at the 11th hour, 

on the 11th day, 

of the 11th month

we will REMEMBER them

AJ KEEN (my great grandad)
Photo: taken in France 1918 at the end of WWI  prior to returning
He had looked after and saved horses under fire, ultimately receiving a bravery award

Okay, so you have seen these paintings before....

but I just can't help but do a Vimeo of them on the shelving unit.  I'll keep them 'resting' there, then spray varnish with a breathable varnish, which will allow the deeper layers to dry naturally.

(here's a Screenshot)

and here's the 

Vimeo  ⤵︎

A look at Leading Lines

Leading Lines are important in a painting, although they may not be obvious. They tell the viewer where the focal point is and draw the viewers eye around the painting.  Not a new invention, the old masters used leading lines in their works and we still do today.

Here's my reference photo taken on a recent holiday in Cornwall

Veryan Beach

I do a quick sketch to get an idea of layout

in the next image I've added notes to show where the leading lines are

- also you will see a barely perceptible grid of thirds,

that's why I made a note about moving the building over to it

                                      ⤵︎

This was enough information for me to set out the drawing onto a

6" x 4" board for this oil painting

(small and quite fiddly to paint in detail, but nonetheless I enjoyed this little piece)

Palette Cleaning

I know!

not the most riveting of videos, but after all the oil paintings, thought you may be a tad interested in seeing how the 'palette' I bought a while back is cleaned up

(don't worry, it doesn't show ALL of the clean up, only part)

A small canvas on the easel

I tend to select a canvas size according to the subject I'm going to paint.

In this case it was a photograph our daughter had taken of a Lamb,

and I happened to have a small

8" x 8" canvas read and prepared with an acrylic background...

Looks very garish in pink doesn't it.

I love the anticipation of this stage in the process, itching to get paint on the canvas

and at the same time wondering if it will work.

In the eye of the beholder, of course, 

and it's up to others to decide if it's their cup of tea.

"A Day in Spring"

Oil on canvas

(think I did a slight "tweak" of this lamb AFTER I'd taken this photo,

but it was only slight and basically this is the finished piece)

As I have quite a few canvases prepared, and knowing there will be Wet Canvases sitting around in the studio, I decided to clear some shelf space in readiness for those wet Oil paintings

Oil painting on canvas

You may have noticed this painting yesterday in the slideshow,

thought it was worth it's own blogpost today.

This is one of my favourite Arlington paintings as the angle is so different.

It was also fun to paint, lots of thick paint on the palette knife...nothing like it,

and the painting virtually paints itself.  Believe me, that's true. 

Get the Tones right for each colour and your away.

Title:  "A Walk in the Meadow"

Size: 12" x 12"

Oil Paintings...

Here's a little slideshow of some recent

Oil Paintings

Knightshayes National Trust

Visiting National Trust properties always gives me lots of opportunities for Painting Reference Photos, and Knightshayes was no exception.

 Oil painting on canvas 16" x 16" (40 x 40cm)

alla-prima textured paint

Title:  "Once in a While"

Oil on canvas

Found the perfect shaped canvas in my stash 

already prepared with white gesso

(not that you need to pre-gesso canvases these days, they come with it already)

but there's this old fashioned part of me that likes to add gesso.  It's kind of like getting to know the 

canvas before the actual painting.

Having said that, I then add a coloured-ground of acrylic as well.  Nothing like belt and braces is 

there!

I did paint a version of the estuary at Crow Point, Devon only last week,

but having found this particular canvas 16" x 8", I knew exactly what would go on it.