“I dream my painting and I paint my dream”, Van Gogh. I get so excited when I start a new painting, because it is an idea I have had germinating in my mind for a while and I can’t wait to put paint on the canvas and paint my dream, exactly as Van Gogh said. The photo for this work was kindly given to me by one of my Twitter friends, Tom Boulton (@snowglobeman on Twitter) who writes wonderfully evocative sensual poetry. The photo is of his beautiful wife Natalie. It is a great photo, but has presented me with a few problems. Normally, I don’t necessarily concentrate on getting a likeness (I was a portrait painter in a former life) as I want to get on with the narrative side of my work. However……I DO want to get a likeness this time for both Tom and Nat’s sake, so will be doing one more week’s work on the detail! I am nearly there, but as with every artist I have ever known, we are always, always, trying to reach perfection and never seem to attain it… I was so pleased to be part of Manhattan Arts International’s Featured Artist…
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I like being a female artist painting women. Women interest me for different reasons. Sometimes I like to paint their vulnerability, at other times I want to portray their strengths and their confidence in their own bodies. Another time I just want to paint them in domestic scenes like this one above, reading quietly. Next one, however, I think will be women enjoying themselves out on the town….margueritas to the ready. A useful tip for all artists; if you hold your work up to a mirror you will see its imperfections. Likewise turn it upside down and again you will see any mistakes. I think the eye is so trained to look at the image in front of it that the viewer becomes impervious to any errors. Looking in a mirror or turning it upside down and the eye has to start again. That is my view anyway, and what I see straightaway is the nose is looking a bit bulbous, something I just didn’t see before. So, to be worked on by next week. I put a glaze of burnt sienna over the flesh tones, which I have also put into the girl’s hair and into the carpet. By…
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I am putting up two quotes by female artists this week as I feel they are both relevant to me and my work in a way. I have not exactly been terrified all my life as has Georgia O’Keefe, but I have certainly had to surmount numerous obstacles throughout my life to get me where I want to be now, being a full time artist painting every day and loving it. And Elaine De Kooning, well I know exactly where she is coming from; but I have been so lucky in discovering Twitter and building up a core of followers who like my work, give me good feedback and encourage me on and this has been a HUGE help in my moving forward. So thank you, thank you to all those on Twitter who follow me. You have no idea how much you have helped me! And by the way, I don’t think female artists are tougher as Georgia says, we all have very thin skins when it comes to our work… It is women who interest me, and whom I want to paint. I want to paint strong, independent women, happy in their own skin, just doing their own…
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The original photo has a Christmas tree in the background that I was going to leave out. However I then decided that it would add colour to what would be another monochromatic painting (apart from the fabulous red hair) and add balance to the composition so have left it in. The odd red bauble will also add interest I think. The Christmas tree also lent itself immediately to the title I have given this work. I am greatly indebted to Tom and Natalie Snow (@snowglobeman on Twitter) for the use of this photograph of Natalie. I hope I can do justice to her beauty. By the way, do have a look at Thomas’ wonderful sensual poetry, great talent there. I may yet change the colour of the dress as at the moment it is too similar to the sofa, but time will tell. The best part for me though is the fabulous red hair and I am really looking forward to getting down to all the detail and lights and darks that can be painted into such luminous hair. I will be sending out my first newsletter this month so please sign up at the top of my Home Page…
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A very happy new year to you all and thank you for your support as I go along with my great passion, my art. I am very excited about 2016 artwise for me and will tell you more as I go along. This piece, ‘Waiting, Wishing, Wanting’ is now finished and available on the website. I have been making use of glazes to get the depth of tone that I wanted and think I have achieved the right effect. Having the light source coming from one side makes for a more interesting composition and I want to work more along these lines. My next work is going to be a redhead and I am very excited about this. I have wanted to paint a redhead for sometime and had someone in mind to model for me, but in the meantime, Thomas Snow (@snowglobeman) one of my great supporters on Twitter asked whether I would like to use his wife as a model who is….a redhead. As a result, he has sent me some wonderful images of his beautiful wife and I am very excited to be able to start a painting of her as my next work. Watch this space,…
