Awash with Daffs and a Sea Change

I love daffodils, they tell us spring is here at last !
I painted a loose, washy set of daffs, just because they were there :)
Hope you enjoy them .

Awash with daffs.

Arches 140 Rough, 8" x 11"

A Sea Change is a significant transformation  - - and I've had one of those!
Since the anguish of thinking two of my original paintings had been lost by the tracked mail service, I decided that no longer would I send originals in the post.  Can't tell you the emotions that happen when you think pieces are lost. Never wanting to go through that again,  I decided instead to make prints, cards and posters available on RedBubble. If you look to the right and click their logo it will take you to my profile on there.
That is  a big change for me, one I hope will also make my art more accessible to all. 

Diva

This is my latest painting, "Diva"
The mask was a photo I found on Morguefile, a free photo site by creative people. They allow other creative people to use the photos for free.

The story behind this painting was actually a story written for my creative writing course. I thought it might be nice to create a painting to match the title.
So here she is,

"Diva"

Hope you enjoy it!

No Easy Way

Here's my latest painting, inspired by a line from a Seneca play "no easy way from earth to the stars"
I hope you enjoy it .

No Easy Way

Year of Painting, Self Portrait.

Over at Painting Friends, its the last of the Year of Painting - 

Number Twelve, Self Portrait

Personal Goals for this Painting:

The goals were for me to make four thumbnails again and paint all four, finishing this year of painting with a flourish.

Here are the four thumbs.

After I finished these, I thought I'd start with the pencil portrait as that would undoubtedly take the longest. The basic shapes were there when I thought, ah, go on, paint this one. So I did.

When it was finished I called it “Prime Time”

Prime Time

Challenges Faced

Painting the portrait came quite easily, especially because I had chosen to be quite kind in my depiction. Near the end I started to get emotional, as I always do with my dog portraits when I think I have the likeness. 

Then the name popped into my head “Prime Time” and I got really upset. 

 I'd chosen a double portrait, me and my dog, because I am really uncomfortable with painting myself alone. 

It struck me then that this photo was taken in our prime time, that for both of us there was more behind than there was ahead. 

That realisation brought me up short and I was choked.

I put the painting in my folder and I couldn't paint any more of the thumbs.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My goal was to make all four thumbs into paintings.

The emotion of painting Prime Time put paid to that, so no, I didn't meet my goals.

How I created the Painting.

I had a line drawing to begin with.

Then I started by painting myself as the background figure, followed by Missy in the foreground.

Not photorealistic, but reasonably realistic. I didn't bother with wrinkles, sure I didn't see any!

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The painting is on Arches 140 Rough 11” x 8”

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

W&N artists quality paint.

Palette colours used : yellow ochre, aliz crimson, permanent rose, french ultramarine, sepia, burnt sienna, cad red.

Brushes: round 12, round 6, round 2.

Missy and her 6th Anniversary!

The 18th March 2006 was the day we adopted our darling Missy from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
She was approximately 8 years old at the time.

A great day for all of us.

Here she is, the gorgeous Missy

and we had to buy a couple of toys and some chewy shoeys, didn't we?

Let me at him!

Straight for the jugular!

enjoying the shoe chew :)

Happy Adoption Day, our darling girl. :)
You've brought so much joy, laughter and love into our lives.

Thank you, Battersea, for keeping Missy safe in your love for two whole years, while she waited for us. We can't thank you enough.

xx

Pears and Comments

I'm still keeping my painting eye in whilst I'm on the writing course :)
Class tonight and then one more next week and I'll be writing totally on my own!

I had some time this morning, so was running through the blogs I follow. Entranced by Judy's hyacinths, I thought I'd try to leave a comment, despite the blinking awful word verification that Blogger has "improved" Ha!

I wrote a lovely long comment, telling Judy how I loved her hyacinths, the flicks and dabs creating the impression of pollen and scent. Really quite fabulous.
First attempt at wv failed, as did second. Third went through, until a little box came up saying that an error had occurred and the comment couldn't be published.

So Judy, and all other friends who use word verification, I'm sorry, but no comments from me. The system drives me mad . Write, fail, fail, fail. Just how I feel about blogger's system. Fail.

Enough with the complaining - here are the pears :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Will be reading and keeping up with you all.
love
Pat xx

Sweet Treats

My latest painting is using the same reference as Sweet Valentine, but changing the dish from its original crystal to a pottery one - and using some new reds in my palette.  Winsor Red Deep, Perm Rose and Quin Rose. I'm quite happy with how they've worked together.

Sweet Treats

Arches 140 Rough, 15" x 11"

Its not normal for me to use a same reference so quickly after the last one, but I wanted to keep my painting eye in! 

You see, for the last three weeks I have been taking a creative writing course - and the learning, the notes and the practice have all kept me busy. Two more weeks and I'll have finished with it and life will return a little more towards normal, with a portion of time handed over to writing as well as art! 

Hope you've all been well and will catch up with you soon! 

love xx

Cushions!

Previously, I'd bought a wall hanging from Hillbilly Handiworks,
then commissioned a dining set - and now I have cushion covers :) 

How delightfully wrapped they were, Tonya! 

and the colours look so scrumptious

here they are in place on the sofa! 

of course, they haven't passed quality control until a certain supervisor checks them out..

  and once she has first dibs on one, we know they're fine! :)

Thank you so much Tonya - we're delighted with them :)
If you'd like to see some of Tonya's quilting artwork, go HERE

Hanging Around

I made a Title Challenge over at Painting Friends, giving everyone the two words "Hanging Around."
The idea is to come up with your own painting that will somehow fit these words.
Feel free to try one yourself, if you'd like :)

Here's my version:

Hanging Around

Arches 140 Rough

6x11 inches