Urban marks revisit

Back to the Urban marks this week. They were sidelined for the greys some weeks ago....it's their turn again now. Where to go with them ? We'll I don't need to think about that today, I have lots of boxes made to paint on and images to paint over. It struck me this morning that as artists we want ,' quicksand,' we want,' elusive.' We don't want,' easy,'......' Easy come, easy go ! ' although we may think we do occasionally.

As artists we,' search in paint.' And that's what I want to do today.

' Catching the words,' as I paint is massively helpful. Often words come to mind during the painting process randomly. It's helpful to look at those words ....it may open up something for you or help you make a decision on your art. Anyway so I collected the words for this reprint of an urban image.... ( I just write them down as I paint )

What do I want?
A feeling of warm, gritty urban.
I love umber
The white primer was way too harsh.
The lights bad
I don't want fuss
 I want an economy of line, colour, tone, mark
Getting too much clutter
New guardian size good for me
Blacks are too harsh too
Put some light in
How ?
Urgh !
It's never one area that doesn't work in a painting....if it's not working , it's the whole, so look somewhere else other than the place you think isn't working
Mixing White is underrated
It's as much about what you wipe off as what you put on
David Sharpe ( economy )
mishiul Choudhhury ( colour yet urban )
Nina Murdoch ( intrigue )
Way limited palette
Be bold.

This was the finished ( for today ) one

Didn't want to title it, wanted an ambiguity. I liked....colours, some of the areas....it has ( for today ) some kind of rightness to it.....maybe it has a little too much information, clutter.....live with it

This was the second. I like...the abstract qualities....the drips...the colours.....I perhaps will define a mill shape....live with it....

Where to go

Carry on with daily urban marks ( with the last series, I have selected only a few for framing and deselected quite a high percentage...that's ok for me, maybe this next months series will have a higher rate of  ones avoiding the,' paint over,' pile.

I love to do new series of art. Love it at the beginning where the search is in paint.

Whispering greys 7

Repaints on the canvases , again this week. Phew. Changing from board to canvas has been very, very hard. I have wanted to bail out of the canvas soo many times and go back into the trusty board. But I haven't. These five paintings have had the record number of repaints and, ' working back into,' than any of the paintings I think I have ever done. And with each application of paint, they have gone paler and paler. Mmm. So these are today's. Again touched up the same 5 canvases but getting a little more confident at handling the paint on the canvas.

Two of the canvases ( 32 inch ) on the Art lounge chimney breast. To be lived with.

32 inch square acrylic on canvas...I like..the size, the colours ( the greens and the lilacs ) the shivery ness of the piece...the layers....live with it

This has had so many incarnations. But living with it now ( which seems to be quite a long process with these canvas ones ) I like ....the colours, the balance between the lilacs and the warm greens )

Maybe I need to title them to take them a stage further now....this one is a dream landscape...soft...soft focus....drips....I like a lot although still feel unsure about whether it's done.

Still unsure of this one...needs more living with.

Another dreamy one....they all tie together so much,it's hard to see where one ends and another begins. Work on the titles.

Back to small ones now to work out where I am going with them. With each paint application , I have taken away the dark tones and the tonal contrasts. Mmm. Strange kind of occupation this painting malarkey. So unsure of what you are doing, where you are going, how you are going to get there, have you arrived. But that's what I like as an artist.Mmm

Right, so on a lighter note, part of my, ' day job,' is to run an Upcycling group for Emmaus Mossley, a group of around 20 volunteers who come each week to upcyle donated furniture and bric a brac. We paint furniture, make cards, sew, knit, laugh etc And bring in an income for Emmaus Mossley. So, part of my role is to come up with card ideas for our hand painted card range. These were this weeks.

 Painting pinks ( as in the flowers ) .......

The pinks.....my husband had on his supermarket list, bunch of reduced flowers....he picked these and brought the hem home. I have never painted a pink in my life ! I didn't want to either....

These were the images I came up with using as a background some of the papers my 19 month granddaughter creates . She loves to sit at my Art table drawing and painting, filling sketchbook after sketchbook....we have masses.....using her backgrounds with a simple drawing on top really worked. I love them.

Granddaughter and her Uncle at our Art space.Mmmm

Granddaughters backgrounds with a light wash over.

More card images for Upcycling.....tried a wren. Mmmmm. 

Whispering greys (6)

A, ' repaint, ' today. Enjoyed the process but the end painting seems light hearted and shallow. Not at all what I want. Shame....but also , I know to keep trying ! It's different on the canvas and I want to master it, without even getting close.

Try again. What do I like ? The lightness...the colours...some of the textures....what can I do to improve it ? ....more of everything !

Whispering greys ( 5)

Another week, another couple of paintings. Still basically unhappy with what I am producing but he Ho, that's part of an artist's condition. Still in greys, I love greys. We worked in graphite on gesso in the art group on Wednesday.Nice. A series of them would be nice too. My demonstration drawing was quiet, empty, slightly melancholic......all the thing so love. I had been looking at the work of Laurie Steen and Helen Acklam. Both wonderful.

This was the drawing. I used a 2 b pencil but did add water to the mix. The wooden screen printing tool is what I have been using for making straight marks on the works.

Still working on the 32 inch square canvases. I have 10, so I am just working back into them repeatedly. It's easier to work intuitively on a smaller piece, I seem to have todo have some kind of a plan before starting these bigger ones. Mmm. Just keep trying.

I like...the drips, the subtlety, the greys. I need to question....is it finished ? Does it need more lights and darks ? Is it too subtle. Answer...live with it.

This was today's. I was trying to include a darker tone . I like...the drips ( I have got a little preoccupied with drips ) the scratchy marks made with the etching tools, the mixture of colours, gold and grey. 

These were the first two canvases. I still like them 2 weeks on. They don't photograph well though. Interesting. The light has been dark, or at least when the light has been bright I haven't been able to get to photograph them.