If you paint once more...

then I am going to sleep!

And so she did .. my darling Missy :)

BAM!

Ben and Mia - the finished painting:

Bam!


This painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
Pat Elliott Paintings

Mia

Mia, gorgeous girlie - she's the first to be painted.

Mia was in a pound in Ireland that puts dogs to sleep after 5 days! That's all - just 5 days! You can read her story here

My Missy wouldn't have stood a chance - she was in Battersea for 2 years whilst they looked for a home for her. You can read her story here

God speed the day we humans stop seeing dogs as money makers and disposables - and in the meantime, thank Heaven for people like Pam who take on a rescue!

Eyes and Noses

Now the sea and shore are complete, its time to start on the dogs.

As is my way, eyes, noses and collars first!
That brings the dog to life for me, then its easier to get their little characters right :)

Sand

Once the sea had been painted, it was the turn of the sand.

I love the seashore, such a wonderful place to visit - such a lovely place for dogs to run free.

We've been fortunate enough whenever we've taken Missy to the sea not to have encountered anyone who doesn't like dogs -though that's not everyone's experience.

We always endeavour not to let our dog be a nuisance.

Pam, who owns these two, is the same, I know :)

One, Two - Dogs.

Pam, from BenMcFuzzylugs, who makes the Splat! bookmarks wanted a painting of her two dogs, Ben and Mia.
She allowed me access to her photos and unbeknown to her, I chose this as my favourite.
Here's the drawing, and the sea all painted in.

Perfect day!

I had an enjoyable day over at my friend Beryl's .
We had one of our painting days, that happen every so often, when we can fit them in.

Coffee, chat, paint a sky, trip to the greenhouse, paint the pond.
Cup of soup, toasted teacake, paint the bridge.
You get the drift. :)

Its the most enjoyable day going, painting, laughing, the company of a good friend.

Here's the painting:

Perfect Day

Stripes

Another of the photos from my friend's Becks trip to the zoo was a cute pic of a pair of zebra grazing.
I took out the second zebra because the painting would have looked too confusing with all those legs in close proximity.

So now, we're down to one zebra and his name is :

Stripes

Maestro

Here he is, the finished painting, and he feels to me as if he is listening to music, eyes closed and being transported to another world.. hence I have called him :

Maestro



this painting will be added to my permanent gallery:
Pat Elliott Paintings

Brown hair and shut eye

In this penultimate stage, washes were mixed to make various shades of light brown.
Hair, eyebrows and beard and the shut eyes all got treated in shades of brown.

I've enjoyed this - he's been fun.. I can feel him concentrating, yet going with the flow.. a few shadows to do, and some reinforcing on the drifting washes and he'll be done.
Tomorrow .
See you then :)

Pink

Time to paint in the shirt of my man.
I decided on a pale shade of pink - a shade that reminds me of sugared almonds and wedding favours :)

He's doing well, my man .... he seems to have taken on an ethereal look to him. At this point, the idea which I had originally started with has gone out of the window.. this chap wants to be painted a different way.
The mosaic idea I had will have to wait for another day...

Swish!

Swish! And the background washes go in..

Of course, before you can go "swish" you do need to prep the washes.
I had two large washes ready in my palette for this chap, one a yellow base and one an orange..

Somehow the colours have made him feel Oriental..

Drawing a man

I'm getting daring - drawing a man all by myself, not as part of a workshop project!

But if we don't dare, we don't learn.
Whether this chap works as a painting or not, I will have learned something from the endeavour.
And I'll have some fun, too :)

The drawing:

Adoption Day Celebration

Sunshine, running, playing.

Such simple pleasures - what better way to spend the 4th anniversary of your adoption day?

Such joy that spills from her life to ours.
Four years of blessings.

Thank you, Lord - and thank you, Battersea.
xx

Guess what starts tomorrow?

A wonderful new exhibition by one of my favourite artists!

Peter Williams of Mighty Fine Art is having and exhibition of his work in Leiston, Suffolk.

Peter draws the most beautiful, detailed pencil drawings.

You can see a sample on his website, Mighty Fine Art - though I am sure if you make the trip to Suffolk, you'll really enjoy seeing the drawings in the flesh, so to speak :)
You might even come away with one of his masterpieces!

The exhibition starts tomorrow and runs until the 25th March.
You can even meet Peter - he'll be there daily between 9am to 4pm
Enjoy!

Nellie

Straight after I painted the picture of Letting in the Jungle, I drew and painted a very quick sketch of an elephant kicking up a storm .
Sometimes its very liberating as an artist to draw and paint something in half an hour or so. You have no room to do detailed work - and you have to get a sense of "feeling" into the thing.

I know the elephant in Kipling's story was called Hathi - but my girl is a Nellie, another childhood favourite. She was the subject of a song, and I bet people of a certain age are singing now :
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus...

Nellie

Letting in the Jungle

One of my favourite books when I was growing up was Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle book and other stories.
There was a story where the elephants and other animals destroyed the village and a poem, entitled Letting in the Jungle.

Out in my garden - also a bit of a jungle until I have it tamed - there is an ornament of a Lady's face. She was lying on her back on the patio until the wall where she was to be placed was re-rendered. ( The joy of a project of a house)
Up through the patio and over my Lady ornament this green weed began to grow and flourish. It reminded me of Letting in the Jungle - and how frail we are compared to Nature, who could claim us back at any time.

