Your Painted Face (part 1)

Tessa! As I do more water colour, I'm picking up up more on the wet on wet technique and layering of tones I love. For this image I drew in some of the line work in a way that would compliment the washes and give the image an underlying structure. I left spaces of white and lighter tones, thinking ahead a step or two to what I wanted it to look like. At the same time, the WC has a mind of it's own so I'm trying to preserve that looseness and airiness which is characteristic of this medium. I've omitted red and added instead, green and blue washes to the background. Tessa's gone now, but her memory lives on and I was pretty happy with how this turned out.

Tessa! 

(below) Another Water Colour study. I had too much going on here, too much paint and too heavy handed. 

So I decided if that's how it's going to be I might as well put more on, do more and try to give it life in that direction.

 In the end I was happy enough with it.

I had to come back over with white WC paint which I hate doing, but I'd already blotted out most of any of the white paper I'd been trying to leave with the blue. 

I stayed with the theme of red. It's not easily seen in this reproduction, but the girl's lips are red. A small point of interest as well as part of the era (watercolour on WC paper - 130gsm).

'early one morning when the sun was shining' 

(below) This series of water colour studies was done with red  as my starting point. My imagination took over from there!  I was also inspired by my daughters 'four girls' drawings. (Water Colour on WC paper 175 gsm)

 Fiona (no 4)

in  red (no3)

close up

 red coat  (no2)

 study (no1)

child's face in shadows (no 5)

Your Painted Face (part 2) - Four Girls and More!

                            

      1. girl in a green skirt                                                                      2. girl in a pink dress

3. girl in a blue shirt                       4. girl in a yellow skirt                                                                                  

more drawings by my daughter: you may be out for a meal and only have the back of a napkin,you may only have the backof a folder containing the kid's work from the class you teach inside, it might only be a scrap of paper, a stick in the sand - keep being creative.

These works below are by my daughter, most of which were for her final year exhibition Major in 2008.

they are charcoal/ watercolour/ ink portraits about family.

1

2

3

4

5

(this one was sold at exhibition)

6

7

8

9

10

I've included these drawings by my daughter because of her simple approach to subject and materials. I like the lightness she achieves with soft edges and tones. I particularly like the blurring between the mediums of painting and drawing. There is enough detail to capture the mood of the subject and allow the viewer to feel and imagine as they are drawn into the work. The simplicity of the final works defies the many layers of medium that are applied and reworked to create the desired effect.            


                                                                                                 

road home series (2 images)

       tree lines (reflective lines)

                                             close up 

road home series (3 images)

food lines 1

 food line landscapes

road home series (3 images)

walking 1

walking 2

walking 3

road home series (6 images, acrylic)

 landscape 1

 landscape 2

  landscape 3

  landscape 4

 landscape 5

road home series (5 images)

hanging lines

Materiality is an essential component of my work, giving it tactility, strength and groundedness. 

At the same time, my aim is to convey a sense of subtlety and lightness through organic forms. 

white toilet paper lines

black toilet paper lines


I use available materials, natural and human-made, to make marks, lines, shapes and forms. These in turn speak their own language and also reflect my connection to them as artist.

 plastic landscape 1


The essential interrelatedness of all life underpins my work, as does the ambiguousness of human and natural world relationships.

plastic landscape 2

Whilst my practice incorporates serious content, there is also an element of playfulness in my approach to materials and subject matter. 

road home series (2 images, sculpture)

pink wall lines

In this work I am attempting to get at the core of what home means. The work draws on a personal childhood memory of home; vertical, pink tongue & groove bedroom walls. In the larger context, it attempts to establish the connection between natural and human-made worlds. Marks or lines feel their way in and around the slats; traces of life, existence past and present. Home as something felt, is fundamental to all creatures. My aim is to express feeling subtly and minimally through the work’s simple form and material presence.

made from empty soy milk containers, house paint and plastic bags, these might represent buildings, trees or just piles of rubbish!

tree towers

road home series (6 images & objects) cardboard & paperworks

road home series (3 paintings)

 land lines (mixed media)

trees in mist (acrylic house paint)

pink tree lines (acrylic)