Book news, a painting in progress.... and a quick sketch.

Good morning friends!

I've been a bit lax on the painting and blogging front this week... with a good reason. I've been making the final changes to my novel, All in the Leaves! It will be going off to the publisher this week - and should be out for sale by the end of the month!
It's very exciting.

So, what I have to show you this week is a work in progress and a quick sketch I made as I was waiting for the sky wash to dry.
The work in progress was inspired by a favourite poem of mine, by G.K. Chesterton, called The Donkey. You can read the poem HERE

In these four quick sketches, I worked out my placements for all the parts, so it would feel like a cohesive painting.

Having decided on number two, I drew the picture and started on the washes; painting the sky, the mountains, the blood red moon, the river and the first layer on the field,

then I painted the figs on thorn, some reflections, the colours on the fish, and some of the background trees.

Here's the quick sketch I made whilst waiting for the sky to dry:

The painting has been left at this point, because the novel took over - I'll show you the rest of the stages next week, because I should get to finish it on the second half of this week.

From next week, I should have time to visit your blogs- and I am so looking forward to that relaxation and enjoyment. I never knew how much time and energy writing, editing and polishing a book would take. I don't regret it, but would like a few more hours in each day!
Hope you have a good week.

Painting a Wedding Couple, copyrights and completing a demo by Mollie Jones

I met a lovely lady in one of my Creative Writing Courses - and we became firm friends. Recently her daughter got married, and I wanted to paint a memento of the day for them.

So, the first thing I had to do was to speak to the wedding photographer. He owns the copyright to his photographs of the day, like I own the copyright to my images. Before I could paint this memento, I needed his permission to use the photo as a reference.
I spoke to Adam of ARJ Photography and he kindly agreed to my request. He takes fabulous photos - his website is HERE

Having the permission, I set about painting the picture. I decided to paint it relatively small, so that the framed painting would be able to find a place on a wall in my friend's home. You know sometimes, when paintings are very large, it's hard to find a space on the wall. So this one is 8x11" only.

The Wedding Couple

 My friend and her husband received the painting this weekend, and I'm pleased to report that they were delighted with it.

The demo by Mollie Jones was posted in Painting Friends - a friendly online forum of people who love to paint.
It is of a set-up of perfume bottles and a glass vase. Mollie is so generous with her time and expertise, she's the one who made painting crystal a favourite of mine. She didn't even mind when I changed some of the colours!
Here's my version of her demonstration:

Mollie's Dressing Table

I hope you've enjoyed viewing this week's offerings. Wish you a happy painting week.

The painting doldrums - and how I regained the joy

I'm putting all of these paintings in the same post, because I wanted to show you all what I did when I lost the joy of painting. My mojo had disappeared somewhat over the summer. In my whole month off, I only painted three paintings - I could easily do that in a week before.
When I'd finished them, I did the  red flower, one painting for a friend, but after that, although the technique was there, the sheer joy I had in painting was lost. I was due to go to art class and wasn't at all inspired.

 I had a friend visit and asked why I didn't paint something randomly, to see what came out. My answer was that if I paint randomly, I get mud and a mess.
 But after she'd gone, I tried it, just wet the paper and doodled with paint. Slung paint at it and when it was done, decided it needed fish, don't ask me why - even I'm not always sure how my brain works! So I painted blue water around some fish shapes. Painting was suddenly fun again - even though it's not a masterpiece, I enjoyed it and it gave me the oomph to pick up my brushes, so I'm grateful to my friend and the painting!

When Fishes Flew

once this was done, I had some permanent rose left in the palette - and some of the gold paint in Fishes reminded me of Chinese letters, so I painted this:

Waiting to Shine 

very simple, one large sable brush, a few swishes and she's done. Sometimes simple is what you need!

Then Mollie Jones, bless her, of Painting Friends, had done a demo of crystal and berries - so I tackled that - and this is the result.
Thanks Mollie, for your time and generosity!

Waiting for Mollie

I'm really not expecting you to coo over the paintings (except maybe the crystal one) but I wanted to show you one way out of the painting doldrums, should you ever find yourself in them.
Until next time.... 

Memory Lane

All of this week, I've been working on a painting, which is going to be a present for a friend. I can't show it to you yet, because it would spoil the surprise - and because I haven't painted anything else, I thought we'd take a trip down Memory Lane.

So here are some of my crystal and glass paintings.
That's because I'm sure I've shown you the dog ones before - and I thought you might like to see something different!

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down memory lane and I look forward to having something new to show you soon!

Summer splash

Up until yesterday afternoon we were still having beautiful sunshine, which all my flowers appreciated!

So what did I paint this week, but a flower!

Here it is, a vibrant Summer Splash

Summer paintings

Hello friends, it's nice to be back after the summer break.
I've only got three paintings to show you from my month off, because I was rather busy with getting my book of short stories out - and then working on my forthcoming novel- All in the Leaves - which should be available for sale at the end of October.

Here are the three paintings, newest first:

Chloe

 15x11

Saunders Waterford 140 Rough

She was a little outside of my comfort zone, but I'm happy with how she turned out. 

Lifeboat

15x11

Saunders Waterford 140 Rough

Lifeboat was made using techniques I've come to love, pouring and spraying! 

Brushwork was centred around the lifeboat and a few wave shadows.

Life

Life is.. a bowl of cherries, so I've heard :) 

This one is 11x8 and was the first of my holiday paintings. 

I hope you've enjoyed them all. 

Be round to visit your blogs soon.

Exciting news!

I'm interrupting my summer break to bring you some exciting news!

My first book of short stories is now available on Kobo's bookstore, for the princely sum of 1.99p!



You can find it HERE

If you buy it, I hope you enjoy it!

I, of course, am ridiculously excited at this dipping of toes into the water that is the self-publishing world!
Right, back to my hols :)