So I drew the Lady ornament and the weed . Then I made this small painting. It has given me an idea for a much larger work, which I will undertake when I have a few days free. In the meantime..

Letting in The Jungle

Roz: A Tribute

To our beautiful girl:



We only had you for five months but we loved you dearly and were rewarded with your complete devotion and loyalty.


Take your place among the champions in heaven and know that you are in our hearts always.



Your Family

This painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
at Pat Elliott Paintings

Cranberry Swirl

The finished painting :

Cranberry Swirl

This painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
Pat Elliott Paintings

Twiggy

Now I've painted the twiggy structure in.
Using shades of siennas and sepia, the twigs give the swirl some structure.

I'm quite pleased how this is progressing, its beginning to look real.
The reds and the white highlight give this painting a very happy feel to me.

I might even have hummed a little tune, as I painted :)
Some may not like my singing - but I say - God likes to hear the crows too!

Red!

Red, red, glorious red.

One of my favourite colours!

oh and a few smoky greys that give the glass the illusion of 3-D

Table

I've painted the table that this little piece stands on in a blue grey mix.
That's because I want the piece to be the most prominent feature, and not that upon which it stands.

It may not always seem like it, but there is planning involved in painting watercolours!
Some people think I sit and paint whatever comes into my head - but its not strictly true. The ideas come and I make a note of them, but to make a painting really work - I have to plan the stages that you see.

drawing

here 's the latest drawing.
I love drawing, its so restful and time flies when you are absorbed in it.

When I draw for a painting, I only do the basic shapes, because the paint will do all the work of making my concept come alive.

Maybe not all, perhaps I do have a brush in it somewhere!

Gorilla Giveaway - the Winner

And the lucky winner is:

Jackiew




This little honey will be winging his way to you, shortly.
Please send me an email ( via my profile)
with an address to post him to.

Congrats!

and "thank you" to all who participated.

The Royal Oak

I live in an English village - and we have a village green with a church and a pub on it :)

I've already painted St Nicholas Church and now I have made a small painted sketch of The Royal Oak - the public house on the green.

The church dates from the 12th Century and the pub from the 17th !
I, of course, am nowhere near that old :)

The Royal Oak

A Happy Girl

I made contact with Sarah from BuddhistMusician Accessories and asked her if she could make a "jangly" bracelet for me to wear.

The reason for this is my dog's eyesight isn't the best at night so I thought if I had something that made a tinkling sound, she would know at all times that I was nearby.

Sarah made this bracelet and matching earrings for me - I'm a very Happy girl!






and here is the bracelet in action, I jangled it in front of Missy - and she was curious as to what made the noise!

Tuggy!

On a grey day, Missy loves to play indoors.
She's not one for walking in the rain, she's miserable if you make her.

She'd much rather be indoors playing Tuggy with daddy!



She's an absolute joy of a dog. She is feisty - which you'd expect from a jack russell bitch, but she knows to stop, when we say.
In fact, before we ever played tuggy we taught Missy the command "drop".
So now we can play tuggy knowing we only need say drop and our darling girl will drop and then sit, looking at us eagerly for round two!

Dive!

I was going to do a stage by stage, but somehow got carried away and finished the painting all in one sitting.
The impatient ones amongst you will be happy :)

Here's the finished painting: Dive!



This painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
Pat Elliott Paintings

Penguin

A jolly good friend of mine, Becks, went on a trip to Colchester Zoo.
She very kindly let me choose from amongst her photos any that I thought would be useful for painting purposes.

From one of the penguin photos I picked a couple to draw - the first was made into the painting Charlie's Angels

and here's the second drawing:

random musings

I've been thinking.
That's the point hubby usually runs for cover :)

and what I was thinking was this - that maybe I will have a Guest Spot every now and then on the blog.
That way we could get to know someone just a little better.
What format to use though? A question and answer session? Or just a here it is, you've got 100 words and one photo to tell us what you love in your life and your creative life?

Could I do it? Here's a random attempt.

In my life the most important things to me are not things, but living beings.
My husband, my friends and my dog are all up there in the top slot.
I'd move heaven and earth if I could for any of them

In my artistic life, watercolour is important to me.
I dabble a bit with sketching, pen and ink and drawing - but they are usually only means to an end - a watercolour painting. I love the expressive freedom of water and paint swirling together.

This photo shows my two great loves: Paul and Missy





Done, in just under 100 words!
Now, I wonder if anyone out there would like a Guest Spot?

Gorilla Giveaway!

Gorilla Giveaway

Original watercolour painting
7.5" x 5.5"

This original watercolour will be given away to one lucky person.
To be in with a chance to win this little fella, you need to do two things only.

1) Be a Follower of this blog. (old or new, no difference)
Follower Box on the right hand side of this page.

2) Leave a comment on this post.
(Click comments at the bottom of this post)

Tell me what you like - or dislike - about this blog and/or my gallery site, Pat Elliott Paintings.

You have a week, before the Winner is drawn on the 8th March, 7am GMT.


Its my small way of saying "thank you" for your continued interest.

Good luck
Pat xx