Thursday 28 April 2011

Painting like the Masters - Monet

On the Painting Friends forum (link on right) we have a monthly challenge - to paint like one of the masters.
For April, the masterful painter chosen was Monet.

I'm not a huge fan of Monet, but will confess I only knew his water lilies - and they aren't my cup of tea.  So I searched the gallery for his paintings and was pleasantly surprised to see the "woman with parasol" I really liked this one. Now, how to get the feel of an oil, when using watercolour.  Not easy, but I gave it my best shot - and here's the result.  Do feel free to tell me what you think - and if it could be improved any :)


After Monet


Sunday 24 April 2011

Back after Easter..

Hello my friends. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.
We had a great time, which included some messing around with paint for me :)

I had a new colour I wanted to try out - Quin Gold.
So I painted a loose style crab and my guardian angel ( who just had to have colours)
I was a little disappointed with the Gold, expecting it to be more translucent and bright - but then I read a post on the Painting Friends Forum about colour intensity. Quin Gold was listed and shown as low intensity.
Now I am not disappointed at all, but realise I had the wrong paint for these particular paintings.  Or I painted the wrong picture for this particular paint!
You live and learn, as they say :) 

Here's the pics - I might paint them again at a later date, with more intense colour.




Now to take a look around and try to catch up with you all!
much love, Pat xx

Saturday 23 April 2011

The Cowgirl Series .. Cowgirl V: Masking the Pain

Here's the latest in my Cowgirl series .
I was thinking of a painting to do for the Alphabets and had come up with M for mask.. but when I found this mask with this hat on, I decided instead she should be a Cowgirl .
When Love is Gone was the last, so naturally afterwards, what do we do, but mask the pain! Hence the bold colours, to take away from what's happening in the eyes.


Cowgirl V: Masking the Pain

Wednesday 20 April 2011

The process behind a painting

On the forum I belong to - Painting Friends - we are having a "Year of Painting" Challenge. We paint one picture a month, and the photo is one we all use.
When we take part, there are certain things to hold in mind about what you did, what you liked ...etcetera.

So here, for anyone who has five minutes to spare in reading, is the process I go through whenever I make a painting.

Year of Painting (YOP)

Number One, Landscape.

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 next two thumbs, change the ratio of sky to ground and remove anything which clutters the focal point
  3. on the last thumbnail, keep the focal point, but be completely off the wall in the scenery
  4. Choose which one of these thumbnails to paint.


Choosing (4), the choices for the painting were to try to
a) paint in a realistic style
b) or not.

I chose to paint the scene (b) 

I wanted to achieve a surreal feeling to the painting – a dreamlike state, as one who looks back on their past and remembers it, but not warts and all.
I already had in the back of my mind from the thumbnail stage that this would be The apple tree - the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.. and that the distance would be indicative of how far separated we are from Heaven.

So, here's the painting: The Distant Hills of Youth



What works and what could be improved.

I love the green grass in this painting – it is completely flat in colour, with no graduations and the only shadow that of the tree. This to me is what gives the painting the slightly surreal feel – because no grass would be quite that shade of green or that perfect. 

The sky! This could be improved.. I feel if I did it again I would make the sky bluer and the water bluer. I like the way they are now, and the way they meet on the horizon - but if its a dreamlike scenario, it ought to be bluer.

Challenges Faced

The challenge in painting this as a surreal rendition was not to paint as if it was realistic.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My personal goal was to make this a painting of a dream remembered landscape.. one that showed how far away the viewer had grown from Heaven. The hills are a way away from the tree, so I do feel I met that goal – and also the goal of making the landscape surreal.


How I created the Painting.

The sky was painted by dampening the sky and water area and then running in a wash of ultramarine in the wet area.
Distant land was created by making a wash of ultramarine and crimson . Washing over the whole land mass on the first wash, on two thirds on the second wash and on one third for the third wash.
Grass was painted by mixing cad yellow and cobalt blue and painting wet on dry.
When that was dry the tree shadow and the small shrubs were painted in a stickier mix of the two colours, plus a touch of indigo.
Rocks were all variations of raw sienna/burnt sienna and ultramarine, all painted so they merged in a random fashion. The foreground rocks had some dry brush too, as did the reflections in the water.

