Lego Minifigures 10: "Climber - K"

This little fellow's been climbing. He's got his pickaxe and his binoculars (do you think he's a "twitcher"?), and his trusty rucksack... but where is he?

The map he's standing on is a new element in this series. It is a real map - an Ordnance Survey leisure map, naturally - but can you guess the location? I haven't rendered the map enormously accurately - I don't think the painting requires it, and, to be honest, I wasn't using a fine enough brush*. But you might be able to guess, especially if I tell you that the "K" is a clue. And that it's in England. I'll put the answer in a comment tomorrow.

"Newbury Bridge over the Kennet and Avon,” 19 May 2002

This is another old painting, as indicated by the post title. It was painted with a brush, en plein air, on a Sunday morning. Most of the work was done before the Sunday shoppers started moseying up the tow path (for such was my location). I felt slightly self-conscious, being in such a public place, but as I'd been there for long enough to establish my place - and my painting - it wasn't too bad. Most people wandered by with a passing glance, at most. Of the few who paused, all were pleasant and were careful not to distract me too much.

But the best thing about making this painting was hearing several people commenting that they had never really looked at the bridge before, and didn't realise how attractive it was. It felt good to open people's eyes to the unnoticed beauty around them...

Stack o' Mini Canvases

I've been painting the edges of my mini canvases (that's the 7 x 7 cm ones - the Lego Minifigure paintings and the Sweet Chestnuts). The canvases are so tiny that it seems impractical to frame them, so I thought it better to make a feature of the edges.

This image shows all the currently painted Lego Minifigure canvases stacked up, in order of painting. The canvas on leaning up against the side is Sweet Chestnuts.

Lego Minifigures 8 & 9: Pirates

Two more swashbucklin' Lego minifigures. These two were mine (I think they came free with something or other, when I was a teenager - consequently, they never got put away with the rest of my childhood Lego). The one with white trousers came with a treasure chest, a monkey and a bit of island, among other things. The one with blue trousers came with a raft. I borrowed the minifigures back from my children in order to paint them.

Both paintings:
Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm

Lego Minifigures 7: "Racing Car Driver 2: The Champion"

Look! The racing car driver has won the cup! Does this mean that the Formula One season is over?

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm.
SOLD

Lego Minifigures 6: "Racing Car Driver"

For some reason, my husband has a Ferrari racing car driver in his collection of recently acquired minifigures (that basically means that they were bought from eBay). I think this little fellow cuts a fairly iconic figure...

... and he's back, sans helmet, in the next painting.

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm
SOLD

Green to Orange Pumpkin (2)

Here is the second painting of my ripening pumpkin. As you can see, this one missed Hallowe'en. It will probably end up as soup.

Edited 03/11/11: The second picture - added today - is, of course, the same painting (albeit photographed under different lighting conditions), but I took advantage of the fact that oils take so long to dry to "edit" the painted highlights. Originally, they were smears of white paint. They bothered me; they were too white. It looked like I'd dropped flour on the pumpkin, or applied my paint direct to the gourd. So I smudged them. My finger got covered in paint, but I think the result is an improvement.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm.
SOLD