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I had great feedback on Twitter etc on a name for this work and thank you to all who contributed. In the end I went with Waiting, Wishing, Wanting, which I think sums up perfectly what this young woman is feeling. Thank you to the person who contributed this title, you know who you are! Which brings me to a quote from Edgar Degas : ‘Art is not what you see but what you make others see’. I hope this is how people see my work as a narrative figurative artist and why I moved away from straight portraiture. I am painting a story on which you, the viewer, can put your own interpretation. Art is of course subjective so I shall never please everyone! I am truly delighted to have been accepted onto the online exhibition called New Beginnings with Manhattan Art International. Please have a look at www.manhattanarts.com to see more. Sorry I can’t seem to copy the link across for some reason but it is definitely worth a look. I am also now showing my work with Clifton Fine Art in Bristol, so if you are in the area please do go in and have a look.…
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I am very pleased and proud to tell you that my website is now live. Please do have a look and sign up for the Newsletter at the top of the Home page. I will be sending out quarterly Newsletters telling what I have been up to. Feel free to give me any feedback too. There will no doubt still be a bit more tweaking before I get it completely right, but I am indebted to my wonderful nephew for completely revamping my site, and yes, it did need it – big time. There are a couple of slight hiccups with iphones and ipads not getting the Line Art images, but we should be there in the next day or two, so please bear with me one more time. Henceforth, you will find my blog on the website as opposed to a separate link, which should be easier for everyone, including myself! So, to ‘The Result’ which is now completed. I have been adding glazes to the background wall to give more shade and bring out the light from underneath the lampshade. Glazes are great for adding depth gradually to a painting and I have done similar on the…
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Again, my sincere apologies that there is no image with this week’s Blog; a problem again with the new website being in transition. I am SO excited about the new site and am impatient to see it up and running. This piece ‘Liberation’ is about new beginnings for this woman, I think. Off comes the bra and into a new life for her, a strong and confident woman – does anyone else see this?! Would welcome any feedback. I have lost count of the times I have changed the background and flooring in this piece. I was determined not to use brown – why do I have a horror of that colour? – and tried various shades of blues, all of which just took over the picture too much. In the end I decided to go for black to show up and compliment the legs more. I mixed Ultramarine (Michael Harding paints are AMAZINGLY pure, so you use less of them) and Burnt Umber to get the desired shade. I find using just black paint is too matt, too deadening. By mixing these two colours I will be able to vary the depths of tone as I go along. I…
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My apologies as for some reason I cannot upload the image of this work. It could be because I am in the process of having my website completely revamped and therefore I can’t manually upload images temporarily. If you would like to see the image, please have a look at my Twitter account @MicheWatkins from tomorrow (29 October). Thank you for your patience. This painting is in its early stages hence only one leopard print shoe so far. This is a young woman who is confident, modern and very into her fashion. The red bra has come off, hence the ‘liberation’ but I leave the viewer to imagine what happens next. She could be going to a burlesque class, or just finished it; or about to meet her lover, who knows? This is why I so love painting pieces like this, I have my own ideas as to what is happening, but you the viewer will have your own ideas. I may soften the colour of the bra as at the moment I feel I have a bit of overkill on the red tones. There will be more contrasts of light and darks as I go along I think, to…
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Happy with the way this has worked out. It has proved almost impossible to completely replicate the colours on Photoshop for Twitter and here on my Blog, so my apologies. The dress is a more vivid sea green and there are shades of this on the shoes too. I decided to add the rhinestones on the heels as bit of fun, as I feel most women like a bit of glitter on their stilettos…. This painting is now available to buy on my website www.michewatkins.com at £295 and is 45 x 60 cm. If you like this painting, do have a look at my website to see more of my work. I like capturing a moment in time in a woman’s day, a woman who is strong, confident, happy in her own skin. Quite often I will crop the work or turn the head away to make the image more anonymous. The viewer is then free to make up their own mind as to what is happening. I am also a great lover of bright colours! I am in the process of having my website completely overhauled and already the work in progress is looking wonderful. Will look forward to…
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