Woman in a blue jump suit
interior cafe painting woman female reading
This painting has been sold
Acrylic on canvas board 14" x 11"When I got up this morning and looked at the painting I did yesterday (see below) I was not at all happy with it. It seemed to be afraid of making a statement. I was going to re-gesso the board but instead I started working on it differently, using only my imagination and the knowledge of some of the items in the scene. I concentrated on circles and lines and came to the realisation that every single thing around us in nature and what man makes is made up of curves and lines.
Thanks for the commiserations about my shoulder. It's getting a bit better but leaving the paints alone is hard!
I did this yesterday. It was based on a photograph of a woman reading in a cafe in Amsterdam. It was not night time but it felt like it with the darkness of the cafe and the lamps lit inside. The yellow curved wall was a feature but I left a lot out and went a little way along to abstracting the shapes.
Self portrait 22nd October 09
Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)As you can see from the date in the title of this posting the painting was done last week. In fact most of the paintings I have posted since a week ago were actually completed around two weeks ago. What happened was that last Thursday I managed to trap a nerve in my back between the shoulders which has resulted in a lot of pain and numbness in my arms and hands. I am having to get back to painting very slowly, just do a small amount each day and keep taking frequent "posture" breaks. The problem arose after finishing the self portrait here and I am sure it was because I was straining to see in the mirror as I painted and was sitting at an awkward angle. I do sit down to paint and I'm not sure my equipment is in the best place etc. Does anyone else suffer from back pain, shoulder pain, ever have a trapped nerve through bad painting posture? In fact it would be interesting to know how many of you daily painters sit down to paint compared to standing up as you would if doing a bigger painting. If anyone knows of any good references/links for good posture for artists I'd love to hear about them!
Self portrait 21st October 2009
Acrylic on hardboard 6" x 6" £45 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)This is the first of a couple of self portraits I did last week. There is a story attached but more of that tomorrow.
Two small pots
still life painting acrylic ceramics pots interior attic>
Acrylic on hardboard 6" x 6" £45 (British pounds)plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)
An orange table cloth
still life painting fruit interior blue jar>
This painting has been sold
Acrylic on hardboard 6" x 6"
Objects in the sun
still life oil acrylic painting ceramics>
Acrylic on hardboard 6.5" x 6.5" £50 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)I started painting this on a bright but cloudy day. Suddenly the sun burst through and lit up these objects in quite an interesting way so I quickly got the bright notes down because I knew it wouldn't last long (and it didn't).
A young composer approached Mozart and asked what should he write: a saraband? a suite? a romance? a symphony? etc. Mozart looked at him and said "I think you should write a waltz". The young composer was a bit angry and said "But Mozart, you yourself wrote a symphony at the age of ten" and Mozart replied "Yes, but I didn't have to ask anybody's advice".
(thank you Malcolm Morley for relating this story in Joe Fig's book 'Inside the Painter's studio')
Orange and blue
still life acrylic oil painting interior fruit ceramic>
Acrylic on hardboard 7.5" x 7.5" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)I am a few daily paintings "ahead" so this was actually completed a few days ago. A couple more still lifes to come.
Provencal bowl
still life provence ceramic yellow green interior attic painting oil acrylic>
Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)This is quite different in treatment to the last painting although for both I used acrylics. I wanted to really get the depth of the yellow in this. I was looking back at some of my earlier still lifes and also enjoying getting back into that "cropped interior" look.
Portrait of a lady
still life blue cream vase jug pitcher brown attic
Acrylic on board 10" x 8" £75 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)I bought this vase in a charity shop the other day. When I stood it on my old work table in the attic I thought it looked very feminine amongst all those masculine and abstract straight lines of boards and canvases etc. It took on an importance beyond its worth. (Sorry Henry James for nicking your title).
Crocosmia VI
(flowers floral still life interior oil painting)
Oil on hardboard 7.5" x 7.75" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)This is the last of the Crocosmia paintings. Not sure what my next little series will be. I have a few options in mind, maybe some more still life, maybe some self portraits or maybe some more figurative-fantasy work. I'll just go with the flow as usual.
Sun sets on Stalybridge
I'm showing a few paintings on my other blog of sun set over my town, Stalybridge. Click
here if you are interested in seeing them.
(nodp)
Crocosmia IV
(flowers floral still life interior oil painting)
Oil on card 6" x 6" £50 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)The fourth of six small paintings based on the crocosmia seed heads in a glass vase.
Crocosmia III
(flowers floral still life interior oil painting)
This painting has been sold
Oil on hardboard 8" x 8"I like to merge still life and interiors sometimes. Plus the attic where I paint has lots of canvases lying around which make interesting shapes to support the objects.
Pine cone with foliage
(forest autumn fall still life oil painting)
This painting has been sold
Oil on card 6.5" x 6.5"This is the last of the "forest" mini-series for now. The seeds and pods are looking a bit tired and sad and I think I'll return them to the forest. You never know - one of those acorns might seed itself! Or at least it will feed a squirrel.
Pine cones
(forest trees fir evergreen pine cone oil painting)
Oil on card 6.5" x 6.5" £50 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)Got closer to the subject with this one. I really liked the burnt orange colour of the cone nearest to us. They are amazing structures and how similar those segments are in shape to our own skin cells.
Tiny Acorns
(chestnut acorns fall autumn forest oil painting)
This painting has been sold
Oil on card approx 6.5" x 6.5"I have been either very unlucky finding acorns this year or else the squirrels have beaten me to it. I found these dinky ones which were really tiny to paint but cute (plus a chestnut).
Chestnuts
(trees forest seeds pods chestnut still life painting)
Oil on card approx 6.5" x 6.5" £50 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)You would be forgiven for thinking that we get the colour "Burnt Sienna" from the grinding down of chestnuts but of course we don't. It comes from clays containing an iron oxide which are found in parts of southern Italy and in the Appalachian mountains in America. Burnt Sienna is simply Raw Sienna which has been "burnt" or fired. What a beautiful colour it is.
Husks
(trees seeds pods acorn beech nut chestnut still life painting green)
Oil on hardboard 6" x 6" £50 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£3.50 to UK; £7 to rest of world)
