New paintings and regular art updates.
One of the many slides I found last year of my art in the 1980s. I like playing with perspective and I used to do many more portraits than I get to do these days. Maybe selfies have taken over. But wouldn’t you want a special portrait with things that are significant to you included in it? I’m also good at amalgamating photos, so if there are three people each on a different photo who want to be together in an image I can do it – and I don’t need photo shop!
Get in touch, commissions welcomed.
I suppose it would happen. I decided to do a self portrait….. I seem to do them once in a decade. The last one was a drawing about ten years ago.
I’m not sure if painting myself as a Green woman will work, but hopefully it will compliment the portrait of my hubby as a Green man. I’m thinking of offering to do them as portraits for people who are interested in the pagan world.
I’ll share more as it progresses. X
Black and white drawing from the Youdraw.com website I drew a few years ago. Based on a pre-Raphaelite painting. I just love the faces they created. Long noses, cupid bow lips, beautifully painted eyes. I could never achieve that level of soft, smooth, flowing colours.
I don’t know the history of the movement but I know there were some famous models that appeared in their paintings over and over again. There was gossip about the painters behaviours and morals . But they left the world with some wonderful images.
Coming up for the autumn / winter. I want to do some more green men and women. If I can do some with frost and snow that would be interesting. I’m looking for pictures of striking faces so that they have character, I’ve found that if I just make them up they get a bit flat and don’t have as much impact. More later….
Sometimes a painting can need work. After a couple of months, and after already exhibiting “my green man” I decided to do more work on it. The canvas was a bit rough, so when you put paint on it, it didn’t spread evenly and it caught on the surface, leaving tiny little dots where the paint hadn’t stuck. That meant that it looked thin in places and the colour wasn’t strong enough so I have tried to improve the pattern of the leaves and the shading on the face. I’ve used some iridescent turquoise to give it the gleam of dampness. If I do another one I might try and paint frost and ice on it.
The exhibition is going well and I had my photo taken with my portrait of my husband as a green man. It’s called my green man. I’m pleased with the composition.
What next? Once this is over I’ve booked to put a show up in another local gallery called the waiting room, in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. That will be in September, not got the dates yet. I’m also going to do a couple of craft fairs in the next couple of months. It would be good to be commissioned to paint for people but I’m not sure how to break into that sort of work. I am happy to paint for people. Just contact me.
Memories, I don’t know when I painted this but it’s just come up on my FB page as the favourite photo of 2012. It’s a painting of my friend when she ran a market stall surrounded by her objects for sale. It’s based on a photo of her that I had taken. The cardigan and hair really added to the vibrant colours in the painting. I can’t remember what it’s called.
I loved the scarf with the snake on it, and the puppet which may be Thai or Indian. Sometimes it’s good to paint what you see.
X
Progress… Just a quick update.
Using various greens, it’s going to be monochromatic, no other colours but white, greens and some paynes grey.
May be finished by the weekend.
X
Yes I’m painting my husband as a green man. This is about two hours in. I’m limiting the pallette to only greens white and dark grey. I think I’m getting a reasonable likeness to him although his nose may be a little long and his face is a bit narrow. The cheeky eyes staring out make me want to laugh, so often he’s serious, he’s got a lot on his mind. Also I rarely paint faces on this scale, it’s quite a big canvas so any mistakes are magnified. As you can see I have not sketched this out except initially in a darker green. I’m adjusting positions of his features as I go along. However I’ve stopped for a rest and to charge my phone as it is going flat and I’m holding the phone to work from. Modern day painting eh? And yes his nose needs to be bigger.
X
This is a portrait of Cyril I did in 2000. I hadn’t seen it since then.
But then we went to an exhibition by Cyril Tilston a few weeks ago at Centre Space in the Spode heritage visitor centre. Cyril had a photography show and we got chatting.
He took one of my cards and then contacted me over the weekend. He had found this drawing. We had met 19 years ago at another exhibition. We had got discussed art and I had invited him to a drawing group we used to hold in a local pub. So I must have drawn him at the group.
So interesting to look at my drawing style then. I think my eyesight was better then, my hand less shaky. The lines I drew stronger than now. But I’m glad I still draw and paint. Maybe I will have the chance of drawing him again.
Mallaband-Brown