Flight of the Bumble Bee

 A new painting, using one of my digital microscope photos as reference.

The close up photo was one of a flowering top of lavender that had missed the trim back before winter set in.
The title comes from the fact that this is the close up view, seen from above - not a view we normally see, but a bee would!

Flight of the Bumble Bee

In which my visitor learns to paint!

My friend has left for home.
Whilst she was here, she expressed an interest in learning to paint, so I took up the challenge to teach her :)

We started with me demonstrating a wet-in-wet sea scene ( she lives near the sea) . This meant she learned how to use a limited palette of three colours. French ultramarine, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. She also learned how to make washes fizz to create new effects. not to forget learning and practising seagulls!

This is my demo piece - and is followed by her piece, which we cropped because the horizon line was a little skewed.

Then we proceeded to the second painting.
She made a drawing first of some snowdrops. Then she learned how to paint wet on dry.

Firstly painting a glaze of aureolin on the leaves. When that was completely dry we painted a wash of ultramarine on the same leaves, though we used differing consistencies to give diverse greens.

Finally we talked about shadows and we mixed a shadow from ultramarine and alizarin and applied it to the snowdrops.
Here's the finished painting.

and here are the two paintings in light oak frames. Both with double mounts, one black and white, the other double cream.

We both had fun, her learning and me teaching - and she got to take home a couple of beautiful paintings to hang on the wall of her converted chapel!

Visitor and a place to visit!

We've got a visitor this week!
One of my friends from Devon has come to stay for a week.
Missy is so excited

I think she's hoping that's someone new to throw ball for her! 

So this week I shan't be around much  .

However, I wanted to tell you about a wonderful artist blogger who paints the most wonderful horses. Here name is Maria and you can find her blog HERE
She's a vet who's also an artist - how cool is that?

Her love of animals is immense too - her latest piece of art will benefit horse rescue. 
Please do go have a look at her blog - and I shall see you again next week.
ta-ta for now xx

For love of Spot

Painting the Spots

A gift from God, you came to me,
My darling little Spot
You made me laugh, you made me love
You made me proud - a lot! 

You taught me much, my darling Spot
I remember to this day
That love's a wonderful thing to have,
But better still to give away.

I painted these pictures, my gorgeous girl
That all should know the love
A rescue dog can bring to them
Like you, my friend above.

There'll come a day we'll meet again
What joy that will surely be
I hope when that day comes, my love
You'll be just as proud of me.

*

This is the final painting in the Painting the Spots series:

Nalah and Mollie

and the others who were painted are:

Scrappy

Chance

Penny

Hope and Jade

Wishie and Heidi

Jazzie

For an explanation of "Painting the Spots" please see previous post. 

Painting and Sketching

It seems like forever since I posted a painting.
Today isn't going to change that.
I do have a painting I'm working on, but the progress is slow due to the emotional attachment.

Six years ago I lost my first dog, Spotty. She was a rescue we adopted at 18 months old and she lived to be 18 years old. I loved her immensely. Still do.

 This is her photo on a picnic set that Tonya from  Hillbilly Handiworks made for me.







In honour of her, I offered to "paint the Spots" on a jack russell forum I belonged to. (Jack Russells Online, owned by Bill Tomei, r.i.p.)   The bronze, silver and gold of beloved dogs who were adopted, and the bronze, silver and gold of the dogs belonging to that dedicated band of people who rescue dogs.

Five portraits were done within a couple of months. The sixth is the one I am currently working on. The rescuer involved is Suzy, who runs "Saving Georgia Dogs" . Sadly she's kept so busy it took her til now to photo and send the pics of her two dogs.  So that's what I'm working on and its bringing back all sorts of memories.

I'm also keeping up with the sketch-a-day challenge. The finish line is 75 sketches. We're in the thirties now :)
For this lot, I swapped to a coloured background and an inked subject.  Fast sketching at 3 minutes, then stopping - finished or not!   Wonder if I'll ever paint this fast? :)

Speed sketching

I've been trying to improve how quickly and accurately I can sketch.
This is because when the spring and summer finally arrive, I want to go outdoors in public places and sketch more often.
So if I can get a reasonable likeness in under ten minutes, then I should feel more confident when doing the same outdoors. That's my thinking, fingers crossed it works.

So these sketches are all done in under 10 minutes, hence not perfect, but improving :)

German shepherd dog ornament

My distance spectacles

desk lamp

computer mouse

small glass

For my followers who paint and draw, do you ever do so outdoors?
What are the pros and cons for you?

Out of the Blue

Its the Year of Painting time again on our Painting Friends Forum and this time we had to make our own creation, from beginning to end.


Number Ten, Your own Still Life creation


Challenge yourself to explain why you chose that particular set up.


I chose to paint one of my collection of gemstones.

This is the photo:

  This particular gemstone is celestite, so named because of its celestial blue shades.
This photo is a close up under microscope, which shows the different value changes within the egg shaped specimen I own.


The lines of the crystal are entrancing to me, within the shapes and shades I find a calming harmony. Under the microscope we can see a good balance of light, mid and dark tones with the overall textural feel of crystalline formations.


Under the heat of the microscope, small particles rose into the air.
Despite my efforts at cleanliness, these are probably dust motes, but they give an interesting effect., hence their inclusion in the painting. They have a movement which adds life.


The set up has a triangular feel to it, with the main crystal point being bordered by an imaginary triangle.


So what really appealed to me the most in this set up?

The fact that this is real and yet it looks abstract.
It appeals to the artist in me who likes to “paint what is” and doubles as a joyous expression of colour, movement and meaning.
Joyous and yet soothing. I feel that one could get lost in the beauty of the creations of the earth and the heavens, if only we take the time to look and enjoy.


How I created this painting.


Firstly, the painting:

 Out of the Blue

I printed a black and white copy of the photo, so I would not be tempted to be a slave to the blues of the photo, just to paint my own interpretation.

I masked a few highlights and then painted the whole page with a wash of cerulean blue. Then I added glazes of french ultramarine and glazes of indigo to achieve the desired effect. There were some glazes achieved by plain water first, then dropping in colour and letting it fizz wherever it wanted.
When all the glazes were complete, I lifted the mask and painted a fine line of shadow under each rising bubble and a little more definition around the whites that needed to be darker.
The resultant painting is not a copy of the photo, more an interpretation of it.

I hope you've enjoyed the painting and the explanation