Girl with auburn hair

This painting has been sold at the Stockport Open Art Exhibition July 2011



Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8"

I used both brushes and palette knife in this one. There are quite a few layers. I wanted to have the depth of paint but for the image to still look fragile.

Woman in white

This painting won the Gateway Gallery second prize at the Stockport Open Art Exhbition, July 2011


Acrylic on wood panel 8"x 6"

I think this is my first ever palette knife painting in acrylic (I used a brush just to define the eyes and lips). I thought it would not work and that I would need to switch to oils. I also thought I would need some kind of bulking medium - a modelling paste of some sort added to the paint. Neither proved to be the case. It is a complete contrast to the "Hill People" painting below which uses thin layers of mostly translucent paint. It's amazing that i only finished this painting twenty minutes ago but already I can brush my fingers over the heavily textured surface. I am pleased!

Self portrait on blue (re-worked)

Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8"

I am beginning to see that painting on a dark, opaque undercolour, makes me paint differently and be much more conscious of edges. Maybe it's the same for everyone? This one was painted on a fairly deep saxe blue underpainted surface. Nice to explore these differences with small works like this.
Since first posting this painting I have done some re-working to it including re-establishing the blue background, removing detail from the shirt and re-describing the face. I like now how the attention is drawn immediately to the face where the only notes of warm colour are.

Self portrait on black

Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8"

I have a new big painting buzzing around in my head so until it sorts itself out I thought I'd fall back on a self portrait again, maybe a few, on different coloured backgrounds. This will help me with the bigger stuff, exploring the medium, supports, etc.

Hill People (revisited)

Acrylic on hardboard 24" x 24"

After a week's break I have today done some re-working of the 'Hill People' painting. (I took the previous version off). I'm sort of interested in it so for me that is the key factor. I can't say I won't still work on it but for now I think it's in a temporary state of survival. Tribes, clans, communities, we all think they're odd unless we belong to one.

Life Drawings - Ellie

Below (and above) are some of my recent life drawings of Ellie. They are done in charcoal (yes, I know all the things I said about charcoal, but a gal can change her mind) on A2 smooth cartridge drawing paper. The ones with 3 poses on were 10 minute poses. The rest were one hour poses. (If you click on the image once, then in the new window, click again, you can see the image super big).

Women by the sea

Acrylic on canvas board 18" x 22"

Another attempt at using canvas. I just don't have the same relationship with it that I have with hardboard. Maybe it's the same reason I used to take a Tesco carrier bag into the university with me instead of a briefcase. I'm happy with the painting but I'll go back to the smooth boards.