Daily sketches - love them

Daily sketches - love them.

More Daily sketches !

First display of Daily paintings since back from France.

Display of Daily paintings from 15/10/14 to 22/10/14 . Maybe they are not coherent as a display and some of them look better on Pinterest , some of them don't look as good. He ho. BUt all of them are there for a reason, they have qualities that remind me of France whilst still being Universal - anywhere. Keep going. Have done lots of photographing of outstanding Daily sketches. They are published on Pinterest.Too many for here. Can't wait to get back to Art Group tomorrow,

Lots of Daily paintings

Had a few days now , painting . Loved some of them but reserve the right to paint over these - because maybe they haven't had the , ' resting time, ' that almost turns some paintings into , ' paintings, and some work that 's rejected.

In a way , this feels like a Uni brief, you have a certain period of time  create a display of work in response to a brief. Often, it was a matter of , almost settling , in order to actually have a display to show. And the big learner was that often, the last minute work done without thought or reason was the work that stood the test of time. Weird.

Stream of conciousness words about France

Well, always whilst I am painting , words and phrases come into my mind. Randomly. Now, I am able to tone up or tone down the number and frequency of these words. I didn't really want a lot of words popping into my mind whilst I was doing the Daily paintings, I found it distracting, so I really worked on tuning out the words. So now, with going to France, I want to try and use the words to help the paintings. I am doing this because I haven't really been creatively satisfied with the first four paintings I have done on coming back from France. So, here goes.

The colours of France, dulled duck egg blue, cool pale grey, darker , browny grey. Greens that are; pale, washed out, sun bleached, pea greens, cool dark greens, but, as always, the colours vary because of the sun and the light, which was blue light or very pale, bright grey.

The trees have, ' go faster, ' flicks and stripes.
Trees are blobs
The sky covers the vineyards
We whistled through the vineyards
The river lasted forever
There were lines and parcels in the fields
Warmth in the water
Heat in the sun
Comfort in the space

I don't really ever try and make sense of the words that pop into my head.I feel they don't mean anything on their own, without the paint.I often use the words as titles.

There weren't massive tonal changes in and around the countryside - that gives feelings of calm, peace, gentleness, atmosphere. Got it ! It,s exactly that.

Loved it - not too keen on the art in the centre of Agde but he ho , they would probably not be too keen on mine !

First four altered this morning

The first four. I revisited them this morning and tried to warm them up. Well, he ho, they seem serious, intense, dark in colour and content. Does that often happen when you use a dark primer or under painting. Discuss. Well conclusion so far is that, yes it does, looking back on my Daily paintings where I have used a dark primer or under painting.Try again. 

View from kitchen window

Georgeous, my woods ( well they are not really mine, I have just adopted them. ) In the two weeks we have not been here, the season has seemed to change. We have come back to dark, grey skies, rain, cold , ugh !

First ones back home

So these two were first off the block. Lots of paint, lots of printing off, lots of sketches too. Did nothing else apart from paint ( well did a bit if washing too ) I don't want them to be about France, just be influenced by France. I always like my contemporary landscape paintings to be universal. They could be anywhere - well maybe not Africa, but as I look out of my kitchen window this morning , I am struck by how this could have been a view in France last week.

Lots of , 'tonking,' to take off the excess paint. I use these then as a basis for the sketches and cards I make , so I make them almost at the same time, not throwing away any paint. Love it. Must do something about an Etsy shop.Must revisit my Art plan, but for the moment, paint is home.

Back home and painting

Did lots of using up half used tubes of darkish paint as a primer.just the act of painting an under painting loosens you up for the real thing. Going nowhere today ( well it was actually yesterday )

Back home on Friday

My brother is still ill but a little more stable. I haven't painted at all even though I have paints here at the villa. Very strange for me but we have been back and forward to the hospital at Beziers.

We have booked a flight back home on Friday, so lots of painting this weekend ! I have taken lots of photos here in Agde, along the river. beautiful. But we just basically jumped on a plane without many changes of clothes, booked one way, no mosquito repellant etc. Although we have now got the mosquito stuff , too late was the cry, we have a lot of bites.

Agde October 2014

Georgeous , the trip from Agde to Beziers through the vineyards.Shame that the trip is to the hospital in Beziers but my brother been treated very well.

