New paintings and regular art updates.
Someone asked for mythical paintings so I shared this. It must be 40 years old. I think I painted it after finishing college. It’s oil paint on hardboard.
My downstairs lights don’t work and I need to get someone in to fix them, so the image is very dark. I’ll try and take a clearer picture of it.
It was fun creating a combined unicorn and pegasus.. Why not?
Another experimental piece. There were 6 bottles of new iridescent acrylic paint at art group. Each bottle had a little cap inside the lid to stop the paint leaking out. They all had paint adhering under the caps so I used them to create dots of colour. The central yellow circle was created first using all the paint under the cap swirled round in the surface of the canvas. Each other dot only used the paint under the caps and making an uneven surface. The extra patterns were brushed on afterwards.
I see a central sun serrounded by a white path, that in turn is circled by trees then flowers. Or a kaleidoscope.
I’ve struggled with this for 2 years. I do a bit and get fed up. I’m making the design up and it’s fiddly, my hands shake and it’s hard to get it right. The base of the pot curve is not right. Maybe I’ll get it finished once this hot spell of weather is over? So it’s a WIP.
Here is my painting, finally finished and hanging in my friends house. It’s colours really match the decor.. I’m so pleased I painted this it took ages but it works well. I can still paint!
Improved the right hand side of the painting. It looked a bit bland and needed some more interesting vegetation… More work, but worth it.
Criccieth Castle, Wales. Looks a bit like a whale. I hope the person who commissioned it will be happy? I had to leave off some buildings and people from the original photo. That has made the hillside a bit more difficult to paint, imagining the undergrowth.
What do you think? I hope they like the restless waves.
Got nothing to paint on? One summer I had no canvases because I was on summer break from the polytechnic. So I did a portrait of our cat on the wooden base of a broken mirror. I decided to go surreal and add goldfish, as if she was looking through a glass fishtank. Added painted gravel to the bottom of it. I had fun. This was when I was still using oil paints which soaked in nicely to the wood.
Morning sun catching my work in progress, but not much done during the last few days, it’s been too hot and humid. Just came down for a decaff coffee, not getting much sleep and my legs keep twinging.
My mother died on midsummer day several years ago, I was there when she passed away…. I feel very sad today, all my recent losses have really got me down. I wish I could turn the clock back. I wish there was a way to speak to her, to ask her opinions, although we often disagreed, we had interesting discussions rather than full blown arguments. I painted this portrait before she died.
She was a strong and independent woman, she had to look after us when my Dad died. There are many sad memories about that part of my life too. But I think I’ve said enough.
Over the years, when I had money, I would treat you to paint and brushes and canvases. The joy of buying a new colour or a metallic tint.
Now I’m retired I still have enough to keep going. I just hope I can maintain my manual dexterity. Parkinsons is a beast.
Mallaband-Brown