The Shadow of your Love

Shadows.. I always think they make a painting.
So when I started this one, I decided to paint the shadows first.
When they were done, I loved it so much, its staying that way.
Here it is, painted on Arches 140 Rough , 15" x 11"

The Shadow of your Love

Just another day.

The weather was fine for the end of October, so Missy had maybe her last game of the season :)

When we came in, I finished a quarter sheet painting, the last in the current loose style. This was from David Webb's book, Animal Painting Workbook. I wanted to compare what I'd learned from him against one of his own pictures. I only painted half the cat, not all that he did. I'm happy I have the technique, so this lovely cat will be the last "after" someone else's picture. If you'd like to buy David's book, or view his website, GO HERE

Lazy Sunday Afternoon ( after David Webb)

and finally, we curled up on the sofa in the evening and watched The King's Speech on dvd.  What a fabulous film. I know, we're behind the times, but I so prefer my own home to the cinema environment. Nobody can kick the back of my seat!

Wish you all a blessed Sunday. xx

PS: for those who walked Ripley, the total was over £80,000 when I last looked on Saturday! Thank you all xx

painted sketches

morning all !

today I'm showing you some of my recent painted sketches.
I picked up a book that shows loose style painting and gave some of the exercises a go. The technique was from the book, the photos from Morguefile.

First is 8" x 11" and the second is a quarter sheet 15" x 11"

The surprising thing for me was just how much work is involved in these looser styles! The patience you have to have to leave them alone so you can overlay a wet on top of dry wash.  Not sure if I'm cut out for that amount of patience :lol:

Back to Nature

I'm playing with crystal again :)

One of my crystal ornaments, backed by some poppies in my garden..

Back to Nature

We're for Dogs

I never put adverts on my blog - but this one is an exception.


Because dogs are exceptional .

Pedigree Adoption Drive will donate money - real money - to help homeless dogs -  if you will take this virtual dog for a walk.

The dog walks across a page, you wait until it sits, scroll down and click "continue with your virtual walk"
It will do this across 4 websites and when you have completed it, Pedigree will donate £1 to help homeless dogs.

Doesn't take much time - and so far, there's just over £40,000 been donated.

My Missy is a rescue whose home would have benefitted.
I'm all for dogs.

This is easy and could mean so much. Please do it. Thank you.


If you have a blog, please consider sharing this.

Card Exchange

We've recently had a card exchange over at Painting Friends. 
We have two, Autumn (Fall) and Christmas.

We all paint a card and then are given a Friend to exchange with.
This year, I was fortunate to receive two cards: Bonnie when she was given my name, decided a big pot of soup (and the recipe inside the card) was just right for me. It was! I love to cook from scratch, so this was perfect. I'm buying the ingredients this weekend.

Then, because she was on holiday in New England at the time, she painted a scene of the colour changes in that area. Simply beautiful.

Wasn't I the fortunate one? :)

For my part of the Exchange, I painted a scene from the Serpentine in Hyde Park and included a little history about the area too.
I'm not too good at painting small, so this picture (card) was approx 8" x 10" :)

Autumn at the Serpentine

Autumn -  one of my favourite times of year.  I love the colour changes and the crisp, ideal walking weather.  I've been out and away from the computer lots, because before long winter will be here, when the weather will no doubt conspire to keep us all indoors more!

Enjoy your autumn (fall) as much as I do. xx

Reflecting on Bygone Times, Year of Painting

Over on Painting Friends, its Year of Painting time again, so I thought I'd share the whole post with you, so that you can gain an insight into the workings behind this painting :)

Number Seven, Auto Reflections

Personal Goals for this Painting:

Firstly I set some goals for my thumbnail sketches.

These were :

1. do a thumbnail showing the scene as is
2. on the other thumbs, show different crops and ideas
3. Choose which one of these thumbnails to paint.

Choosing (4) Rusty Wreck, the goals for the painting were: try to show a vehicle in a stage of decomposition and by doing so describe the impermanence of life and material objects.

To this aim, I also wanted to incorporate the acrylic technique of painting a ground onto watercolour paper. This means adding a tint of colour and texture before you start painting proper.

So, here's the painting: Reflecting on Bygone Times

What works and what could be improved.

I'm pleased with the overall feel of the painting. By the grasses I should have left more lights, as I did with the sky.

Challenges Faced

The challenge faced for me was incorporating tinting and texture onto the paper before I painted the car.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My goals were to make the four thumbs again, pick one to paint, namely Rusty. I wanted to use the acrylic ground technique to see what difference it would make to the overall feel.

Did I manage that? I think so, though I can see that completely tinting paper wouldn't have suited this subject, but it does tie car and shrubs in so they feel at home together. I don't think I should have extended it to where I painted the grasses. I think it dulls the grasses too much.

