Fingers crossed

March 27, 2009 at 3:55 pm | Posted in artists, Capri, Commissions, competitions, Limited edition prints, painter, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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AS of today I am officially waiting.

I hate waiting!

See, I’m already impatient!!

Too many exclamation points!!!

I entered two painting competitions and now I have to WAIT and see how my paintings are judged.

That’s a good question – how will they be judged?
1. On the little bit of blue paint, hardly detectable by human eye, that sits in the wrong spot?
2. On my ability to reproduce reality?
3. On my inability to do something different or new (now)?

Who knows whatever way I am judged I will have to wait……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I hate waiting!

End of April for one
End of May for the other

That’s a lot of waiting!!

The only problem I have with waiting – really – is that I do just that – wait! Even though it appears to the world from the outside that I am getting on with my life I am, in fact, in the throws of – WAITING! and that, my friends, is when life passes you by, so I will make every effort, from deep down inside to live the day and not wait for the day(s)

Wish me luck………………..on waiting and………….possibly………….winning????????????????????????????????????????

Campervan painting sold in jim-jams

March 25, 2009 at 10:29 am | Posted in artists, Commissions, Limited edition prints, Mum, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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Blimey!
Sitting down checking me e-mails in my dressing gown this morning and hear a little tap on the front door. When I open it I think there has been an eclipse – but it’s just the rugby boys comming to check on their commission – oh er – I’m in me jim-jams. Oh well – come on in boys.

Tim loves it (still) and we talk about price – I’m still waking up and haven’t had time to rehearse a speel – thank god – so I just said “I reckon about £200”
“Yeah – fine I can see the work you have put in”
SORTED – whhhooo hooooo

I love Wednesdays – to complete this wonderful day (it’s the first painting I have ever sold) I will accompany my Mum to the Russell Watson concert tonight – culture all the way for me!

£200 – wow – I did that!

:):):):):

Joy of painting

March 16, 2009 at 12:34 pm | Posted in artists, Commissions, Limited edition prints, painter, Portraits, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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No I don’t mean Bob Ross!

No, MY joy of painting over the weekend on a commission has been compounded by the person I am painting the commission for who has just remarked “Awesome” on seeing the latest update.

Wow, how pleased am I? There is no better feeling than someone agreeing that you have captured a subject well and there is no worse feeling than a bad critique of what you consider a good work. Luckily that didn’t happen to me today.

Have to keep from banging my big head on the door frames now!

It has been a struggle but all struggles are worth it if the end result is good. My main struggle was painting two girls – full length in bikinis with sunglasses on. The skin tones were an issue, the face shapes underneath the glasses were troublesome too.

On the skin front, I decided to paint there whole bodies in a pale flesh colour and gradually build up a tanned look with glazes of burnt umber and it seems to have worked. I also decided to give the girls a very very thin outline using a mix of flesh, burnt umber, raw umber, red ochre and ultramarine, it really helped to stand them out on the canvas.

The face shape was easy for one of the girls as she lives on our street, the other girl was different. She looked nothing like the sketches I had done so I asked for some other photos of her without sunglasses. This really helped as I could study her face shape and I also managed to add a smile to her face (she wasn’t really smiling in the other photo.

Should have it finished in another week – so I’ll post a link to it.

By the way it’s acrylic on 24 x 18 inch deep edge canvas

Inspiration, campervans, and me

March 14, 2009 at 8:54 am | Posted in artists, Capri, Commissions, Limited edition prints, painter, Portraits, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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Yesterday I painted, 5 hours working on a commission which involves painting a VW Campervan – which I have never tackled before! I struggled – with it’s size, shape, colour, I struggled with is positioning on the canvas – I also had a hang-over from my lovely day and evening with friends.

Imagine, therefore, how amazing I felt when I finally stood back for the umpteenth time and it was right – everything about it was “VW Campervan” – I was in awe of my ability! I am so pleased with the progress that I smiled all night and couldn’t get to sleep – waiting for today and painting again.

