Small still life

A small still life 4 x 6 acrylic on board.

Eggplant

6 x 9 inches acrylic on board. The actual painting has a more red/orange colour cast to it, the camera has compensated.

The advantage of being a painter

It's the only example I can think of where you can have your cake and eat it!

A few new works

Still experimenting with lighting arrangements this week.

Something new

Inspired by still lives seen on other blogs and having seen a railway sleeper in our local gallery. I trotted off to our nearest reclamation centre and bought half a railway sleeper and some large slates. I wanted dramatic lighting, the set up took some doing. I am still trying to work out how to get damatic lighting at the same time as decent light to paint by. Here is an early still life from the set up. I am happy with this for a first attempt but hope to improve.

pastel pic

A pastel drawing on primed paper 22 x 18 inches.

As Requested

As requested I am uploading not only new drawings from this week, but some works that are propped against the wall waiting for me to decide what to do with them. Above is a work in acrylic on board one foot high by two wide.
Above oil on canvas 17 X 30 inches.
A small work in loose bright colours acrylic on board. The model was in dressing up mode adopting Sin city characteristics. Great colours reflections, wig and fun to paint. Acrylic on board 10 x 8 inches.
A sketch from uni. acrylic on board 13.5 x 12.
Acrylic on board 8.5 x 13 model on metallic fabrics.
12 x 17 Acrylic on board.
Above and below new works. Pastel on primed paper 18 X 22 inches.
Pastel on primed paper 22 x 18 inches ( paper size, image has been cropped).

Good news

The last couple of weeks has been a bit of a mixture. Life drawing at the university has finished for this academic year. I hope to get more painting done with the extra day. However I have a few disrupted weeks coming up. Relatives staying and long trip up to Cambridge.
I sold one of my older paintings for over a thousand pounds!

Same old same old

Nothing stands out this week. Maybe that is just my mood.

Painting at Uni

Spent Friday at a life class at the local uni. Managed lots of painting. I think these are the pick of the bunch. The two below have now been posted on ebay, the one above has been put aside for galleries or exhibitions.

No luck

No luck getting the paintings that started this blog into the open exhibitions they were submitted for. Ho humm. Back to painting still lives and figures for ebay. To get enough money together to go for another exhibition. Examples of work I have posted or will post shortly on ebay.

For Annie

As discussed here is a painting sitting on my wall at the moment. Sorry about the camera distortion. Size 18.5 x 24 inches, acrylic on board framed in black.

Time is up

I take the paintings up to London tomorrow. I am submitting them to two separate large open portrait exhibitions. Had a useful session last friday discussing the paintings with Kasia Andrews and Kevin, see Kevin's blog:
http://disabledkevinthinks.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-portraits-by-kasia-and-peter-are.html
Looking at the painting under different light was an initial shock but on reflection I have not made many changes. A minor adjustment to Kevins brow. Most of my time has been taken up making frames for the paintings

Also got feedback on this painting Friday and have made some minor adjustments taking into account comments from people who know the model.

progress what progress?

There is progress honest. The upper half of the background on the female portrait has changed. Kevins wheelchair didn't have handles or red tape.

Tough times

Things are beginning to get a little more difficult. Having spent so long on these images you start to doubt yourself. One reason is that having studied these faces so long they lose their identity. Like repeating a word over and over twenty times, it becomes a sound and the meaning goes. I was reassured yesterday, showing the female painting to someone, they recognised the person even though I didn't know they knew each other (a good litmus test). The problem on the Kevin painting is the way the paving changes direction in the photo. When it is painted in, it looks as if the painter has got their perspective wrong. I am still making very slow but steady progress. I think?

Spot the difference

Not much appears to have changed, but, there are changes.

Work over the last few days

The changes from one photo to another, are becoming more difficult to discern, as work is more on the details now.

Chair

Getting the basics of the chair in.
Fleshing out the chair a little more.
Putting in the basic structure of the head

The other painting

This is the other painting I am working on at the same time as Kevins. Having two paintings on the go at the same time seems to be working, I can work on one whilst the other is drying or take a break from one when progress slows.

Back to work

Had a great holiday skiing over half term. Now it is time to get back to the painting.
Added some more texture to the trees.
Time to begin on the wheelchair.