These are the last 8 together.these sit well together. What are they ? Well they are images if young women, a little quirky though. What do I like, the white background, the coloured background, the text, the butterflies, the gentleness. Carry on.

Four sky ladies

The four sky ladies together . Where to go next ? Continue with the sky ladies. Is there any concept emerging. Well, maybe I wanted to fade the faces into the atmosphere ? Maybe to show the transition between one woman and the next, past or present. There are lots of words too.

Sky lady 4, 31/8/14

I cut out magazine butterflies and then drew round them put oil pastel on and melted it with liquin.The butterflies make the images more feminine. This face I had to keep painting then rubbing it out. Might be interesting to paint faces in acrylic so I can maybe add more mixed media stuff like map, newspaper, outliner. Must also try a few faces on naps and/ or newspaper.

Butterfly sky lady

Daily painting 30/8/14.Faces are a little weird but carry on. It's hard to keep them to half hour but I remember the landscapes were like that at the beginning too.I like the butterfly- don't know why I put it over her mouth but it adds to the strangeness of the image. I had wanted to paint the butterfly but that would have taken it way over the half hour.

When you have constraints you have to be more creative but it is often a balance between the constraints and following your own path.Try again.

Sky lady (2) altered

Painted out the stronger colour at the bottom after a couple of hours.Remember this - that's why I don't publish them right away - I have to give them resting and accepting time .

Sky lady (2)

Sky lady 2.
Critique.
Comparatively, it's a gentler face than the last one.The cloud like mass could be read as a hat or hair.the skin tones look warmer on this one - it was the pale terracotta acrylic paint underneath.what words come to mind when I look at the painting.- warmth, gentle, downcast eyes, puzzlement.

Sky ladies

Critique.
It's a strange sepia face with what could be read as floaty, cloud like hair.It's a little haunting but is keeping my attention.
These are half hour paintings , so to increase my chances of rendering the face in a half hour, I have painted the background in blended acrylic in pastel colours.
I like the cloud like hair which was done very simply with oil pastel, melted with liquin medium.I don't mind the face - I can accept them more knowing they are half hour paintings.
What could I do to improve - paint more, put text on, put more than one face on, try putting more colour in the face.
What words come to mind when I look at the painting ? Sky, cloud, pleasure, thoughtful,space.

Crafty ladies

I had wanted to do some cards with faces on but these turned out more crafty than arty. I like them but will try again.

Daily paintings more faces

Display of the last four Daily Painting - faces.Keep going. Contemporary Art , for me, has to have an about ness, some kind of concept or idea behind it. These faces have none of that - I don't know yet what they are about. Which comes first - the concept or the paint ? Well , it could be either. In this case it is the paint.After the first four , I made a concious decision not to use the beads and material but to stay in the paint. I didn't want the extra problems with the storage, nor for them to feel in any way mixed media pieces, of which I see a lot of.

The second four seemed to feel a little more fragile, hesitant but more about what I felt was right, whatever that is. I can still see the flaws but I can see already , a progression, an improvement. Carry on.

Daily painting another face.

This seems more definite. Liked the scratching in the face.This was painted in oils on top of an acrylic painting. I liked the background too.

Well this seems more proficient. Well today I think that.What do I like ? The fragility of the face, the sepia colour, the text on the paintings.

Not sure in any way. Tried the gold oil. Keep going.

Where did the words come from ? Where did the face come from?Keep going .

The first 4 face Daily paintings

Well, I wonder where these came from? I like them today. I can see flaws in the features but that should get better the more I paint. What do I like about them.....the faces, the lace, the lack of colour I like better, the jewellry.They seem interesting, calming, pretty, vintagey. How could I develop them ?
Do a different coloured background.
Do a landscape background.
Change the position of the faces.
Try different sizes of figures.
Try a whole figure.
Carry on.
What are they about ? Don't know yet.

Two ladies with lace and butterflies

This was number 4. I like the composition , the faces,the lace, the butterflies made from Guardian faces. It made me feel reflective of all the females in my family who have died. But it wasn't a sad painting.it wasn't a half hour one either - so watch that.

why am I painting faces.? Not sure yet. Keep going.All will become clear eventually!

Stephen Mackey

Beautiful painting by Stephen Mackey. Love the butterflies. Love the dramatic tone changes.love the composition.

Joan Dumouchel

Beautiful painting by Joan Dumouchel. Love the lack of colour in the face, love the unnatural colour of the hair. Love the background.

Two ladies with lace

So, this is the third one.I can see flaws again in the rendering.the features , particularly the eyes seem heavy.anyway carry on. I like the lace, I like the jewellry, I like the composition. What else could I do.........well, I could take out more colour, so just do the face in a kind of sepia and put colour in the hair.......use jewellry for the hair.......paint butterflies on....carry on.

This painting is calm, pretty, vintagey, gentle, reflective.Carry on.

This one didn't seem to want the jewellry on. I can see flaws in the rendering of the face and it so annoys me that I am painting the same image but it comes out different, I was looking at the Botticelli image.I thought that if I painted the face then I could put something else on it then.But I didn't want to when I did it. I painted around the figure with white acrylic. We will see, just carry on.

