I am really enjoying the painting this week. As I said last week, I was told that a touch of red adds pizazz to an artwork and I realised again how true this is. I love the contrast between the red of the sofa and the black of the dress and adding a touch of red and black to the flesh tones is really pulling the composition together. It’s a gentle piece, a girl getting ready to go out, waiting for the phone to ring to say the taxi has arrived to take her on her date. I put the glass of wine in as she might be nervous and needs some Dutch courage, or maybe she is just having a glass of wine as she relaxes. The book is discarded as she is ‘nearly ready’. Much looking forward to the detail next week. This is a square painting for a change and is painted on Ampersand Board. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the next few months, please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of the Home Page. I usually send these out quarterly so will be…
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A smaller painting, square for a change, and for the first time painted on Ampersand board on the recommendation of a fellow artist. It is a lovely smooth surface to work on and works well for smaller, detailed works. Not so sure how it would work for large paintings as the surface is so smooth. Will give it a try sometime. I feel this is a story of a girl getting ready for a night out. She has the glass of wine to relax with while she gets herself ready; the book is now abandoned as she fixes her shoes and waits for the phone to ring telling her the taxi has arrived. The dress has deliberately been toned down in colour to compensate for the bright red of the sofa. Red and black are favourites of mine as can be seen in my Line Arts. An art dealer once told me that a touch of red sells paintings and now I always look out for that in famous paintings .. Turner comes to mind straight away, Caravaggio another! If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the next few months,…
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Am much happier with this painting now, having struggled last week for some reason. I have enjoyed adding in the final details and getting the horizontal lines straight enough so that the eye of the viewer is not immediately drawn to them (hopefully). Layering on glazes help to soften the skin tones and add depth to the man’s shirt. Lastly, it’s the adding in the touches of pure colour which complete the work for me. There is always a danger of adding in too much colour at this stage and then the painting ends up looking overworked. I have taken a few touches out as a result and I am now satisfied with the final composition. Could not resist making the guy’s bum a little neater too…. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the near future, please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of the Home Page. I will be sending out my next one at the beginning of November. I am also on Instagram and have a a Facebook page called Miche Artist.
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Mid course on this piece and partly happy and partly not 🙁 Adding in my touches of blue and pink are definitely working and I will add in more next week once I have stepped back from the painting for a few days. Sometimes I get too enthusiastic with the splashes of colour and the result is overworked. I am also happy with how the dress is coming along, the shape and tones are working well. Not happy though with the girl’s face and spent too long on it this morning. I trained as a portrait artist and am spending too long trying to get a likeness, which is not necessary in a figurative painting such as this. I WILL get it right by next week…. I also need to work more on the man’s shirt, starting with the edging on the shoulder seam which needs to be raised a bit; the arm is looking too short at the moment and I think that is the reason why. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the near future, please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of my Home…
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‘When I’m painting, I feel 30. It’s only when I stop that I know I’m not’. David Hockney. A statement I totally agree with. When I am at my easel, in the zone, I feel energised, alive, full of ideas etc. When I stop, I feel the back pain from having stood badly all my life at the easel and now at 63 paying the cost. But how lucky I am to have this passion to paint, a feeling which will be be with me till I die. Building up on last week’s painting and it seems the title has hit a chord with a lot of people, male or female. Misunderstandings happen so quickly and can take a lifetime to resolve (in some cases). I am longing to add in the touches of colour at the end which make the painting ‘sing’ like cerulean blue, turquoise and maybe vivid purple, but I have to be patient and press on with the underpainting for now. Likewise I am itching to ‘blonde’ up the girl’s hair but …. My recent oil paintings and Line Arts are on show with Clifton Fine Arts in Bristol and they are opening their second gallery…
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A new work, and as I said in my last blog, a quieter piece after all that sunshine and high heeled shoes 🙂 Originally the couple were further apart in the photo I am working from, but decided to draw them closer together and crop the scene. Cropping nearly always improves a painting in my opinion. The title for this is, I think, what I am trying to convey. It is so easy in a relationship for something to said in the heat of the moment, and once said, too late to backtrack from. You are left with regrets. Alternatively, she could just be wishing she had asked for an Aperol rather than the red wine…… At the moment, the colours are muted, and most of the lines of the window are skewed, but with patience (never easy for this artist) all will be resolved soon. Can’t wait, as always, to add the splashes of pure colour at the end to lift the whole composition. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the near future, please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of the Home Page. I send…
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So we have a title. I just hope you won’t all think of Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story….. I had so many great titles suggested from my friends on Twitter, it was really difficult to choose. However, I like the idea of our lady staring out to sea, to the infinite possibilities ahead of her, or indeed the infinite possibilities of what she may be leaving behind. Thank you to all who came up with suggestions. I loved putting detail of light reflecting off the water onto the beachball. To me it makes a real difference to the look of the ball, and also I have been playing around with the reflection of the ball in the water. In fact I have liked as always, adding in the details, the shine on the shoes, the subtle tones to the flesh etc etc. Decided to add a touch of blue from my palette to the mix for the flesh of the legs and am glad how that has turned out. Sometimes art is just about happy accidents in getting something to work. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am getting up to in the…
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Week two and a lot more colour being introduced into this fun piece. I had endless problems trying to mix the colours of the bright fuchsia pink on the beach ball. I Googled pinks, I haunted my local art store, asked other artist friends, most of whom gave me different advice, and in the end had settled for a rather dull pink and went off and painted another part of the painting. When I came back to the work a couple of days later, I looked again in my box of paints and there tucked away in a dark corner I found ….Quinacridone Magenta. Perfect with a touch of white. Obsessed, moi?! Will get the horizontal lines right by next week when the paint is dry and I can get the masking tape out. Also itching to get down to the detail of the water now. The ground the lady is standing on needs more definition too…. It is never ending, the joy of painting, for me. If you would like to be kept up date with what I am up to in the next few months, please sign up to my Newsletter at the top of the Home…
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A new painting started, always exciting. I am in the process of completing 4 works to go to the Spectrum Art Fair in Miami in November, and I thought a water-based theme might work for a lovely hot place like Miami in November. I make no apologies for leaning towards the early David Hockney swimming pool paintings as they are so vibrant and full of colour. I can give full rein to my Mediterranean colours in these works. This work will go with ‘The Pink Hat’ and ‘Is He With Her Now’ both shown on the website and all 24 x 18″. I have had to show these two as being ‘not in stock’ as they are going to the States, and I did wonder about the wisdom of putting paintings on the site that are not available to buy. However, I do want to show the different range of my artworks to prospective clients like you who are reading this, so onwards and upwards! Very early days with this new work, and I would welcome a title from any of my Twitter followers please, or indeed anyone who is reading this, because as I have said before, I…
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A smaller, quieter and reflective piece – and as yet unframed. Decided in the end not to give the book a title, as it might look a bit too ‘precious’; better to let you, the viewer, decide what she is reading. I do feel, though, that she is searching for something in this book, hence her deep concentration and the title of the painting. I had intended to soften her blonde hair to have it more in keeping with the smooth fabric of her red dress, but in the end couldn’t bear to tone down her unruly hair, which was such fun to paint. I was surprised how much the red tones of the dress played onto all the surrounding areas, her flesh, the book, the chair etc ., so much so that I could not resist adding a touch of red/burnt sienna into her blonde hair ….that’s the fun of being an artist, you get to choose! This work is 14 x 10″, 35 x 25 cm and is available for sale. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the next few months, please sign up for my Newsletter…
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