When one can’t sleep, one can paint.
Tag Archives: acrylic
Impromptu art
It’s been a while between impromptu art pieces and I’m clearly out of practice. Not only did I succeed in getting paint all over my hands but I also lent my arm on the heat gun and spent the next period with it under a tap, all the time hoping that Saffron was not about to take a walk across the painting table.
I started with bronze, cream and phthalo blue. I then decided I’d like to collage on the woman holding a beheaded man on a platter. Before anyone suggests it, no, Andrew has not done anything – this is not biographical! The only explanation I can give is that the colour of her skirt fit with my painting to date.
(By the way, if anyone can tell me who painted the original, I’d like to know… it’s in my miscellaneous collage pile and I have no idea where it came from).
I then wanted a tiger. That’s why I have a bird.
It really didn’t go very smoothly at all.
The best part of the whole art experience was opening up the watercolour pad to find the following piece I’d quite forgotten about.
Acrylic, conte crayon and caran d’ache wax oil pastel on arches water colour paper.
Rhino on a tightrope
Forgive the dodgy photography, for some reason I have trouble keeping my iphone steady at times. It’s been a LONG day, so maybe I’m just very tired.
Here’s the piece I started working on these last few days. I was having great fun with it too until I added the dodo bird. Unfortunately at that point I started to think too hard – what colour is a dodo bird? Given it’s Tenniel’s drawing of the bird and it is in wonderland, perhaps it could be purple? In wonderland do things really have to be their true ‘local colour?’
I know what you’re thinking – how can a girl who put a rhino on a tightrope be worried whether she is painting a bird the appropriate colour? Well, perhaps my left brain kicked in at that point.
So, I’m having a vote…
A sweet detour
The last few weeks have been a jumble of long work hours, fundraising planning, smashed garages and mish-mash of other things I can’t remember. Hectic!
So today, I got a sweet detour from the running around, and wandering through a few art galleries. My entry fee was pushing Andrew around some very uneven footpaths. Most of the galleries were at 2 Dank Street Waterloo including the Brenda May Gallery. Here I encountered the work of James Guppy in their stockroom. A few of his piece remind me of the whimsy of James Christensen, especially this piece called: A Tussle of Pastries!
James Guppy: A Tussle of Pastries.
Acrylic on Canvas 46 X 31cm
The other piece which caught my eye included an owl so I thought of you mum!
Here it is:
James Guppy: Blodeuwedd
Acrylic on Linen, 180.5 X 90cm
Giant mice
Finally some painting / collage has occurred in this household!
I’m open to any interesting interpretations of why this man is aghast at a giant mouse. I may have put the image together but I have no idea what it means!
Painting whale song
I got up this morning and thought I’d paint. Then I checked my art table.
There was a furry obstacle.
So I walked up the street to buy bread instead.
Then I worked for a bit.
Followed by a bit of garden pruning.
Before re-checking the art table to see whether I could finish my piece.
Nope. Double trouble.
So I had a power nap.
Then considered doing some more work.
Opened and the file and felt overwhelmed at where to start.
Walked to the bottle shop instead for some cider. (I had a craving for it. I’ll have a drink once every couple of months, so this is not a regular coping strategy!)
Finally, my art friends had evacuated and I could conclude painting the piece Andrew has named Whale Song. I’ve got no idea why. I’m not really sure what it is, so I’ll go with that title!
Abstract Doves
It’s been a while since I put paint to canvas. On Thursday night, after visiting a friend and meeting her new cat Tigger, I got home and did not feel like any more work. I’d worked Tuesday night, I’d worked Wednesday night. I know when you come back from holidays there’s always a catch up to be had. Unfortunately, I know that it’s not just a few days of catch-up. Two work priorities have collided and short of performing cloning myself, it’s clear I’m going to need some help to get through it or my boss is going to have to be happy with a significant delay.
Either way, by Thursday night, I just wanted to enjoy. I picked up a paintbrush. I covered one board in paint. It was too wet, so I picked up another, then another. I love working on three paintings at once. Tonight, I have 4 on the go. This is the only one I think is finished.
I think it looks like doves. I’m sure that people may see other things in those smudges.
Mixed Media on Linen covered MDF board. 10" X 14". Golden acrylics, caran d'ache neocolor I and collage.
Isobel’s egg
Original Mixed Media Alice inspired painting
Thanks to a comment from Isobel, I got very bold and painted over a significant chunk of the Alice painting on the right, so that I may insert an egg. I know that Isobel was demonstrating her sound knowledge of Alice and Wonderland with her suggestion of a rattle or an egg. While humpty dumpty was clearly what she had in mind, an appropriated image from Dali was what immediately leapt into my head. It’s still bothering me though because I feel like the painting is divided in two by the addition of the egg. It is competition with Alice for your attention rather than a complement for Alice. I’m not sure the egg will survive for too long. I’ll sleep on it though. The thought. Not the egg. I don’t fancy a pillow full of eggshell.
Black Gesso Art by White Gesso
Gesso and his pink paws
Yesterday I got a text message.
It read:
White gesso + black gesso = grey wet sorry looking gesso
Gesso's not so pink paws
Upon receiving that photo I replied.
Prints eh? What’s he under arrest for?
The answer came back:
Trespassing Belgian Linen
Gesso's art work
Painting with the red green complement
A painting of mine from a couple of years ago – for Andrew, to demonstrate the red green complement.
