February Flowers - Quick Sketch

Today, after enduring about five months of low dark skies and no natural light, I was determined to make good use of the sudden appearance of sunshine in my part of the world, to the extent that I turned my back on domestic chores and pulled out the art materials and quickly got painting and sketching. I haven't painted for weeks now and this is due in part to not having any decent light and being very busy at work. No excuse, but a very solid, irritating reason. I didn't even want to think about anything; I just wanted to splash some colour around so I chose a painting of Fantin Latour's as inspiration and went from there. I am partly shocked, (but not surprised), if that makes sense, how difficult it was for me to get the effects I wanted. I really have to work a plan to give myself more time in front of the easel.

"February Flowers - Mini Homage to Fantin Latour"

Watercolour, Gouache, Pencil on Watercolour Paper - 6.5" x 5.25"

Blank Canvas and a "Clue"

After a long think this past weekend about what I have been doing art-wise since I started this blog, I decided that some of the work should be deleted as it was just not up to scratch. Part of my 'agenda' with the blog was to document my progress as it went along, but now I have realised that to a certain extent some of the paintings were done just to keep my hand around a paint brush and I refer specifically, in this instance, to a lot of the art blog challenges I have participated in over three years. These have been good for me in their own way, but as most of the subjects painted haven't been close to my own vision for my work, they have passed their sell-by date and quite frankly, have gone 'dead' on me. The juice has gone from all of them except for the 'History of Art Challenge Blog', which hosts challenges that, if I submit good work, will actually serve as an enabler for my next project. If I am going to be serious about pushing my art to a higher level, (and I am) most of the work on this blog should really be categorised as 'warm ups' and to have said 'exercises' out there in the blogosphere, doesn't seem strategic or grown-up.  I am all for full disclosure when it is practical and I even considered deleting the blog, but felt that might be a step too far and too soon until I had another blog going.

So, I am keeping this blog open to everyone until Sunday evening, 29 January 2012, and after that it will be open only to those who wish to keep up with what I am doing on a regular basis and I know there are at least three friends out there who want that. Once I have sorted things out, which should be by the end of February, I shall open it to everyone again.  Friends, if you wish to continue viewing this blog until I get cracking on my new series, please send me your email address via a comment (which I obviously won't publish) and I will add it to my contacts list. I am not too sure how this will work, but I think if I submit your email address, you can get in automatically.  I hope this new step I am taking doesn't sound too aloof or pompous as I truly appreciate everyone who arrives on my blog whether they comment or not.

I intend to work on a series for a while on a subject that for me is truly the most painterly, most beautiful and yet, most difficult of them all. More later, but I leave a clue in the lower photograph. 2012 is going to be a year of depth for me even though I shall still be without a studio, but who knows what will happen?  My purpose is to generate my own unique work for a change.  I also intend to do more still lifes, slowly executed this time, to keep my technical skills honed.  More later!

"Blank Canvas"

"Le Clue"

Adieu 2011

Well at least I have some work 'on the go' is all I can say tonight. I have been on our annual Christmas Break for nearly a week now and I have only managed to get halfway with a few projects which is frustrating, mainly because I think I could have completed them. I have just been so mentally tired that chilling out became more important than creativity. I have another two weeks of annual leave ahead of me, and if I can get "my act together", some extra work should be on show here. A few weeks back I was seriously contemplating 'sequestering' this blog, until I had made up my mind about whether I even wanted to continue painting and drawing, but in the end, I decided that was just a passing mood and had nothing to do with reality. I am so constrained time-wise that I have to be more accepting of the fact that I cannot 'churn them out'. For weeks I had been genuinely upset that I hadn't painted as many paintings as I had done in 2010. However, I hope to complete this work in a few days and I also have a semi-finished work for Sherry's "Art History Challenge Blog" which is delightfully more challenging than any other 'challenge' blogs out there. If I don't post a work tomorrow, I would like to wish everyone, especially my blogging friends, Sherry and Charlotte, an absolutely magnificent, peaceful, healthy, creative New Year for 2012. That should keep y'all going for a while.

"Studio Table with Work in Progress"

"No-Show"

A whole month has gone by without any work being posted on this blog. The reason is obvious - I haven't finished any work worth posting. I have been so incredibly busy at the day job that coming home to paint was just too much for me, coupled with the fact that when I did try to get some work done last weekend, it just didn't work out because I am 'out of practice'. The gouaches I had started ended up in the trash.  It's absolutely amazing that for each challenge I intend to do and end up not finishing, I feel enormous guilt. I can only assume this is a hangover from school or university with their penalties and demerits for not meeting deadlines, to the extent that those memories are ingrained in my DNA. However, I do periodically forget that I am challenged for time and I walk into an art materials store and come out with a 'little something' - shown below. So weak! I had also hoped to paint an Advent Calendar - one Christmas-themed work for each of the 25 days of Christmas, but again, I couldn't manage it. Next year maybe? I hope to have three weeks' annual leave at the end of the year which will give me a long stretch with daylight and that might make up for this tiresome hiatus on my blog.

Anne's Bargain Brushes

Experiment 3.

Last night I was desperate for a reference to work from to continue my weekly experiments and I couldn't find anything inspiring from my recent photographs. I always keep my camera with me wherever I go and lately I have been taking really weak photographs, so I searched my Picasa files for a reference and found a Henri Fantin-Latour flower painting. Nobody can paint flowers like Fantin-Latour and I don't know what came over me but I thought I would try and copy this work. I feel most of the time this genre can go no further and no additional flower paintings are necessary, but I became totally absorbed with the technical challenges and forgot about any latent snobbery I have towards realism. Obviously I couldn't pick up many of the nuances in his work because I was working in gouache, but I adored the murky effects of the stems and foliage in the glass vase and I think this work of mine has turned out quite well. One thing I have noticed is that I haven't quite captured the elegant spaces between the flowers in the original work as mine are a bit too squashed together. It has been a revelation to observe how he captured flowers, a subject I have never had any ambition to paint, but even doing this small "Experiment" has taught me something important about placement of objects in space. I could add a few more brushstrokes here and there to lift it up a little, but I am leaving it in case I go too far and end up with mud.

