The Grandgirls: Sisters

 

d) The final cut. Took ages to come back to and finish. Still a bit tight, but working on freeing up more with three new ones I've started. 

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I wanted to be able to paint a picture in a day - here is its progress from early this morning.

I am hoping to complete it by tonight. My aim is to free up how I apply paint and capture more of the essence and feel of the subject, whilst in portraits at least, still maintaining a good likeness. 

I am pleased with how this one is working. Sometimes things come together unexpectedly. 

Sisters, acrylic on canvas, 40cm x 30cm (Started 27-11-2015)

a) 

b) 

c)

When the Cows Come Home No.2

I was not happy with the original composition of my cows painting; the tree I put in at the last minute, which is actually in the real scene, just broke it up and stopped the flow of the lines - bands - of colour. I scratched the tree out the other day, painted over it, and painted the first poor cow's head back in, like I originally had it. 
Sometimes you just need to do something, look at it for a while and then change it. I'm a lot happier with it now. Still a bit tight, but working on that...

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I started this one 2 weekends ago while painting "The Picnic / Walk' (see previous post) which I am going to leave now for a while as I it seems I have come to a bit of an impasse with how to tie the background in with the figures.
In this painting I wanted to be able to say "...And here's one I did today!" But it went on a bit longer than that. It is an experiment in freedom and loosness (so to speak), which succeeded to some degree, but still is a bit 'tight' and more realistic than I'd hoped, with me trying (to hard?) to balance detail with more abstract qualities, like bands of colour and shapes. I think I need to try another one using the same subject matter, and concentrate on colour and shapes more, this time working on a larger scale - and not think about it so much. I'm still happy enough with it - the colours kind of work well.

It is only about 18cm x 12cm. Most of my posted recent work is around this size.

At the moment I am trying to make my leaky, no-walled, non-possum-proof shed into a studio of sorts so I can work on larger scale pieces, instead of only working in my smaller indoor space. So here's hoping my next painting is bigger and looser and freer!
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Here are some close ups of some of the figures from the previous painting, which I will leave on the back burner for now.

My lack of camera skills have left these all looking a bit blurred!

The Picnic: work in progress

a.

b.

c.

d.                        Latest incarnation of 'The Picnic', perhaps to be renamed, 'The Walk'

e.                     Getting there; figures need completing and still to decide on the background.

The Picnic (first posting)

 a. 'the picnic' - drawing

b. 'The Picnic' is a working title. Building up layers of colour and texture of the background, creating some atmosphere, but wondering what a more stylised (less realistic) approach might look like. Maybe I'll do another one... 

A Girl Called Maria

A Girl Called Maria, 2015, approx 35 x 40 cm, 

Indie Ravelle

Another beautiful little (unfinished) drawing by a beautiful artist I know, whose drawings also feature earlier in my blog.

The Process - A Girl Called Maria

Finally, the last posts for 'A Girl Called Maria". The completed work and close up of hands and head (well completed as much as I will post here).
smile emotico

I wanted to make Maria's eyes reflect some of her youth and vibrancy and her hands look like they have seen a lot of work; I tried to bring out her beauty and strength. Maria owns a fish&chip shop and has worked there and on her parent's farm all her life. Our family has been calling in to her shop during our travels for over 20 years. 

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Almost done. These are close ups of final stages of arms, hands and overall image.
a)

b)

Sometimes I like to work upside down as I am getting closer to completing a work. It helps with perspective, placement of shapes and line and basically making things match up and fit good and proper!

c)

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This is the second installment of images of this work in progress. A little closer to finishing. Taking longer than I thought. Trying to keep the life and freshness in it. I am out of practice - must find a faster way of working on my next paintings. Realistic is good but a good 'impression' can sometimes be as good if not better, as far as capturing the character of the subject. It's all trial and error and practise I guess.

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This is a work in progress. The separate images show some of the process from near the beginning onwards.
The final work will be posted when it is closer to completion. The quality of the photos is bad but hopefully you get some idea of what I'm trying to achieve. More info on context for this portrait when I post the final image.
Getting back to painting has been a long time coming, but hopefully this is the road back. I have decided to do some portraits; this will be the first of, hopefully, many more!

Bird portraits

The 'chookens', line drawing

Yellow tailed Black Cockatoo, pen sketch / drawings

Face Drawings

 Ma, and daughter on her wedding day

 An art deco feel. This is one of many sketches for what will one day be a painting.

A beautiful grandgirl (who I've managed to make look more like her Dad when he was small, than she already does).