I love this artist's work. I will try some more with broken jewellry. I have a supply from Andy in Collectables at Emmaus a Mossley where I work a few hours a week as an Upcycling designer.he saves me the broken jewellry and I give him a small donation. I hesitate to use it though because none of the Art I have used it on has sold - he ho.

The glue is still wet, but I like the painting. I like the space in it , I like the simplicity of the image, it looks gentle. What else could I do ? Put more jewellry on, put more figures on, paint the background with acrylic, paint a figure on top of a landscape. Paint another one.

Daily faces

Right so I am trying to apply the same principles as I applied to my landscape painting to my faces/ figures, ie, in want to move along my faces and figures and make a new body of work.

So, I have painted about 5 or 6 small faces , no larger than 8 inches square.What am I trying to do - well I don't know yet ,just let it happen. Which comes first, the idea or the art. In this case, definitely the art. Try a bigger painting.

Tried 2 paintings and let them speak to me. The first one seemed to want some jewellry on . So I did put some on. This is 52 cm sq, oil and mainly oil pastel melted with liquin medium.I liked it and the smell wasn't bad ( I don't paint with oils mainly because my husband is asthmatic and the smell isn't good for his chest )

Maybe I will do all the Daily paintings this week as faces.

Daily faces and paintings

Daily faces

Right, so , as I have said, when I started the Daily painting project in April, it was massive. It took up a lot of time to actually get started and get things organised. Since then, I have put systems in place and essentially, it is now a pleasurable half hour a day. So, consequently, I have undertaken daily sketces and daily cards now too.

So , I thought I would apply the same principle to painting faces/ figures. Off we go then - these faces have been made with oil pastels and the lines melted with liquid medium. I enjoyed them . We will see.i might just be pushing it to do faces as well.Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

One of the reasons why I wanted to do the Daily paintings was to move on my landscape paintings. So, 5 months on, can I see a progression ? Well, I can definitely see more skill in paint handling, even though I might like some of the earlier ones just as much. Keep going then!

Upcycled designs

Upcycling - I work a few hours at Emmaus Mossley running a group of volunteers to make upcycled furniture and crafts to sell in the showroom. Emmaus is a community for previous homeless people who live and work there, recycling donated furniture and bric a brac.

Often donated fabric is seconds or has flaws. When I made the cushion and put in the cushion pad, I noticed a flaw so put a pocket over it. I say to my groups to make a design feature out of your own mistakes/ flaws. What else could I have done ? Put a patch on or another stipe or tuned it around and made the back , the front.

The second  upcycled design is an I pad case. I will put a strap on it from an old handbag as I like to keep my ipad with me at all times.

Right, so the idea is to make around the ten cards a day mark. We will see if that is achievable. Ok , I won't be making much profit from the cards but it may increase interest in my other work. So, I deliberately looked at each of my daily paintings and made a few very small images from each one. I enjoyed it. We will see if I can maintain it alongside Daily paintings and daily sketches.

Daily paintings 136-143, 12/8/14-19/8/14. Happy in paint. It's quite simple really, I love the paint. I love mixing it, the smell of it, the pleasure painting a picture gives me. Well I must do mustn't I ? Because it's not the money is it ?

Anyway when I started this project in April , it was a really big commitment but now it's just a small, enjoyable part of my day.Got totally muddled up with the dates - need to sort that.

And I have started making very small images to make into cards. Perhaps an Etsy shop or try to sell them through the gallery shops.

Sketchbook

So, I plateaued a bit again with the Daily Paintings.Why am I doing them ? Went back again to remind myself why , ie, to move my landscape work on , to create a new body of work , to increase my online presence, to ultimately make some more money from my art.

As an Artist, rejection needs to be your middle name, but I got a rejection from Gallery Oldham, where I had applied months ago for a show with the Daily paintings and my Art group.It made me mad because we have been working towards that show for about 8 months. Ok, I think, they have to judge on what applications they have received so if there is few painting exhibitions / groups applied then we are just another one. But I look at it this way. I have given a massive undertaking to my Art by doing my Daily a Paintings, I have steered my Art group for months in this direction. They should support an artist that has given that undertaking.Anyway, I complained but realistically I don't want to complain my way to a show !

My home town is accepted to be a poor town. I live on the outskirts of that town, in the hills, it's beautiful.Our gallery, Gallery Oldham, is wonderful. It's a contemporary building, lots of concrete and glass, but also is attached to the old, quite traditional building. In that gallery, I like the Community Gallery best because it shows more of the art I like. It often shows students or young in career artists. Sometimes in the bigger Galleries, the work shown is a bit too developed and polished for my taste.

Where I live in the Saddleworth villages, there is lots of traditional art. Too much traditional art .Make way for some new stuff - mine, of course.i mean in terms of Art, mine isn't exactly what you call cutting edge - is it ?

Anyway, I got over my plateaux by starting a sketchbook/ journal to ground the project. Felt better, that 's the main thing. Have to have a show somewhere else.


He ho.

Daily paintings 4/8/14-11/8/14

Daily sketches 4/8/14 - 11/8/14

Daily paintings 29/7/14 to 3/8/14 and daily sketches too. Still using the acrylics like watercolours, no white added. Loving it.

Daily paintings 29/7/14 - 3/8/14