paintings prints and stuff

I've done some more work to the blue Harlequin painting - the last image shows the whole canvas (in sunlight so there's a shadow across the centre) and the others are close ups of various sections of it showing the details. It still needs a little more work but is getting near completion. 24x30 inch canvas (smaller than the other Harlequin painting at 30x40) Today the sun is shining :) after a few grim grey days of snow and rain :(

The cats were playing with an empty box yesterday morning so I shot this sequence and used them to make a birthday card for my husband. We took Rosie the tortoiseshell tabby in as a 2 week old orphan who weighed just 25 grams and had to be fed a special formula with a syringe every 3 hours 24/7! She thrived but we felt she was maybe a bit lonely when we were out and also we were worried that she didn't understand other cats at all and was terrified of them and was absolutely petrified of everything outside and would even run in if the wind ruffled her fur! Indoors she was fine and she's very loving. We decided to adopt a kitten from a refuge and brought home Paddy (black) - he was a confident, swashbuckling little soul, very different from her. She was terrified of him! He kept trying to get her to play with him and she'd hiss and spit and growl and run away - pursued by this little sooty scrap a fraction of her size! I really didn't think it was going to work as i

I'm living with the Harlequin painting over the sofa so I can work out what to do next with it. I don't suppose I'll have time to do any more before Christmas. More prints arriving from the print exchange, which is fun - images coming in from all over the world :) With Christmas shopping etc I just can't paint at the moment :(

the prints are starting to arrive and waiting for the post is fun :) I posted mine off on Monday - so waiting for arrival and feedback.

it's a work in progress remember and not a finished piece - it has a little way to go yet

I signed up for an international print exchange and am really looking forward to receiving prints from the others taking part :) I received a booklet about using aluminium foil in printmaking today from the organiser and it looks fascinating. I really want to try it out but it may have to be in the new year as Christmas is rushing up fast and I am not at all organised. He'd done the most amazingly detailed print of a feather using it. My prints are all printed and ready to go.

At last I managed to get some work done on the Harlequin paintings. I did some more to the 30x40 inch one and started a 24x30 and a long thin canvas, about 36x12 inches. They've both got a way to go yet - the blue has only just begun and both have wet paint that doesn't show up well in these images :( I'm using Griffin Alkyd fast drying oils so will be able to work on them again tomorrow, building layers and glazing and developing them. :)

Today I've been making Christmas cards with a class. I got them to cut out snowmen or parcels or Christmas trees in the same way as we used to do lines of paper dollies when we were young. There were loads of different coloured papers, hand made, patterned, holographic, all sorts to choose from and ribbons and bits to stick on. It's a mental health group with varying abilities and they made some lovely cards, even one who wasn't planning to couldn't resist and ended up making one for a girl he wants to ask out.

This is a 30x40inch work in progress - oil on canvas.

A group I belong to have been invited to take part in an exhibition linked to the Comedy Festival early next year and I've been trying to get my head around how to tackle it. The theme of the comedy festival (and our project) is slapstick. I did some research on Harlequin and the Commedia del Arte and decided to make that the basis of the paintings. It was bawdy and crude and they went on stage with only a rough storyline planned and then ad libbed - which seemed very contemporary to me. Harlequins costume was originally patched but later had the diamond pattern to represent the patches. I've worked out some stuff on the computer and have started a 30x40 inch canvas. The images here are all digital images - the one in the post above is the start the canvas.

I've been working on these digital manipulations from sketches this morning, I think the first one may become my Christmas card this year. The second one could be done in charcoal and a little pastel colour but not much, keeping it subtle - a large scale drawing, The first and third I could do on a big canvas. They'll change a little in the translation from computer image to paper/canvas but I think they give me a good start. A good morning :)

watercolour/mixed media

I spent the afternoon painting at the top of Beacon Hill, one of the highest points locally. It was a gorgeous autumn day with sunshine, passing clouds casting shadows over the hills, woods and fields and the light changing constantly. One minute the row of trees nearby were highlighted and vivid against a dark shadowed field, the next dark silhouettes against the light and then dark against dark and hard to make out at all. I was out of white in my Griffin Alkyd oils that I like to take out with me so took my watercolours - I should have known better, I get on so much better with oils plein air. It's so much easier to respond to those changes in light where you think WOW and want to catch. I can do 2-3 oils in the time it takes to do one watercolour! It was nice heavy, rag paper though so it didn't object to lifting out and changing but because it was cold it took ages to dry enough to work over areas :( I still haven't totally warmed up inside - just on the surface. I wa