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The painting is on Arches Aquarelle Rough 140lb and is quarter sheet. 15”x11”
The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting. W&N artists quality .
Palette colours used : French Ultramarine, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow, Indigo
Brushes, Kolinsky, sizes 8 and 3, Sceptre Gold 1” Flat brush.

Sunday 17 April 2011

The Alphabet Paintings: L

I've been in the summerhouse today, all doors and windows open and the sun pouring in.
Sitting chewing the fat with hubby,  training and cuddling with my dog - and even painting too.

Its been an idyllic Sunday.

And I have here for you to view the next in the Alphabet Series..

L is for ..........................

Luscious Lips


Thursday 14 April 2011

The Alphabet Paintings: K

The newest painting in the Alphabet series...

K is for................


Knight Protector



This painting, as well as every other one I've painted, will be added to my Gallery site:  Pat Elliott Paintings.
You are welcome to go and have a look around.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Messing about with Greens

I painted a couple of small paintings, both 7x11, just to practice working with greens. It has been a long time since I've done a landscape, and I didn't want to lose the knowledge I had.


Back Home



















Uncle Fred's Barn

Monday 11 April 2011

Practising portraits

Painted this chap today, practising my portraits..

none too sure about him myself.. he has a strange feel to me.. but I'll show him to you, even though I think he's not my best .. and leave you dear reader, to see.. sometimes we all have paintings we think twice about!



A Cold Wind Blows

Painting, projects and schedules.

What a lovely weekend we had  - a mini heatwave!
Missy got a trim, a trip to see some horses, played ball in the garden, then watched as I painted in the summerhouse. I also managed to go to a meet up of reflexologists for a few hours.

With such beautiful weather arriving, I will be spending less time at the computer, which means not so much blogging. The upside of that is, you may get more paintings in one post!

In winter I post three times a week - through spring and summer, that will change to one, maybe two. We have lots to do in the garden - I've been trying to get it how I want it to look, since we first moved in two years ago - but other works in the house took precedence. This year is the year of the garden :)

If I'm not such a frequent visitor to your blog, please excuse me, but the great outdoors is calling!

Here are some photos for you to enjoy -  a loose painting, our first garden project this year and views from the summerhouse.

Here's the painting - called "Forgotten"




Paul made these church window  metal supports





sleepy time in the summerhouse

Watching me doing a laid back draw !

View from the summerhouse

my apple tree - Laxton's Superb

Saturday 9 April 2011

Missy gets a trim

The weather has been gorgeous and we've been outside.
Missy being a wire coated dog, she needed a trim, we didn't want her overheating, especially since the forecast is a mini heatwave for this weekend.

So here is the story of her trim...

What do you mean, I need a trim?

Have we finished?

I say we're finished!
Now, we're really done! Yippee!

Friday 8 April 2011

The Alphabet Paintings: J

J is for Jellyfish..

originally I was going to count the pencil as the J painting, but then I decided to paint the jellyfish using a limited palette .. French ultramarine, indigo and cadmium orange

Jellyfish II : the colours of my life

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Jellyfish: Black and White

Because I was in the drawing mood, this painting is actually pencil.

I hope you enjoy it.



Jellyfish I: Black and White


Monday 4 April 2011

Just sketching

A friend asked me recently if I could draw.
That's not as daft a question as it first sounds, because with some paintings you barely do any drawing.

So I decided to do some drawing..

 First you get my coffee cup.. well, mug - as I usually only have one coffee a day, the breakfast one is a big one!
This sketch took about ten minutes to do.




then, a quick sketch - sitting out in the summerhouse, doors wide open,  the sun shining on us - and Missy keeping guard lest a bug try to enter our little piece of Heaven. Sketch done in under 2 minutes - because live subjects move :)



Its been such a busy weekend in the garden, pruning and clearing up from winter. So I do apologise if I haven't visited your blog - I really do try to keep up with each of the three hundred I follow - but it is getting harder.
I must learn to read faster and type quicker!

Friday 1 April 2011

On my Wall

Today I thought to show you some of my art which I have hanging on my wall at home.
I bought the frames, but cut the mounts myself.


You also get to see my computer corner, from whence I "talk" to you, my friend :)
I hope you enjoy the pictures. 




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