Tuesday 27 November 2012

Commission finished!

And on the tenth day I completed it!  Quite a bit of procrastination mixed up with a bit of travel and a house-guest,  so 10 days is excellent.  The blood, sweat and tears can't be seen, thankfully, but there was a lot of self-doubt, impatience and terror that's for sure.

It's really weird how you can go through so many emotions and yet at the end come up with a painting that you are really happy with.  If it's a painting for yourself and it doesn't work you can throw it or paint over it, but a commission means you have to finish it, you have to put your money where your mouth is and you have to produce the goods.

I hope my friend is happy with it.


Friday 23 November 2012

"Butterfly it is to B"

Just a quick watercolour and ink painting of a butterfly with a bit of doodling thrown in for fun.


"C" you next week.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Detour

Just had to take a small detour and start a commission I was asked to do a couple of months ago. I have been putting it off (nothing new there) and it has to be finished by Christmas so started in earnest yesterday. I did the drawing with charcoal Sunday and laid a watery ochre wash over it. Then yesterday went at it guns blazing (after procrastinating and waiting till 11.30 am to work myself up to it)  Finished to this stage at about 4.00 pm, so pretty pleased.


Not completely happy with the mouth but that can be altered further along.





Won't be able to get back to it for two days so hope my clingwrap covered paint stays use-able.



Friday 16 November 2012

"B" prepared


I live beside the beach (lucky me) and H and I try and walk on it when we can.  Usually I chatter on ten to the dozen about life and what's been happening etc while we walk briskly along to get our hearts pumping so we feel we've achieved some exercise.

Recently I have just been introduced to a friend's blog mindful walking with my dogs and I realised after reading it that I never mindful walk. My mind is always somewhere else, in the past or in the future, but never in the present.  I was so inspired by the blog that I have made an effort on my beach walks to be mindful.

So yesterday while walking mindfully on the beach I noticed much more of the landscape, the dunes that have shifted shape, the trees that have been washed from their banks and,  bugger me, what should I see but this butterfly wing. I picked it up to bring home, just because I could, when I realised that Butterfly started with B which was my letter of the week next week. 

I know it might sound cheesy, but this was a sign! 




Butterflies it will B.

Monday 12 November 2012

"A" - apple, accordion, acrobat............


I love painting still lives. I can arrange them hundreds of times and take numerous photos of them and then troll through the photos cropping and adjusting until I get the perfect composition.

So 'apple' was my first thought for A.  Too easy! So I made myself google 'nouns beginning with A' just to see what else was out there and here's what I found that sounded interesting.

apple, accordion, acrobat, afternoon, agave, alcove, alpaca , ankle,  avocado

Plenty of themes if I get bored with Apples.  Here is my warm up exercise.


Saturday 10 November 2012

Keeping me honest


What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to be when you leave school? What have you always wanted to be?

Same question when you're a kid, when you finish high school and when you're having that mid life crisis when you realise that time is limited and you're dissatisfied or unfulfilled or  that dream has never come to fruition.

"I want to be an Artist!" that was always my answer in my head. 

I gave up work 6 months ago.  "It's MY time" I said. "I'm going to be an artist before my time runs out. I have a dedicated art room, paints, pens, paper, canvasses, you  name it."
Well guess how much art I've done  -  ZERO!!!

I could blame my non-production on a whole range of things  but they would all be a cop out. Because this is what I've always wanted to do - stay home and paint!

So this is my plan. Not a particularly creative or imaginative plan, but a plan none the less, to get me drawing and painting.

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (drum roll)

My A to Z of Painting. 
Each week I am going to work my way through the alphabet and draw or paint or whatever, something starting with the letter of the week. 26 weeks from now I will have covered every letter and hopefully honed my skills, re-discovered my creativeness and love of art.

I know I could do this within the privacy of my art room, but I am the biggest procrastinator so this blog is my record of my commitment. It's my way of keeping me honest and to get over my fears of not being good enough/not knowing what to paint/not having enough time etc etc.

And so it begins .............. see you next week.