(the two previous pictures of dawn skies are photos)

13th November brought the unsold paintings back yesterday, It was a gorgeous autumn day with fantastic dawn skies (I had to get there early) and lovely long shadows as the sun came up. The show went well and I'll show there again next year. I stopped at another gallery on the way home and showed them my work. They are interested but they are a framers and won't show work that isn't framed by them, They say if work is unsold you only pay cost - but as my framer does me a good deal for quality work, they are still more expensive and won't be the same as the rest of my work - I haven't made up my mind yet. I may try just 3. He liked the canvasses but I felt he wanted the framing business and would probably not take them in the end because he couldn't frame them. I will NOT frame canvasses! The sea was amazing with silver strands of light and I would have loved to stop to paint but couldn't as I had the car full of paintings and didn't want to leave

I delivered the paintings for the exhibition at the coast last week and the Private View went really well and was great fun. It took forever loading the car, which was full to the gunwhales! It's a good job I was driving over alone as there was no room in the car for anything or anyone else. http://www.neptunegallery.co.uk/currentshow.htm link to gallery Now the house seems very empty and I need to start on the next project. I managed to get out plein air sketching this week and as a break from all those woods, sat at the top of a hill with a friend, looking down over rolling fields with gorgeous fleeting lights and darks from passing clouds. The trees are still mostly green which was a bit disappointing as I was hoping for more autumn colour. The light was wonderful though. (oil in small A5 sketch book)

The Open Studios went well and was really busy but not with buyers ... fellow artists, amateur artists, people simply interested .... but not buying much. We had a really good response though. Commercial galleries really are a better venue as far as sales are concerned.

Things are hectic as we are busy hanging an exhibition this weekend for the Open Studios event in our area. A small group of us meet up once a month to discuss work in progress and exhibitions we've been to and put several joint shows on each year. our website is: http://sitekreator.com/theassociationofleicestershireartists We're showing our work for the weekend in a lovely old Georgian house, off the gorgeous gardens of another, even nicer, old Georgian house that's a museum. We've got the whole house to spread through, it's an arts centre now. I'm feeling stretched as I've got 2 exhibitions starting in the next couple of weeks and so can't really show the work I've done for them here - so it's been busy making sure I have enough work. 2 of the group belong to another group, Artspace, who are showing at the Venice Biennale this year (Mary and Judith) so they are also rushed and stretched. I did a show with some friends last week for the ope

The Leicester Open Studios are on at the moment and I'm trying to get around to see other artists work as well as take part in exhibitions with friends - so it's all a bit hectic at the moment. I did manage to get out to paint in some nearby woodland to paint with friends. this is oil paint on primed paper

This one was done on a cold winter day as the sun began to set. The cafe and warm hot chocolate, after we'd walked back to the car and driven into town, was such a relief - I'd got chilled to the bone. A good day's painting though with several finished pieces.

This was done the same day, sitting in the same place but looking down the beach in the other direction. The tide goes out a long way and was on it's way out, leaving pools of shining water and, for some reason, heaps of dead starfish, which soon began to smell strongly!

I like working plein air, looking at the particular light and colours of a time, day, season. One series of work is about the coast, I have to work fast as the light changes rapidly and colours change dramatically. This one was done on the first warm day of spring, In the lee of the dunes it was beautifully warm and we were able to sit painting in short sleeved T shirts for the first time in the year, Out on the beach the wind was still cold. This was done at Wells-next-the-Sea, in Norfolk. We'd walked past the gorgeous beach huts on stilts, past the dunes and sat looking out to sea and across the channel leading to the harbour, to the pine trees opposite. The sky and sea were blue and it was heaven sitting there enjoying the warmth,

Hi I'm new to blogging so bear with me while I make all sorts of mistakes :)