New paintings and regular art updates.
Acrylic on canvas from five years ago. I get so excited by colours and patterns, sorry its a bit blurry. I don’t have the painting anymore. I think I did a second version of this, they both sold. I wonder sometimes whether I should do more paintings like this or are they too abstract/not abstract enough….
As people who know me know, I enjoy doing various things, that’s why I call myself an explorative fine artist, and perhaps an illustrator.
I was really looking forward to going back to our Orme Art Group, which is meeting for the first time in months. I was only going for the afternoon, but I was going to start doing something new. Then government decided to impose Tier two restrictions in our area. Most of the group will still be in Tier One but not me. Oh well, I have to admit I was a bit nervous of seeing people inside for the first time in months (and yet I’m happy to go shopping). Its strange how this pandemic can affect your confidence.
Maybe one day things can get back to normal, I can see my friends again. I can paint with them, spark new ideas, have fun. Do workshops learning new techniques.
Fingers crossed
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A couple of small paintings I did about three years ago, acrylics on canvas, sorry the colours are off. I liked trying to get the perspective on the window, and the splash of the fountain and the ripples in the water.
I’ve recently been commissioned to do a large family portrait for a friend of a friend, but I’m concerned about what they want to pay for it? They also sent me a great many photos in different conditions with lots of different groups of people on them. The problem is I can’t make a coherent image or composition using them.
I replied ‘That’s twelve portraits for £50?, it would have to be a small painting or a watercolour. Please can you choose the best photos that I can work from. I will do it but it will take a while. Possibly a couple of hours per portrait which works out at a cost of £4 per portrait or £2 per hour. I would normally charge £50 (normally £60) for one portrait, but I understand you might not be able to afford any more and I don’t want to ask too much. I want to do a good job for you and as you have already got a couple of my paintings I will consider only asking for a small amount for the painting. But please can you choose the twelve images you prefer as then I won’t get it wrong. “
I want to paint for people, but I don’t think they realise the work that goes into things. I would Never overcharge, but on the other hand I’d like to be paid at least the minimum wage for it!
How would you respond? Should I have questioned the request or refused it?
Note * I’m now just doing a very small painting, but I do wish people understood how hard it is to paint something like this, it’s not a snap!
The photo is by Clive Lawrence.
My friend visited a church somewhere in Yorkshire and saw this. Apparently he’d been the week before but it was closed. Last week he found out who he needed to speak to to get access to the church. I’d like to visit it one day. The ainting was apparently very black until it was cleaned. Unfortunately my friend didn’t tell me the name of the church or where in Yorkshire it is
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When did I first find out about Unicorns? In a book, probably. Something about myths and legends. Always a white horse with a horn from its forehead. The closest thing in reality in nature are Narwhals, a type of cetacean with a long modified tooth sticking out forward from its head.
Unicorns are often depicted in medieval paintings, tapestries and manuscripts. Apparently the only way you could catch them was to have them lay their head in the lap of a virgin? They were a lovely idea. Perhaps the idea was influenced by antelope? It’s something I might investigate.
A proper cup of Tea.
Quick watercolour sketch of my brown Bessie tea pot and a mug of Tea. It started out as a graphite pencil sketch but you couldn’t really see it against the black paper so…. I filled in some of it, I made up some of it. I was going to leave some of it black but I used washes of dark blue and dark red to give it more oomph.
Art is fun, art let’s you free yourself, creativity can be good for you.
Today’s prompt was neighbourhood again, to give us the chance to expand (and possibly join up) with Sundays and Thursdays sketches.
This is the view across the road from my front food. Dark cloud lowering, sun hitting coloured leaves, painted in watercolours on black paper. I used white watercolour from a tube to try and cover the black paper. The other colours had to have white mixed in so that I could get the colours to show up on the black paper. I’m quite pleased with the result.
Orme arts autumn challenge. We agreed to attempt to reproduce a Picasso weeping woman painting. We did one or two panels each. I drew the top and bottom middle pages. The top on was mainly marker pens, but I could not get the purple colour so I used a mixture of white, blue and magenta to try and get it. Not right though. I also did the bottom middle panel. In that case I used watercolour paints then a black marker pen over the top.
Even though a number of artists put this together I think there is a good coherence and the squares are well matched. I’m pleased with the result.
Its aa little thing, but my painting of the Burslem Riot is on the back of a friends book. She’s in the newspaper today and you can clearly see my image on the back of her book. The problem is the article is about the local dialect which she writes about, not about my painting. So I guess I can’t complain. But my images do crop up and I don’t get recognition. I should have put something up where they are on display (in the now closed Leopard Hotel in Burslem), but I didn’t think about it, and then I didn’t organise it, and now it’s all locked up. Thinking if putting a letter through the front door infroducing myself as the artist who painted them. I hope they don’t get ripped out!
Mallaband-Brown