A work-in-progress

I don't always remember to stop and taking photos of the various stages in a painting....at least I remembered this time (sort of)! lol

This painting is actually now completed, but here's the Work-in-Progress stages....keep in mind that the PINK is a Background colour only - 

Stage 1

Stage 2

 You’ll notice I changed the seat colour as felt it would be too similar to the blue background -

 Stage 3

Completed painting

Title: Safe Landing

measures 12" x 12"

Oil on Canvas

 ~ My inspiration: Based on a chair at Arlington Court National Trust ~

When you are faced with a wet and wild Saturday

The weather on Saturday was horrendous.  It had all been predicted by the weather gurus, so we were at least ready.

This meant quick dog walks, when we were nearly blown off our feet, so staying indoors for most of the day was the best option.   That gave me an opportunity to tackle a painting that has been waiting in the wings.  Well, the IDEA of a painting.   Now with the storm, I had no excuse.   Here’s a comment I gave on facebook when I had posted the finished piece...

 “I just wanted to say, and perhaps this will help some, but I went about this painting NOT with the notion it had to be Perfect.  Instead I looked upon it as an experiment, if it didn't work out, then I could learn from it.  That took any pressure off my inner critic as I could just Paint and Enjoy.  Turned out I'm very happy with this painting and also the journey of creating it, and that's a BIG part of the process for me.”

Like any painting there are Stages to the process:

1. The subject / Thumbnail sketches - getting the balance of the subject right

2.  Preparing the canvas / grid the canvas / draw the outlines

3.  Get ready to paint / Premix colours - Tones

4.  Have fun painting


Fortunately I remembered to take a photograph in the early stages of the painting, although I should  have done several step-by-step pics.  Anyway, here's the painting on the easel with the sky painted in.

The "PINK" is an acrylic coloured ground on the canvas.  It allows for little portions of the pink to show through when the palette knife/brush 'Misses' the canvas.  I don't fill ALL those little 'Misses' in to begin with, once they are filled, you can never get them back!  So I wait until the end of the painting and review the 'Misses' and cover some of them, leaving just a few to 'Sparkle'

Here's the completed painting:

TITLE:   TIME FOR TEA

(12" x 12" Oil on canvas)

Subject: The TeaRoom, Clovelly, Devon

~ ~ ~

Oil painting completed....

Cat on the windowsill painting which I've named:

"ON A SNOW DAY"

(measures 8" x 8" - will be framed when the paint is dry)

Cat on a windowsill....

At the Work in Progress stage

This painting measures 8" x 8"

and I've used mostly palette knife for it.

Tricky and fiddly with a palette knife on a small piece, 

but have been persevering.

Not finished as you see, but almost there....

Oil painting:Heron

Having completed a painting of the lake at Arlington Court, I decided to do a small painting of a heron. The heron is the iconic emblem for the estate, depicted in various places it holds an eel in its beak. The birds themselves can often be seen by the river and perched in the trees.

this is on a wooden block panel measuring 6" x 8"

Now it needs to be touch dry before I add *retouching varnish

(*protects the surface, this allows the painting to breath whilst the rest dries thoroughly)

🎨🎨🎨

Plein Air painting at Arlington Court

I never tire of painting over at Arlington Court.  When I think that the various locations have been painted enough, I find another angle and the view dictates the kind of painting, be it Landscape, Portrait or as in this case Square.  Seasonally it changes too, and also the weather makes a difference.

Last week I painted by the Lake, with the Lily's out.  It was slightly overcast, the occasional dark cloud threatened, but luckily it didn't come to anything.  At least it was cool enough to paint, temperatures recently have been high and HOT!

and guess what came along to see my painting

Yes, a Dragonfly.  It rested on the side of my pochade box for probably about 5 minutes. Time enough for a photo, perhaps it knew to wait.

The majority of the painting was done in the time I had, but I did complete finishing touches to it at home in the studio.

Here's the completed painting, and you'll see I added a couple of people
sitting on the bench overlooking the lake.

and a close-up of the piece, which measures 10" x 10".

 🎨 🎨 🎨 

Still busy with Oil paintings

Mostly using palette knife with a little brush work.  

~ Picked the cherries from our tree before the birds helped themselves ~

~ This one already has a buyer ~

 The Dining Room at Arlington Court

I have to admit, I have trouble photographing my work.  Either I'm too close and although it shows brushwork/texture it doesn't really convey what the overall painting is really like as they all look better up on a wall.

My next challenge is that having a number of these paintings to dry, where do I put them during that time?  (As you know Oil paintings can take about 3-4 weeks to be touch dry, they will then have Re-Touching Varnish applied to protect whilst still allowing them to breath and dry naturally).

So, with this challenge to hand, I asked my husband what we could make or buy to keep the paintings laying flat whilst they initially dried!   As he seems to be able to come up with something genius, the very next day he happened to go to the local Recycling Centre and came home with this...

As you see it is perfect, not only for canvas and board sizes 6" x 8" and also 10" x 8" (with an even larger one on the top), but it doesn't take up much room either AND  Each painting gets to dry on its own little shelf -

What was even better is

 this stand was FREE - win win.

🎨🎨🎨

Interior painting - Arlington Court

Because of the furniture etc in the House itself at Arlington Court, I'm not able to paint a scene there in person, so I do the next best thing and take photographs and copius sketches.

As you see from this photo, there's a lot of information to get, 

so I simplified it

A few lines, down  to basic forms

Setting out colour and tones by 'blocking in'

The final painting

As with all paintings, lessons are learned and I would actually approach this painting slightly differently another time.   I intend to keep this painting to look back on in the future and see how my "Interior Paintings" progress.  I'm always wanting to move on my skill level and push myself with technique, it's all an adventure.

Inspiration from a sketch

So inspired with a sketch of Hamish,

that I used it as reference for an Oil painting

...and I remembered to take photos of the various stages too...

🎨 🎨 🎨