One day to go until the opening night at Pittenweem Arts Festival. I look forward to seeing everyone! On the lead up to the Festival I have been doing a number of paintings on slate. The one above is one of them. I love the variations in texture which is a natural quality of the slate.
The Pittenweem Arts Festival is fast approaching, and is a week earlier this year starting on the 28th July and running until the 5th August. My web site has a page showing some of the paintings I will be exhibiting. See my Pittenweem Arts Festival 2012 page.
I thought I would try something a little different. I have been collecting odd pieces of slate from beaches around Scotland with the intention of using them to paint on. However we were getting work done on the roof and the roofers left a couple of odd slate tiles in the garden. The tile was a nice shape with two holes either side perfect for a display at Pittenweem Arts Festival. You can see where the holes are one looks like a skylight on the top right the other looks like a round window at the end of the house.
This is a painting of a view I love where we live. It is a short walk from the house. The light is always changing which adds to a certain sense of drama. This is a good spot to do sketching and painting weather permitting!
This pastel painting was started with a watercolour undercoat in strong complimentary colours. I love the various shadows you see in sand dunes at different times of the day.
I have just finished this studio painting. This was inspired from sketches I did in Pittenweem on a really sunny and windy day. I chose this compostition from the previous oil studies I posted.
The first image is my study of the Wave. I started the painting using a discarded piece of cardboard. I prepared it with a layer of gesso, this enables the pastel to adhere to the surface. My idea was to be less precious about the painting. I enjoyed it so much that the painting started to work out. I then went in search of more archival quality support and progressed onto the much larger second painting.
This is a detail of a new painting I have just finished. About one month to go until the Pittenweem Arts Festival.
The colours of this scene were what first attracted me. Then the boats lined up awaiting repairs and a coat of paint were the next point of interest. The houses behind had been newly painted.
This is a little different as I started the painting with torn pieces of card, paper and thread etc. I then did washes of acrylic paint to tone and enhance the texture on the surface. I enjoyed starting in this loose manner.