Then, I read one of my e-mails this morning. I joined a website devoted to TED, innovation, amazing talks on video, inspiring talks, nougats of information. I actually joined when I used to train sales staff, looking for a different view of life – other than my own. I have no need for that now as I left that job, but for some reason I remained a member of the website – and today I see why

I am posting a link to a talk by Aimee Mullins, please watch it, be uplifted, be amazed, be in awe of this woman – I am! When you see this woman, when you listen to her you will understand why it brought me back down to earth – not with a bump, but more of a nudge!

P.S. I’ll post a link to my amazing campervan when it’s finished – if Aimee’s ok with that

A day for friends

March 12, 2009 at 10:27 am | Posted in artists, Capri, Commissions, competitions, Limited edition prints, Mum, painter, Portraits, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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I’m expecting a very pleasant day today. Meeting an old friend for lunch, back home and then out for me tea with current friends and someone I haven’t seen in an age. It’s raining at the moment, which I’m not happy about – frizzes my hair!

Hopefully lots of catching up, a little reminising (not too much I hope – live for today and all!), and loads of laughs. Could even be some great food thrown in for good measure. I can’t remember having tea out for years – how nice!

On the painting front I have actually now, officially, got a commission. Now that is exciting. So, the painting is to be of a girlfriend and her sister with a camper van on an Australian beach. Interestingly all three elements are in different photographs – so I’m having to compose the painting rather than just paint from life or an already composed photograph.

Luckily, all photos have the sun at the same angle, so not messing with changing shadows etc which is useful. Colours are to be bright a breezy – no problem there, the Australian sea is beautiful and in this particul photo it has three very distinct layers of colour so painting that will be a pleasure.

I suppose my main concerns are 1. that I capture a good likeness of the two girls (to that end I have requested some more photos so I can see the shapes of their features and 2. the campervan – never drawn or painted one of those – they are a unique shape and as long as I can get that right I think I’ll be OK.

Scale is another issue, perspecvtive too. The photos I have need scaling up and down to ensure the size of the girls in the foreground is believable in terms of them being able to get in the campervan behind them and drive away – I’ve already adjusted the size of the van as before – they would have been too big – hopefully it’s in better scale now.

Price? – No idea what to charge, so for now I am keeping a log of cost (canvas, paints, photo scanning and printing) and labour (time I spend sketching, painting etc) and from there I hope to be able to come up with a figure acceptable to us both. I’ve already spent £32 on photos, canvas etc so it’s going to be interesting. Fortunately I didn’t have to say how much it would cost in the initial discussion as my commissionee (is that right?) said – let’s wait and see how much work you have to do first – which I thought was fair.

The painting is a birthday present (May) and is suppose to help cheer his girlfriend up as she is from Australia and missing it badly – not surprise with this weather in the UK at the moment. He has already seen a rough sketch on the canvas (24 x 18 inch) and is ok with it so far. I’ll call him over (he’s a neighbour so that makes it nice and easy) next week to see what he thinks of the progress.

Back to today, off to get ready and enjoy, will post updates on the commission and my painting of Marco, Salvatore and Franco – nice to have two very different paintings to work on. – Ciao

Marco, Franco and Salvatore

March 2, 2009 at 5:26 pm | Posted in artists, Capri, Commissions, competitions, Limited edition prints, Mum, painter, Portraits, ramblings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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I’m working on another painting of Piazza Umberto, Capri and this time I have decided to do mini portraits of our three friends who work the tables on so many nights during our stay each year. It’s turning into a bit of a theme as I painted mini cameos of my fella and me in the last painting “Al Piccolo Bar by Night” but I’m not saying where we are!

I’m using a photo that Salvatore sent me of the three of them but positioning them throughout the piece. So far it looks Ok, and tomorrow I shall add more detail to them and the crowds of people who sit and wait for our friends to bring their drinks!

P.s. I got another top 10 position in a Redbubble challenge yesterday with Al Piccolo Bar by night, which is no mean fete when most are photographs – love it!

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