Painted!

My paintings from yesterday. The small ones have ribbons attached so they can hang from a Christmas tree.

Close up of one of the larger ones. Two bottle kilns side by side, at night, a frosty gleam on them and a patchy, cloudy sky with stars peeping through. The shape of the wisp of smoke mimics the curve of the moon. I used acrylics and glitter glue to give the frosty effect. The smallest canvases are about 1 x 1.5 inches. The bigger ones are around 6x 4.5 and 4.5 inches. They are on display at the Waiting room gallery, I’m pleased to say they are there with other works that I have done for the next week.

Memory

Cherry blossom. A painting I did a few years ago. It’s meant to signify the hope of spring in the middle of winter. I hope you can see the profile of a woman’s face in it. Perhaps she is the spirit of spring.

I saw this on my friends memories page and realised I wanted to share it. I think adding the blue shadows adds depth and gives it a more 3d effect. I can’t help wishing the winter was over and the sun was coming back.

Spooky self portrait

Late night self portrait. Playing with filters on photodirector and Instagram. Trying to get the exposure right so it was dark enough but the highlights on my eyes, nose and mouth stood out. It looks almost wooden, like a ventriloquists dummy. I could have looked out from the photo but I think that would have creeped me out more!

WIP, is he finished?

On the easel today. I think this is almost done, one of the legs and the side of the body feels clunky. It’s basically that the leg on the right side might need bringing inwards a bit, so it doesn’t line up with the bodies edge. I’m also not sure about the grass. But I’ve broken my fast of painting. I have been blocked for ages. Basically because I’ve been scared about how well I would do after having developed a shake on my left side. I think concentrating helps reguce the tremor. I will get this finished. X

The Colour Room

Mural of Clarice Cliff umbrella tea set I painted at the leopard Hotel.

I’m excited, a film about the life of Clarice Cliff, the Art Deco pottery painter and designer has just come out on film. I’ve also found out some of my friends are extras in the film! I want to find out if I can go and see it at a local screening.

Clarice Cliff is famous for designs such as “bizzare” and other geometric shaped pots painted in colourful and stylish patterns. She was working in the 1930’s at the same time as other paintresses such as Suzy Cooper. Apologies for my lack of information. If you look her up on Wikipedia or perhaps the museum services at Stoke-on-Trent City Council. She is very famous here. X

Mr X

Oil painting on board of a friend I painted while I was at college. The Mr X refers to his name when he was in a band. I glued the poster to the painting and added an image of one of his pictures in the background behind him. I think I did the painting from life but I don’t really remember, it was painted about 40 years ago x

Vase painting

My attempt at painting a Japanese style vase. Using gold and lots of flower and leaf patterns I tried to recreate the feeling of a Cloisonné or Satsuma vase. I’m no expert but I just wanted it to have complexity and stature. My love of pattern really helped. This was taken when I had almost completed the work. I placed it on the floor to try and catch the sunlight illuminating it. One of my favourite paintings, it went to a very good home.

Nebula

I’m looking at some photos of my old paintings, I realise I’ve got a lot of inspirations, including astronomy. This was a painting I did of a Nebula. I tried to be as accurate as I could. Clearly it’s impossible to be exact, and positioning of the stars is approximately done. I don’t remember which Nebula photo I looked at. It was probably in the Sky at Night magazine which I sometimes use for inspiration. I’m no expert, I think I’m more interested in the visual representation rather than the celestial mechanics and chemistry of the different gases.

It’s a little world

A small painting I did in acrylics a few years ago. It features North America and was an attempt at painting clouds. Its not as accurate as I would have liked but then I needed to possibly use smaller brushes. The cloud patterns stretch across the width of the continent and show the direction of the winds as they curl and blow and bend in them. I always think its interesting how clouds tend to cling to the coastlines, except where s major storm appears to be in the gulf of Mexico. Also the lack of cloud cover over California. I’m not sure I’ve got the colours right. I tried.

Autumn acers

I usually look out from underneath trees, but here I looked up and took a photo of twisting branches and limbs. Then I tried to paint the leaves. Dark towards the trunks, lighter where they reach out into airy space. Leaves are amazing. Because they can move towards the light (phototropic) they can move into the gaps where the light gets through. Like a jigsaw puzzle, filling in the spaces. Then suddenly in autumn deciduous trees drop their leaves as the cold and wind catches them out. Great blankets of leaves are now lying below the local trees. Crunching through their crispness is one of my favourite things before they turn soggy in the cold rain. Glorious!