"Sketch - Homage to Henri Fantin-Latour"

Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 8" x 7.5"

Experiment 2.

I really don't know how I dare post this, but I am not in the mood to edit my work right now. I feel like showing what's coming off my shaky little production line as it goes along. I might delete all my mediocre work at the end of the year as a gift to myself but posting on my blog helps me in very strange ways. Long ago I promised myself I would do a sketch or small watercolour each night to keep the old elbow greased with the obvious goal of learning a little faster than I would if I only painted on the weekends when time, good lighting and 'studio' set-up was more conducive to supporting good work. Last night I started this homage to my favourite self portrait of Rembrandt. I had previously done it in charcoal and liked it apart from the fact that some of the proportions of his features were slightly wrong. In this much smaller work, the same problems arose in capturing his features accurately. I did a tracing and found that tracing marks do not take on watercolour paper very well and even though the face is much closer to the original portrait than my charcoal work, it is frustrating to discover that only a millimetre out of exactitude can totally destroy a work. I retraced over it tonight which improved it slightly and tried to hide some of the mistakes with pen and ink and pastel. It's a start, even though a little rough and tumble.

"Sketch - Homage to a Rembrandt Self Portrait"

Watercolour, Pen and Ink, Pastel on Watercolour Paper 6" x 7"

History of Art Challenge Blog - July

Well, being a week late for my submission to The History of Art Challenge Blog is not too bad considering I chose a very difficult visual to paint. Why I do this I don't know. Well I do - it's because I fall in love with a photograph, or object or scene, and just want to render it myself or maybe pay some sort of homage to it. I love Byzantine Art and the one thing that shouts out for me from this period, is the use of gold and icons. However, gold is very difficult to portray and I struggled here with the massive gold doors, but managed, in the end, to replicate some of the mystery of the colour. The photograph was sent to me by a friend who found it on the internet, and I cannot find it anywhere so I cannot give it proper attribution even though I would love to. This is an interior of an Eastern Orthodox church, and judging from the interior, it would be very late Byzantine indeed, but the remnants of that long era are still present with the abundance of icons and gold. Very mysterious these churches, but totally enigmatic eye candy for this artist.

"Byzantine Church Interior"

Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 13" x 13"

Morning Walk IV

At last, I have finished this series. In one way it was a chore because I am not good at landscape work yet, but with this last one I felt I was working more in the area of painting that I am used to. I need lessons in landscape painting and that is all there is to it, but this work with all the attention being on the surface, was interesting to me and I just love anything with reflections. However, it was a difficult and testing project with a lot of 'micro' brushwork. I wanted to do this in oils so I could emulate the very slow transitions and modulations of colour, but to do that I would need a surface at least 4 feet square and I just don't have the space for that. One day. In truth, the subject also needs a bigger surface to make it recognisable as a reflection in a river bank. Now I am going to have a bit of fun working out what to do next. As I said in last night's post, I have been so wiped out that I can't even remember what I was planning to do. Not a bad thing really as something surprising might come out of it.

"Morning Walk IV"
Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 11" x 11"

Morning Walk II

I started a second layer on a difficult landscape I'd chosen from my "morning walk" a few weeks back and when that was complete, I had so much paint left over on my palette I found myself saying "I can't throw this away". I'm more careful with my oil paints than with food and I don't know why. So, I decided to use this paint to do an exploratory sketch of my next work in this little series as I am beginning to think I would be far better at these landscapes if I slowed down and really investigated what was required before tackling the main work. I have ended up with a 'sketch' that I am pleased with as it captures exactly what I wanted bar a few minor details which I am not going to take any further. It was so difficult with all the dappled light and intense greens, but for an alla prima painting, a rare occurrence for me, I am happy.

"Morning Walk" - Oil on Gessoed Board - 6" x 6" (Approx.)

Reference Photograph

"Still Some Leftovers"

The Virtual Paintout - April 2011 Challenge

I think I'm all "challenged-out" - whatever that means. Lately, well in fact for almost two years now, most of my paintings have been for challenge blogs, fun - yes, but things are changing in my artistic life. I am feeling the need to investigate what has importance for me and this covers many things. Sending work into challenges is fun and I take it seriously in that I try to send in something worthy of the challenge, but I am not pursuing anything personal, conceptual or even technically challenging, and most of the work I am doing is done as quickly as possible to meet deadlines. I love both "The Virtual Paintout" and Sherry Massey's "History of Art Challenge" blogs but I have so little spare time now that I intend to send in work only when I have a free spot in the calendar and after I have done my own personal work. I loved doing this 'Japan' challenge and had two other works to send in as well but just couldn't complete them partly due to time limitations but also my mind was elsewhere painting different pictures and that situation doesn't work for me. I'm not sure what all of this means nor do I have fixed goals right now, but I'm going to take some time out from challenges for a while to see what that extra time gives me to work on other projects. Weird how things morph through time. It's time for me to relax somewhat and see what comes towards me for investigation instead of responding to others' visions, even though I am so grateful for them. Someone as independent as this writer needs to set her own challenges. I'll talk more of this later, I had better post this and send off my challenge for Japan to The Virtual Paintout.

"Wires above Shinjuku, Tokyo" - Gouache on Paper - 9.5" x 9.5"

Click HERE for street scene used.