The farewell sendoff to the Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A in Dundee includes an article about one of my paintings on their website. This was a great exhibition, the next stop after Dundee is Australia.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/articles/making-va-dundee-a-farewell-to-mary-quant
I made this pastel copy of “Man Reading” by John Singer Sargent. His painting was done in oil paint. I enjoy doing studies of master paintings you can always learn so much. His edge work is superb and it was a good lesson in observing lost and found edges. I loved working in all the lovely golden tones. His composition is particularly interesting. It was a fun exercise to do.
I think it is so important to work direct from life whenever possible. It is a great way to improve your drawing and painting skills. I thought beginning of a new year what a good time to do a self portrait. I don’t have to arrange for a sitter to do my work I have a subject at hand. You can tell I was concentrating as I was sketching.
A few weeks ago I did a study sketch of this little girl heading to the beach. I shared that as a blog post. Here is the finished painting.
Preparation is underway for the Pittenweem Arts Festival 2013 from Sat 3rd August until Sunday 11th August. I will be at my usual venue, 18 West Shore. I look forward to seeing folks there!
Bucket and spade and off to the beach! I love doing these sketches of kid’s at the beach. I look forward to doing this in colour.
I am a great admirer of the american artist Richard Schmid. He has a way of making his work look so fresh and not laboured. I did this oil sketch of one of his paintings called “Chicken”. The reason I spent time doing this is to learn more about the way he painted it and the colours used to portray the subject. He really makes use of his colours to unify the work and pull everything together. I would love to go to one of his workshop’s and learn more.
I loved this quote by American artist Charles Hawthorne – “A sketch has a charm because of its truth-not because it is unfinished”
I did this study above of Charles Hawthorne painting “Untitled” to learn more about how he painted this study. I always try to start my day with a study as a warm up exercise. This gets me motivated for the next painting!
At the weekend Andrew and I went to Inverary for a short break. We stayed in a lovely guest house called Newton Hall. It was a real treat to stay here, the owner made us feel really welcome. The views over Loch Fyne were spectacular. The photo above shows the view. I did a quick study using watercolour and neocolour crayons as the sun was setting. Then we went to the George Hotel for a wonderful meal.
When I got up I used my tombow pens for this monotone study of the misty morning light before we both headed for a full Scottish breakfast. The two birds flew past just at the right moment for me to consider them in the composition, very convenient of them.
Tegan my niece in Canada inspired this beach study. I enjoyed doing this monotone painting and adjusting tones accordingly to give the feeling and impression I was after.
This is an oil sketch on Canvas paper, using a limited number of tones. I thought this might be a good one to post for Valentines Day.