees on Litchfied Down that - coincidentally - I painted almost a year ago:
http://amanda-bates-artist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-beeches.html

In the new painting, the view is towards Watership and Nuthanger Downs.


Beech Line
Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
29 November 2014

(It took me a few days to post this because the light has been so poor during the day of late that I couldn't get a decent photograph - even with a tripod and a redced shutter speed. It also took me a while to think of a title).



Cover 2 Cover / Trolls

The lady who initiated this theme has an interest in Scandinavian folklore, and her trolls were all dignified, forest dwelling creatures.

Mine are a hotch-potch. Here they are with descriptions.

Monday 1 December 2014

Vanilla Velvet

Thornton's Premium Vanilla Velvet, still life painting in acrylic on diddy canvas
You know how, sometimes, just one isn't enough?

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm

Marc de Champagne

Thornto's Premium Marc de Champagne Truffle, still life painting in acrylic on diddy canvas

Continuing the chocolate theme. At this rate, I won't have a box full before Christmas... but I suppose it depends on the size of the box.

(They didn't come in a box. This is from a little bag of Thornton's "Premium" chocolates.)

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm