Smiths Lake, finished 18 February 2012

Here’s a picture I have been working on for the last couple of days. I am now finished with it. Whether it is finished is another matter.

Again, I have been using my photo archives for inspiration. Much as I would like to paint out-of-doors, my health does not allow me.

I particularly enjoyed playing with colour here, especially in the water in the foreground. That was good fun.

Also, I am getting a bit abstracted in what I do. I like that.

This is 40 x 40 cm on watercolour paper (with a bit too much tooth for my liking).

down by the lake, 11 February 2012

This hardly goes beyond a sketch but I stopped here because there are lots of passages in the painting that I like a lot – colours sitting side by side, unintended but (to me!) magic little areas. In truth, I guess the “little areas” are better than the whole. There are also areas that “do not make sense”, but is sense needed in what you want to do?

I stopped here because I was (am!) happy with it as it is and I knew if I went further I would spoil it. So in my mind it is OK. What do you think?

It’s 40 x 40 cm on heavy (red!) paper.

giraffe

Here’s one that is a bit of a change from my normal paintings. It came about in a weird way – I bought a frame the other day because it was so cheap but it has unusual dimensions – quite long (or tall!). So, pondering this with my wife, she jokingly suggested I do a giraffe.

When I thought about it, it sounded very appealing – blocks of colour and the challenge of getting some sort of expression. At the same time, I have started working with acrylics again after a break of 15 years or so – I got some Atelier Interactive acrylics to try and loved them!* So I really want to do more with these paints. But I still want to continue with the oil pastels. Hmmm …

So here’s the result – I allowed myself to do a quick sketch (this is about 20 minutes work after 10 minutes roughing out the drawing). It’s done on yellow paper, for no particular reason – you can see that showing through. My strokes/marks are as vigorous as ever, I like that!

*I have no affiliation with the manufacturers or any of their agents!

No. 7, A______ Ave

This is No. 7, A______ Ave, the fourth house on the right as you go up the hill.

This was a comparatively easy picture to do. I took less than two hours to complete it.

I used some water-soluble oil pastels in part, but found them difficult to get used to so abandoned them – I will practise with them another time because it would be good to be able to use them for finer detail, perhaps.

Still quite a few still to go before I get to the top of the street!

No 5 A—— Ave

I found this a bit of a grind. No way was I going to tackle all these white posts with stubby oil pastels – I drew them carefully then painted them with white acrylic paint. Then for some reason I never hit my stride with it – I would do a little bit then lose interest, wandering off to do something else – like resting, for I have chronic fatigue, which has been bad recently!

So now I can move on to No. 7, the fourth house on the right-hand side.

I am certainly enjoying doing these ‘street portraits” – seeing them all come together is fun for me. It would be good to hang them all on a wall next to each other when I am finished, but that would need rather a long wall!

This is oil pastel on cartridge paper, about 40 x 30 cm.

No. 3, A—— Ave

This is the second house as you go up the hill, next door to the one I posted a few days ago.

I am beginning to get a bit of fun seeing how these pictures relate to each other. You will be able to see this more clearly in ones to come – I have been reviewing the other photos I have of the street and this will be good to bring out – keep in touch and check back from time to time.

The original of this oil pastel is just a bit less that 40 x 30 cm (I do them on an A3 sheet of paper, but like to leave a small margin round about my work).

I know this is not a very polished work- I just like to get in and do them while I have the feeling of it and once it is done, I may come back two or three times over the next few hours, for a minute or two, to check it out and make very minor adjustments.

The drawing itself took me about 30-40 minutes.

No. 1, A———- Ave

Some time ago – some years ago! – I drove slowly up one of the streets in our little town and photographed each house on one side of the road. I had high notions of enjoying what they call “topographic photography”.

Now I decided to paint them. This is No. 1, at the foot of the (slight) hill. There are eleven houses on this side of the street. Now on to No. 2!! Let’s see if I can get to the top of the hill. This one took about 2-3 hours, so it will not be the time that will be the problem, it will depend on whether I can maintain enthusiasm.

still life, with digital working

This is a drawing for which I used some more of our pottery for models, made up the colours, resulted in a disaster, scraped back a lot of it then worked over with further oil pastel and final digital imaging.

Quite prepared for you not to like it but there are parts I like, cf. the Curate’s egg, so here it is. This making up of colours is not so easy!

I do enjoy the base drawings for these works, for which I use a tinted charcoal pencil, from a set I got months ago and haven’t used. Tempted to use this rough pastel paper for pure pencil drawings … they are lovely. Got a really old look to the line.

still life with three pieces

I have been putting off doing a still-life for some time, I don’t know why because I get a great deal of fun out of modelling shapes.

So I grabbed three pieces (that we bought about 25 years ago in Malawi) and set them up just in front of my working space. This is the result.

The pieces are an uninteresting mottled grey so of course I had to invent come colours. The drawing is “real”, the colours of my choosing. I think it works OK so I am going to keep these three pieces out and try different arrangements, papers and colours. A million variations! Fun for one and all!

old church in the woods

There is a little old church in the farming country behind us, at a place called Martinsville, that I call in to see whenever I am passing. This is a memory of it in afternoon light, as I have seen it a few times.

It is a model of several old buildings of the Anglican church up here on the Central Coast of New South Wales. A simple building of wooden-boarded walls and, for the roof, the ubiquitous corrugated iron that has been such a favourite in Australian country building, being easily portable, flexible and versatile in its uses. There’s a water tank behind the church at the left – corrugated iron of course!

The church is no longer in use …

This is oil pastel once more, about 35 x 25 cm.