New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m in another group of artists who come u with challenges to post to every week. The pictures don’t have to be recent (thankfully). This was for #safari, I painted it about four years ago and it went to the local ‘Lions’ club which is a local charity. What else can I say? It’s acrylic on canvas, about A4 size. I don’t paint every single hair or piece of fur, but I try and get an impression of how the animal looks. I generally do cat and dog portraits but am not too bad at most animals x
Small painting from 2018 that was on display at Etruria Industrial Museum. I used an image off the Internet to work on. I think it was from a photo of a pumping station in Derbyshire? I loved trying to get the metallic reflections. I looked at the price and I wad only selling it for £25! The amount of work I put in means I constantly undersell myself, but people just don’t seem to have money for art these days. As to what it is I think it’s a regulator? Ith weights hold the arms down if it starts to spin too fast?
My owl painting has a grey background like moving air. But today someone suggested adding a starry night sky. I decided to digitally change the background and I have to agree. The paints are coming out and I will change it. Its good to have someone else looking at your work. It can change your opinion. I think you have to be open to other ideas. But also you have to stick to your guns if you don’t feel it will better. I hope that makes sense.
My little dragon painting has gone to a new home tonight. The new owner is really pleased with my quirky painting that I created while studying illustration. My final major project was about varieties of dragons and how they have been depicted from the earliest times across the globe. The idea could have been based on dinosaur fossils that ancient civilisations may have found. They would not have had any way to date the bones and may have seen them as contemporary to them or living within their recent history.
Oh my busy hands and brain!
I really must be insane.
Spending hours transforming
Reeds and rough planting
Into old grey Nog
Bean pole legs and yellow beak
Through the vegetation peeks!
I decided to transform the reeds painting, an abstract picture I thought I had finished yesterday. It was a bit abstract but it didn’t fit in with the other paintings I had been doing. What to do? It needed some more colour and a focus. I added glittery, shimmery paint between the reeds to try and make the water behind the reeds stand out. I was thinking of adding a small bird like a Reed Bunting, or a Coot. But in the end I decided on a Heron. The colours fit in, it’s camouflaged but recognisable. This is still a work in progress.
I have four new paintings up for sale at Etruria Industrial Museum cafe. This is Etruria, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. This Saturday and Sunday there is a steaming weekend at the Flint mill when the Steam engine that was used to provide power to grind bone and flint to be added to clay to make fine bone china. Come along and see the working steam engine and maybe stop for a cup of tea in the café if you happen to be near Stoke on Trent.
After completing three paintings in two days I had some left over paint. I started painting stripes and realised that if I added small leaves the picture would look like an abstract view through reeds. I think it looks quite different to the others but I like it.
Final work in progress for tomorrow. Its a painting of Jessie Shirleys Bone and flint Mill at Etruria Industrial Museum. Using a similar technique to the other three. I have been working hard on them all.
I sometimes get painting fits where I paint for days. This is one of them. I have an idea in my mind and I want to explore it. I also think it’s the influence of my illustration course I just finished. I have realised I can experiment and come up with more ideas when I’m painting.
I’ve been working on another painting today. This one is of a canal view which will have Canada Geese painted on it with their reflections. More muted, but still using the idea of texture and pattern. Mainly purples and greens. Acrylic on canvas.
Mallaband-Brown