I`ve got a new blog

I`ve started a new blog for my paintings. www.2012artblog.blogspot.com  It`s got my paintings on that I`ve done since the new year.

Portrait of my daughter Stephanie, for her 15th birthday.

This is a watercolour painting of my daughter Stephanie. It`s on Arches rough watercolour paper, using M. Grahams paints, plus 1 or 2 other brands. The size is 15x11".

I worked from a photograph that I had taken of her a few months ago. In the photograph she is wearing fixed braces, but she has since had them removed, so I used a touch of artistic licence to paint the mouth area.

I`m quite pleased with how this painting has turned out, and it has renewed my love of painting portraits, so I think I`ll be doing more in the future...........watch this space.

trying out watermixable oils, and all sorts of stuff

Although I`ve had a set of these for donkeys years, I never actually painted a picture with them. After seeing a few of my friends using them at art group I decided to "Give them a try" and this is what I came up with. It`s quite difficult to photograph oils, but you get the idea. The colours aren`t quite that bright IRL, and there are more variations in the sky colours, with pinks and lilacs amoungst the blues.
I have to say, I loved using the WMO, and I will definately use them again.

Another picture I painted this week was the following...........back to my old faithful.......watercolours.

I love painting night scenes, with all the bright colours reflected on the water.

Yet another St Mary`s lighthouse.

...........just trying these colours for a bit of fun. I enjoyed using the bright yellows and pinky colour together.......a very eye catching combination.

I took the reference for the above painting several years ago, but never got round to painting it.

While I was waiting for the sky to dry on the St Mary`s lighthouse painting, I played with this.

All tied up

I liked playing with lots of wet in wet washes, and I used candle wax resist, for texture........ I liked playing with the different techniques so much, it was hard to know when to stop......lol

At Last!....... I can finally add this painting to my blog..........

Baby Esmai, painted several weeks ago, but the recipitent only got it this week.

As you can tell, I`ve been busy.

Rainy day

I couldn`t get into my painting yesterday, so I did this quickie. It was painted very quickly, with almost all of it done wet in to wet, appart from the figures.

I painted this picture of St Mary`s lighthouse yesterday too. (before the Picture above)

Today I had a bit of a fiddle with my painting that I did in the Joe Hush workshop. I`m still not happy with it, so I will be doing it again someday hopefully..........it`s slightly better than it was.

Latest paintings.

It seems like an eternity since I last posted here. My life has been pretty busy lately.

I went to a workshop with a fabulous artist by the name of Joe Hush last week.
I really enjoyed it......... although I`m not keen on my version of his picture.

 My trouble was, I kept fiddling while I waited for Joe to do the rounds. I would like to paint this again someday, but without the fiddling. I found that I had too much time on my hands and so I over worked it all. Never mind......there`s always tomorrow, to try again.
I do like my farmer and sheep though....lol.

This is as far as I got during the work shop, the rest I finished off at home......

Another painting that I have done recently is Ruth`s reference of some juicy red grapes.

I have painted this picture several years ago, from a reference photo by my friend Ruth Harris.

I prefer my earlier attempts, but here is the newest painting anyway.

OOOOOHHHH, and I nearly forgot to mention...

I entered 3 paintings into the Federation of Northern Art Society`s autumn exhibition, and all three paintings were juried in, that was a nice surprise.

The exhibition is on until January 29th at the Woodhorn Museum, if you are interested in popping in for a look-see.

North shields fish quay at nighttime

I`ve painted this scene before, but in the day time. I love painting night scenes, and so I couldn`t resist having a go at this.

For once in my life, I`m quite pleased with how this painting turned out...... and judging from all the lovely comments it got from art group this afternoon, there are a few people who also liked it.

It looks like a very detailed painting, but the "details" are just blobs of colour, and lines here and there, There are very few details in the painting really, if you look closely.

It`s painted in watercolours, with a few touches of white acrylic for some of the high-lights.
Hope you like it, thanks for looking.

Sunny sunflower.

It`s been a miserable week weather-wise, so I thought I`d get in a last few "Rays of sunshine" before the winter arrives.

I started this off at Tuesday night`s art group, but only finished it on Thursday night, because I wasn`t feeling very well. After a busy weekend, this is the first chance I`ve had to get a photograph of the painting.

I enjoyed doing this, because of the bright colours.

 I  worked quite rapidly, and wet into wet for almost the whole painting. Appart from letting the flower dry completely, before painting in the background