I’ve added myself in the bottom right hand side of the painting. I’m there as a ghostly shadow in the photo, so why not? Trying to get an idea of cracked paint on the frame. 
Can you see my phone?
Tag: Painting
Painting upside down.
Sometimes it’s hard to see whether something looks right in a painting. Then I try turning it upside down. It really does give you a different perspective. In the case of the painting I’m doing it also allows me to get closer to the top of the picture as I’ve got it propped up on a chair.
Eyesight is another problem. If I’m staring at my phone looking at the image it’s hard for my eyes to accommodate (called presbyopia) where the lenses in your eyes get stiffer as you get older, so they don’t focus as well.
I’m now starting to paint the cracks in the window frame paint. I may come back to the clouds (thanks Martha, a bit of finger painting helped).
I’ve rotated the photo back to the vertical on my camera so I can look at it without moving the canvas. Eventually I will turn it back the right way so I can paint the bottom half. It’s going to take a while…..
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When cats get in the way?
When cats get in the way
You just have to live with it
Or push her away?
Give her attention
Let her just play.
Jumping and leaping
Up on my lap,
Knocking my paints over,
Splashing the water,
Sharpening her claws
On my canvas.
She’s lovely
But mad.
Clouds are a pain!
More work in progress photos. I’m struggling to get the clouds right. I need to try and get the detail and shading correct. Also when it’s finished the paintwork on the frames will be all crackled and flakey.
Looking closer, the greys are dark but not too dark, I may also bring a tiny bit of brown in and thin it down for the wood in the windows. Mostly it’s blending and shading to get a realistic effect.
Progress?
I’m having a rest and trying to decide whether I’m happy with this. I think the width of the frames of the windows need widening….. Also I’ve been using quite a thin white paint which does not have enough pigment in it. I think I will need to strengthen it. At the moment I’m just using cobalt blue, titanium white and a black. I don’t know whether to add a bit of yellow into the sky and window frames, or some violet. But that will happen as I build it up. The image is slightly stretched horizontally. I’m wondering whether to strengthen the blue.
I’m quiet because I’m painting.
I’ve decided to paint this one. I like the reflections and the blues and whites which remind me of the Willow pattern colours. I’ve turned the canvas to landscape rather than portrait and I’m concentrating on the lower two thirds of the photo.
I like the photo, but I wanted to simplify what I was doing. I’m hoping to get a good representation of the clouds and I want to get the flaking paint and the other details in the reflection in the windows visible but subtle. I will try and post updates and I might take a break later to blog.
Got to paint,
This was me in 2007. I might be helping to paint a mural again soon, but I also need to paint a picture of what Spode means to me. I’m not sure what to paint as I never worked in the factory and only know it as it is, I was blogging about that a couple of days ago. Well today I went out and got a largish canvas about two feet by two and a half feet. I’m thinking of finding some old cracked paint or dusty glass, maybe a reflection. I will go and take photos tomorrow. I want to add some metallic glints to whatever I do. I need to make plans…..
Our garden ten years ago.
This was our garden about ten years ago. The trees are a lot bigger now and there is a lot more shade. There is a buddlea that is touching the side of the house about the quarters of the way up. The picture is an acrylic on canvas. It’s a bit blurry I’m afraid. I took the photo at my sisters house and was rushing when I took it.
I painted it in situ, sitting on a garden chair and holding the canvas so I had to paint speedily. It’s about 12 x 8 inches, so not very big.
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Old watercolour
Painted a few years ago at Bovisand Lodge, near Plymouth. The tree is really old and at the back of the carpark. I painted it in situ. I think I must have sold this one a couple of years ago as I can’t remember where it went. I quite like trying to use strong colours in watercolour. It’s more interesting than building up pale layers.
Annoyed
Long day, some nice people came in and saw the exhibition. Then as we were thinking if packing up a man came in and said something along the lines of “this isn’t the sort if exhibition I was expecting” and walked back out. It felt rude. Dismissive, inconsiderate. I didn’t know what to say, perhaps I should have challenged him? Maybe he wanted to see sculptures, or abstract pictures? He might have wanted to see digital photos of canal boats? But it does say art exhibition. Then you get the fear that it’s not good enough. Not fine enough. Not special enough. But I it a lot of love and effort into what I do. It’s my art. I don’t want to do something like anyone else.
So I’m peeved, I feel annoyed, dismissed. Maybe I’m being thin skinned. It’s partly that, and partly because I got £40 out of the bank this morning so I could get us lunch and also buy Richard a book about trains. But somewhere between the cashpoint and the car, or the car and the museum, I lost it. I tried going through my bag and cleared all the old receipts out of it. No sign, I rang the lace I got the money from. No joy. I looked in the car. Again no. So. Deep breath. I must ut it behind me as an annoying day. Tomorrow is another day. Life is like that….
Mallaband-Brown 