Painting small figures with a knife

So, this week I wanted to make a birthday card for my Granddaughter who is two next week. I like to make a painting instead of a card because it's something individually special....so, next week in the Art group we are painting figures with knives and this today, painting my Granddaughter was practice.Mmmmm.

I like to paint small figures with a big brush or a knife, you can't fiddle then and it's the fiddling around that kills a painting , for me , anyway....much better to put it away for another day and do another one.....with that in mind, these were the ones that weren't too bad !

I wanted a brighter palette than I would use for my Northern figures. The colours of May. Gorgeous light olive green, beautiful pinks and as I started off I thought it might work if I did a little concertina book of sketches instead of the birthday card. The book could stand up with the cards on the day but then hopefully be kept as a painterly reminder of a second birthday. Well that's the plan. I haven't yet done it so will add to the post when I have made it.

The paintings are all small and those that are bigger I will crop them down, I think , to 15 cm sq.

Setting off on an expedition. They come as a pair, Granddaughter and Mabel bulldog.

Granddaughter in sandpit

Granddaughter in the wild garlic flowers

The girls are here for tea

Welsh poppy and buttercup. May flowers.

Sketch of wild garlic flower. I sketched in charcoal , painted over it with gesso with a bit of acrylic in and then tried to put the paint down with a knife. Mmm.

Finished sticking everything together. I used card blanks to make the concertina book, just adding a piece of card on the back to stick the card blanks together. Over many years of Community art with Bernardo's , I have so made too many concertina books and if I make them from scratch I just don't get all the folds precise. Much easier to use card blanks.

Stuck it all together but will wait for it to dry before  adding any words. 

I like it. Ok , I can critique the paintings and think I could have done better but the fact is, it's just a little painterly record of a lovely few weeks in the garden for my Granddaughter.

Back to My North

Had a week in  My North paintings. 15 cm sq. on paper. Acrylic and inks. Found it massively hard to get the figures anywhere near. He ho. That just tells me I have got rusty fingers that need to practise. I can't pick up and drop different genres of work like I do and still keep the expertise. Rusty fingers. Mmmm. These were the most successful.

' Pals,' acrylic and ink, 15 cm sq.

I think that these paintings are better with a title to give a viewer more of a clue. The process is just putting the paint down and watching for something to appear. Doesn't always work and often, when they are dry, I can't see what I saw in them the day before. 

' Play,' acrylic and ink.15 cm sq.

I love the mixes of ochresa and umbers. I mix them into pots with screw topped lids and I like that I can't mix the same colour again, so it has to be slightly different. This one reminded me of play. Our lives were about play, we didn't have the same pressures that the children have today.

' A solitary figure with layers of  memory,' acrylic and ink, 15 cm sq.

We alter our memories don't we ? I know I do because over time , I remember many more things fondly. As I paint these small snatches of childhood , words and memories come to mind. It's very pleasing to do this but frustrating on the painting. Side if I can't just get it. Practice needed.

' A world of crofts,' acrylic and ink, 15 cm sq.

The crofts and demolished mills were a treasure trove of exciting finds. Spindles, dug outs, bits of machinery......it was our world....

' A different skyline,' acrylic and ink, 15 cm sq.

Lots of the mills gone , a different culture now here in the North West. When I was young it was buzzing, vibrant, industrial, 

' Space in time,'

Time stretched out in the Summer holidays, in such a lovely way.....it was all about the play..

' Our world,' acrylic and ink, 15 cm sq.

This was our world. The backings. They are all gated off now in the terraces. 

' Where to go ? ' acrylic and ink. 15 cm sq.

There were lots of people living in the terraces but there was always some alone time. How ?

' Grandma with the sewing machine 1' acrylic and ink.

Grandma had her own chair...well all the family had their own seat to sit on as we gathered round the television in the evening. This was Grandma in her middle room ( I think we called it the living room) her sewing machine always at the ready.

Definitely repainting this one !

Quiet landscapes May 2018

So, this week I am just trying to replace paintings in my own home that have gone to galleries. I like to put the paintings up all round my home , to live with them....and so that if a gallerist wants to visit to see my work, there is something to see. Well, that's the plan anyway. I work from a home studio, well, we live in my studio and that's fine for me....some artists like to keep a separate studio space and I have done that for many years but I still worked at home anyway.

I have been painting 52 cm sq. landscape paintings. I have a lot of boards this size from doing a years daily paintings in 2014. Many of those have been repainted but some still remain...interesting how things move on and change....I have read somewhere this week that if your painting is the same 10 years on then there's been no progression.Mmm. Makes sense.

If you set off aimlessly with no aims in a painting then often you get an aimless painting. I think. I set off thinking about orange and how I avoid it. It plays no part in my paintings and I though that I could explore mixes of orange. Well, best laid plans, because I covered all the orange and orange mixes up and became much more interested in light effects in the landscape. We looked at light in the Art group and I felt very strongly that I don't paint light. I just paint tones that can be interpreted as light effects. Interesting. That said, I have been looking at artists whose interpretation of light effects I adore, Turner and Richard Whadcock come top of the shop.

' A gentle light,' acrylic on board, 52 cm sq.

I really enjoyed the mixes of umber, black and white this week.

' A light spills,' acrylic on board, 52 cm sq.

Very subtle, maybe too subtle....live with it for a while.

No title yet. Acrylic on board.52 cm sq.

Textures subtle.

' The light just danced this morning,' acrylic on board, 52 cm sq.

This one had many incarnations this week but I like it.....today....

' Distant light,' acrylic on board , 52 cm sq.

This one too had a lot of incarnations but it feels right today. Looks massively different in different light. Mmm ...need to try them in different spaces to see how they look. Some may look too subtle. Need also to make the cradle frames for the backs of them.....

There are lots of works on paper this week. Ran out of cartridge paper....off to order some.....

Collections 3

Lovely , sunny day. Hope that filters through and makes my palette lighter and more colourful. The paintings this week seem somber and serious.Mmm. Will keep going this week to see if there is a natural change in my colours or if I have to do something more drastic ( like hide my natural, go to colours of grungy greens and umbers.

The first two are the 32 inch canvases. I have them displayed in the Art lounge and I keep flip flopping about whether I like them or not....it could just be the context they are in, the colours in the Art lounge may not support them.i know enough about my creative process to know that just because I am undecided about them does not mean that I reject them entirely. Just live with them.

Among the dark hills. Acrylic on canvas. 32 inch sq.

A distilled sky. Acrylic on canvas, 32 inches sq.

Sketch. I have managed to paint/ sketch every day to build up a collection of work on paper to make the collages from.

So, this is a collection of sketches / small work stuck together. I am looking at ways to display the work on paper without glass so I have stuck the sketches together as I wanted them, drawn round them onto mount board and made a wooden frame on the back of the mount board. I am just at the point of letting it dry out now but the intention is to stretch cotton canvas over the frame and then mount the sketches onto the canvas. I like the idea of the different shaped canvas and I like the idea that I could then make them into a longer piece by making another canvas and displaying them together. Will see if it works. Hope it does and feel quite excited about it.