How I created the Painting.

I created the painting by painting the sky first. When dry, I scumbled a mix of burnt sienna, raw sienna and light red over the rest of the paper. Then I pressed cling film into that so that when dry there would be some texture. After that the shrubs were painted in a loose random style, made of shades of raw sienna, burnt sienna and cadmium yellow pale. The car was painted in cad red and cad yellow pale, with the rust and bullet holes being painted in various strengths of a shadow mix ( ultra and crimson) Grasses were painted in a loose style using a large flat brush, using the same colours as used throughout, with the addition of a making a green from ultra and cad yellow pale.

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The painting is on Arches 140 Rough and is 15” x 11”

The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting.

W&N artists quality paint.

Palette colours used : Raw sienna, burnt sienna, Cad Red., Cad yellow pale, French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, light red.

Brushes: Flat 1”, round 12, rigger 2

Busy weekend!

Friday night I went with  fellow blogger Sharon to see an art demonstration.
We saw Heather Jolliffe paint a scene of deer in woodlands.
Missy wagged hopefully at Sharon and then came to me, but she wasn't allowed to go! 

I don't paint in acrylic, but  was hoping to learn something that I could carry over to watercolour.  The most likely thing that would migrate well was putting a ground on the paper. This translates to tinting a watercolour page (with texture too) before you start to paint proper.  I'm going to try that on a painting sometime soon.

No photos at the demo, but I was on the end of the row, so managed to not only jot down notes, but make a small sketch too. In pen, here it is :)

Yesterday and today, I've been playing Florence Nightingale to a poorly hubby.
Hope to get round to all your blogs and catch up soon!

and now, something completely different!

So glad you all enjoyed the crystal peacock.
No sooner had I finished it than I started this  fast and loose painting of a tiger.

I had learned from our Painting Like the Masters challenge on Painting Friends how to paint a Monet style oil in watercolour - and I so loved it I do not want to lose the skill. So I employed that technique again on this tiger.

I find repetition is the best way for me to retain a skill - how about you?

Anyway, here's the tiger painitng, I do hope you enjoy this too.

Time for Tea

Don't forget, he and all your favourite paintings of mine, can be found HERE in my permanent gallery site.

The Magic of Rainbows (crystal painting)

Here's the finished crystal painting. I hope you enjoyed the stages as much as I enjoyed showing you.

The Magic of Rainbows

Permanently on display at my gallery site, HERE

A Crystal painting - further steps

we have some more steps on the way to the crystal painting.

Firstly some washes of cobalt blue

then a second glaze of cobalt blue, in selected areas only. That will deepen the glass and help to make the crystal more 3-D

Adding in some cadmium yellow on certain segments

And a wash of gamboge overlaid with red (makes the reds sing) in selected spots

adding some dark tone in, to tie in the shadows to the peacock. French ultramarine+alizarin crimson mix

All I have to do now is remove the masking and tidy up any areas I feel need a little more zing - and the painting will be ready. I'll post it tomorrow.

A Crystal painting step by step

I have a crystal ornament or two :)
The one that I wanted to paint is a peacock.
It casts some beautiful rainbows, but you have to look very very closely to see the colour in it.
So I took a photo and blew it up and from there I started to draw, mask and paint.

Here's the drawing on a quarter sheet, with all the facets and shapes of the colours drawn in

and here is the masking laid down to preserve the whites

the sky through the window is french ultramarine and the door a gold ochre. The shadows on the window and sill a a very weak wash of winsor green and alizarin crimson.

The deeper shadows are french ultramarine and alizarin crimson

and the tips of the feathers and body of the bird are gold ochre.
The base of the mirrored stand is a weak mix of the winsor green and alizarin crimson.

more to follow another day...

Love, Actually

A little while ago I made a pencil portrait called Manifestly, Love. 
It was a portrait of my friend, Lynne and her dog, Ben.

Today I show you the other half of the portrait, which features Stuart and Ben.

I'm going to frame these two pencil drawings and give them to Lynne and Stuart as their wedding present.

Eminently fitting for  Manifestly, Love and Love, Actually.

Love, Actually

Dancing with Deb

Morning all,

The photo for this painting came from Deb over at Painting Friends. Mollie kindly gave a stage by stage of her version, with lots of helpful tips. Mollie is the crystal painting Queen!

So I made an attempt - and here it is:

Dancing with Deb

Country Fayre

We went out to a local fayre today at a country park which had been seconded as an air field in WWII

The weather was very hot for England in October -  85F !

We stopped for an hour or so then came home to have a respite from the heat.
We didn't take Missy, it would have been far too hot for her when there was hardly any shade. It was really a touch too hot for me! 

I took some photos for you to enjoy.
If you would like to use any in this post for the basis of a painting, you may do so, freely :)