Daily paintings suspended

Have had to come to the South of France because my brother not too well. I don't know how long I will be here but will  restart the Daily Painting blog as soon as I am back home

Dark daily painting

Painted the board with black gesso and old dark paints ( trying to use up the myriad of half dried up tubes of paint that we all have) Really liked the dark bits - need to work on the purples and maroons though. Note to self - research the purples and maroons. Revisit Art plan and make some decisions.

Well this seemed like a summers day - where did this come from ? Don't ask me , I am only the artist.I am finishing lots of sketches so am all over the place in paint - that's good.

Way behind working too hard

Daily painting 8/10/14 .Painted over an old painting. Loved this. Sometimes the paintings look better when they are published on the internet but then others , like this one, haven't been done justice.Had a great paint over the last few days but am just loosing it at the moment. Too much to do - too little time.

Another old frame

Tried this gentle , understated daily painting in the old mount and beech frame.Liked it, so woul be interested in exploring alternative frames. At least I feel confidant that the paintings will stand on their own.

Shadow frame

I thought I would try and make a simple shadow frame , more almost to protect the corners of the paintings when they are transported. It's not finished because I really didn't like it on the painting. It  gives me a retro or fifties feel. Ugh !

Altogether though I feel much happier for doing that, knowing that the paintings will stand on their own and be displayed on their own. Keep on looking for unusual ways to frame. Try the Hawthorne gallery.

Milyard frame

This is the frame I had made at the Millyard gallery - it looks ok on the painting.

Treating the paintings as individuals

 I made this frame out of Mdf many years ago - it just balances on an old portrait of my daughter. I tried it on one of the landscapes and felt it worked.The painting stood up on it's own.

More and more Daily paintings

The purple is fighting me - we had such a special relationship way back in the beginning- the mix was made with metallic paints but it's not happening. Try a again with purples, maroons etc.

Lightweight crafts

Well these little things are blocks of wood, covered with materials, papers etc.I think that they will go down well at Emmaus where my Upcycling group make things to sell for the charity.And they cost next to nothing- part scrabble games are donated regularly and the wood was actually a big bag of firewood, but it was cut square which helps. The creative process is different for the art and then the craft. The craft designing is deliberate, lightweight, pleasing. Painting the paintings is about painting intuitively but then disclosing a bit of my soul - which I don't like sometimes. Well, get over yourself !

Remember to treat the paintings as individuals

Daily painting 5/10/14 - old painting, painted over. Feels very much like a textile piece.Enjoyed the process - just painting without thought.

half way through project

These are the latest two on the studio wall. The whole studio is geared up to the size of the Daily paintings so it works smoothly.I am half way through the Daily painting year - wow - where has that time gone ? Loved it though but hadn't realised how much it would cost in materials to complete the paintings.I am up to painting no 189.maybe now I need to put a bit more effort into moving on some of the paintings. Artist friends have said it would be interesting to show loads of them in a big space but really, I had never intended that.

Groups of paintings

Group of 4 daily paintings on the charcoal wall in the studio.An artist friend gave me some feedback on my paintings on Wednesday .she said that she views my paintings as a group, rather than anyone having a particular focus. I can see that completely .I do them almost in groups.Just keep that in mind this week and display a couple individually, framed or not.

I always thought though that if I did a big exhibition , then a room full of the Daily paintings may well be at least repeat time , if not boring.So try and do sone more big ones too.

Ghost

So this is painted over a dark brown primer. I use up old acrylic colours as a primer - colours I don't like or mixes that don't work. The weeds( that's what they are ) I have quickly scratched out with card before the paint dries.What was interesting was that on Pinterest someone pinned this painting onto their board, 'ghosts.'Made me look at the painting in a different way.

More glazing

Again, glazes over an old painting. This painting was a cool painting , as in warm and cool, so it helped. Some of the paintings get damaged over time, with moving them around and as I know to my cost, if they are dropped, they land on the corners.

I know they are not true daily paintings if they are painted over old ones, but I can live with it.

Colour glazes

This is an old painting that I have worked over a bit with glazing medium and colour. Love it now - well today anyway.Got completely muddled with the dates but he ho.