Time for a start on a new painting, always an exciting time for me. This one, at the moment entitled Intimacy has been inspired by the work of http://www.snowglobeman.blogspot.com a very talented author and sensual poet whose work I am illustrating along with another talented artist. Have a look. This painting is very much at the first week stage, so please make allowances…. Having worked for a few years in more muted colours, I am now having huge fun with a brighter palette and again have Michael Harding paints to thank for this. Beautiful, vibrant pigments and although more expensive, they are so ‘true’ I don’t have to use as much paint to get the desired effect. I am particularly drawn to blue shades, the turquoises, light, mid and dark blues and then on to the purples. Contrast these with the complimentary colours of orange and I feel I am getting somewhere. Also the contrast of light and dark works well….not quite Caravaggio but along those lines. However there are always the six stages of a painting to go through as illustrated in the attached image. I usually spend a lot of time at stage 3! I am available for…
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February 2015 Well I have finished these two paintings. The Tour Guide is 20 x 10″ and I have much enjoyed the use of colour here, but will not be painting a pavement square again for quite a long while if I can help it! It is oil on board and unframed. I have put it up on my website www.michewatkins.com for £300. The other painting, Relaxing is a small study of 8 x 6″ and is one of a series of small works I am doing to keep me a bit more disciplined in my painting style. With the bigger paintings I can get a bit too enthusiastic and throw paint around, sometimes to the detriment of the work, so every so often I get out the small brushes. These small paintings are all oil on board and work out at £95 each, such a bargain…. I am now about to start my next painting, the image of which I hope will be used in the Blog of www.snowglobeman.blogspot.com a very talented author and sensual poet (sometimes very sensual…ahem) but I love his writing. Will keep you updated next Blog. I am available for Skype tutorials on a…
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www.michewatkins.com Twitter: @MicheWatkins I have started two new pieces this week, as I was keen to use my new and wonderful Michael Harding paints. The colours are so bright and vibrant and coupled with my Rosemary & Co brushes which I also love, I was ready to get going. The first painting, The Tour Guide, is inspired by a photo I took when I was in Prague wandering around Old Square with my camera. I spent a couple of hours just photographing people doing stuff and then saw this Tour Guide standing alone. She looked to me a bit forlorn, waiting and hoping for people to come up to her, but maybe I imagined that – anyway it seemed to be a good composition in my head. The umbrella was orange, so I took my inspiration from that. I very rarely use browns and blacks in my work, preferring blues, purples and dark mauves to achieve similar effects. Then I mix up the complementary colours to get the desired painting I am after – so in this case yellows and bright turquoise. I am liking how this painting is turning out, but early days yet – time to make lots…
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With a start of a new year and finally getting over long bout of flu I have been thinking of new ideas. Having looked around on YouTube I have decided to offer Skype art teaching on a one to one basis. So if any amateur artists would like to send me an image of a figurative painting they are working on in oils I could critique it and then have a Skype session with them for half a hour to point them in the right direction. There could be a follow up session a week later if they so desired. Skype is a brilliant way to teach this way and of course is world wide. Let me know your thoughts. I would charge £20 for the half hour and £15. for follow up. Payment is via PayPal which you can find via my website www.michewatkins.com
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I am painting a smaller series of paintings and much enjoying these. At the moment I am concentrating on women’s legs in some wonderful shoes as most women love shoes. These will all probably be 8 x 6″ and unframed for ease of posting. I am also just finishing a slightly larger painting entitled ‘Friday’ – that great feeling of the weekend coming up, so let’s celebrate with a cocktail. This painting is on a box frame and is slightly larger at 14″ x 10″. My larger figurative oil paintings are framed in white tray frames which compliment the vibrant colours I use in my work. I have attached one image in my Recent Work on my website to show the framing and this is on The First Move. The framed can of course be removed, paintings taken off their stretchers and rolled for easy transport by courier. The Line Art paintings are acrylic and I use a set design which can then be made larger or smaller to whatever requirement you are looking for. These are generally less expensive than the oils as they are quicker to paint. The cream and touch of red paint means that most Line…
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