Snowdrops linocut

Hello again! Here's a small two-colour reduction linocut, inspired by the snowdrops currently gracing my garden.

It's still cold but it feels like winter is on the way out...

I'm the lucky one!

I'm pleased to say that I'm the lucky recipient of a limited edition print from The Natural Line! Elizabeth held a draw for this prize over on her facebook page. If you have a moment, do go and visit - she produces such beautiful work.

Here I am, looking pleased and rather scruffy all at the same time...

Happy me!

Ten fabulous prints from the first PrintPeople exchange have arrived here! They are just wonderful, made my day :-)


You can check out all of the prints in detail here

Forget the diet...

Mmmm, yummy! I found myself in need of a fix of colour yesterday, and decided to have a go at some foodie painting... I'm the kind of person who can't resist snapping a quick photo when presented with a plate of yummyness, so I've got a few reference photos in the archive to choose from!


The top painting is of a delicious cream tea I enjoyed with my sister in a small tea room in Twycross, Leicestershire. Lovely. And below that is a chocolate brownie and ice cream pudding that was much enjoyed at the Jamie Oliver restaurant in Cambridge, on my birthday last year. Which I've now noticed is missing the corner of the wooden serving thingy. Oh well!

Both are watercolour and ink, 5 by 7".

A little indulgence every now and then is good for the soul, after all!

Fun with tulips

Hello everyone!

Last time I went to our local Farmers' Market I bought a couple of bunches of tulips, with the intention of doing some drawing and sketching... so, here they are...

First off, a sketch in ink (Staedtler triplus fineliner pens)

Next, a sketch in biro of the whole bunch. Was trying to get a feel of the way they seemed to explode out of the vase...

After this I decided to try a couple of watercolour sketches, both 5 by 7".

And finally, a week or so later, I got the fineliner pens out again for some more sketching...

So all in all I think I did fairly well out of these flowers. I do prefer drawing/sketching/painting them when they're past their best - they seem so much more interesting then!

Serendipity

This one was painted for the YOP challenge over on the Painting Friends forum, where the reference for this month was a beautiful white rose (madmum on wetcanvas, thank you!)

Serendipity means a 'happy accident' or 'pleasant surprise'; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it. That's what happened here...


I wanted to have a go at doing something delicate, but that kind of went out of the window rather quickly, as I managed to paint a big beige mess. Then I decided to add in some shadows, which made things much, much worse. It was awful. It was heading for the bin, then I decided to see just how bad it could get if I got the pens out, and... well, I actually really like the end result! It is not subtle or delicate, which was my original goal, but I love the structural feel, and the ink coss-hatching reminds me a bit of copperplate etchings. 

So, unexpectedly, I'm actually quite pleased with it, and as a bonus I've discovered an approach to floral paintings that I would never have otherwise thought of.


4" by 6", watercolour and ink.

March daffodils

Every now and again I like to have a go at something completely different. I've been doing a lot of portraits and life drawing over the last few months, so I thought I'd get the acrylics out and paint some flowers from life.

Bought these from the market a few days ago - they were all still tight buds, but now they're fully open. The thing I love about acrylics is the intensity of the colours - there's nothing delicate about these daffodils ;-)

Acrylic on canvas board, 8 by 12", painted from life (with quite a lot of artistic licence!) Click the image to see the (much nicer) bigger version.

Pumpkins lost and found

It's not often that I paint vegetables! This was painted for an exercise on the Painting Friends forum from a reference provided by Jaytee, to get us all thinking about lost and found edges. I like the foreground pumpkin, not so keen on the other one...

I think controlling lost and found edges in watercolour can be tricky, as it's easy to get a bit carried away and fiddle to much, and end up overworking, or else just be a bit too timid. With enough practice you will get to know the medium, but there are always unanticipated things going on - that's the nature, and the charm I guess, of watercolour!

9" by 12"

Feather for Drawing Day

Here's a quickie I did for Drawing Day 2010, a feather I picked up while out walking along the river. I did actually do the drawing on drawing day, June 5th, but didn't get it uploaded til today!

Water soluble graphite on watercolour paper
5" by 7"

XJG 364H at Goodwood

Here's another painting based on a picture from the Goodwood Festival of Speed - it's a Triumph 2.5PI, built in 1970 and participant in the 1970 World Cup Rally.

The painting is 10" by 14", and although I found this car harder to get right than the Mini, I'm pleased with the finished item (and am now going to stop fiddling with it!).

569 FMO at Goodwood

Every couple of years I buy tickets for the Goodwood Festival of Speed as a birthday pressie for my other half, and we always come away with stacks of photos between us. So I thought I'd have a go with acrylic - I might do a series of these. This is a 1964 Austin Mini Cooper 'S' Works car which raced in the Monte Carlo rally that same year (as far as I've been able to determine!). Here it's on the chalky rally stage at Goodwood House. I'd like to be a bit looser with these, but I'm pleased with this as a starting point.

Acrylic on paper, 10" by 14".

Little lamb

This is what I did with my remaining piece of scraperboard (my class tutor kindly lent me a scraping tool to play with).

2" by 3", from my own ref photo.

Bestiary leopard

Here's something completely different - did this at my art class today. The drawing is based on a leopard from a bestiary, and it's on scraperboard. It's pretty small, just 2" by 3".

This is a completely new medium for me - fun to do, rather time consuming and also rather addictive!

Crazy Magnolias

Here are two versions of a special request, a stylized magnolia painting. The process (using clingfilm) is a bit hit-and-miss, so you never quite know what you're going to get.

Approx 6" by 8", watercolour and ink.