I love starting a new painting, always so exciting working out the composition and the colours. Sometimes I think I should leave a work at its first stages, as there is that loose impressionistic look to it which can be very appealing. However, the perfectionist in me then weighs in and I have to be very careful not to end up with a too ‘tight’ finished piece. Wish me luck. The model I worked for this time came and worked with me one evening alongside a wonderful potter/sculptor who had some great ideas about styling and lighting. We used his home as the backdrop to the photos and between the three of us came up with some fabulous images. My model just seemed to know which poses to settle into and turned up with beautiful dresses and accessories. I am delighted with the results as you will hopefully see in the next series of paintings beginning with this one. I went to see the ‘Beyond Caravaggio’ exhibition in London recently and yet again was overwhelmed by his use of chiaroscuro, the lights and darks in the paintings and this is what I am aiming to achieve myself. A long haul…
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This was an interesting painting to complete as I wanted to keep a slightly impresssionistic feel to the work but also wanted to work up the detail on the two figures, particularly the lemon yellow dress. If I had detailed the background too much I think that a) it would take attention away from the couple in the foreground and b) the work would become too tight and ‘chocolate box’ in appearance. I am happy with the finished painting. Next week I begin a series of paintings using photos I took recently of one of my favourite models in a new setting. I am hugely excited about this and can’t wait to get started. Keep a check on the Blog for updates. I am looking forward to getting back to interiors again. Great White Art gallery in Bristol (www.greatwhiteart.com) just completed a two week exhibition on Pop Art and several of my Line Art acrylic paintings were featured. If you are in Bristol do drop by and have a look. They are a sister gallery of Clifton Fine Art gallery three doors up on Perry Road (BS1 5BG). I have just sent out my latest Newsletter with news about two upcoming…
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Beginning to work up the detail on this painting and I think it will be finished next week when I can get get down to the fine detail. It is never easy trying to get a balance between an impressionistic looser style of painting which I want to get right on the background and a tighter more controlled finish on the girl’s dress and the skin tones. We shall see…what I don’t want is to end up with a ‘chocolate box’ style of painting. This can happen if the artist starts using smaller and smaller brushes, so I have resisted the temptation to go below a size 3 brush. However next week may change that… I still haven’t got a title yet in my mind so if anyone has any ideas, please send me a Tweet. My Twitter followers haven’t let me down in the past! The original photo was taken in Verona, Italy and the lovely building in the forefront is the Arena which is massive and still in very good condition. I was totally blown away by Verona, stopping off there on my way through from Milan to Venice on the train. It is a truly…
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