Harbourside stage 3

I'm not sure if this is stage 3 or stage 4, but it's the next stage anyway.  I have added the buildings, copies from my sketchbook.  I couldn't get my printer to print them on the rather thick watercolour paper I have, so I printed them on some medium thick card.  I decided not to make them large and prominent, which had been my first thoughts.  Because the prints looked so good, I made the images a little smaller and got lots more on.  It reminds me of East Looe where the town down goes down the side of the estuary to the harbour, and I think one of the drawings was done there, but as in most of my 'harbour' pictures, it isn't anywhere really.

Harbourside, stage 3

I also added the boats in various collage papers.  It is all a little rough at the moment, but I love working from chaos to resolved painting.  I need to add more smaller boats in the background to give distance, and paint the houses a little, but not so much that I lose the graphic, drawing quality.  I don't usually have distance in my paintings, but this has happened all by itself, and I try and go with what the painting is saying to me.

I had a lovely day out yesterday, although I feel shattered today.  Diane Leach and I went to The Dutch House Gallery, nr Crayke, north of York  to see the work of Lesley Birch.  It was a fabulous exhibition although we didn't realise that it was preview afternoon, so very busy. I hate going to previews as people stand chatting IN FRONT of the work. There was also a very good ceramicist whose name I didn't write down sadly.  Her pots were wonderful.  We had lunch there and it was lovely and the cafe was full of art too.

We then went over to the Lund gallery at Alne, just the other side of the A19, and found that it was North Yorkshire open studio, and there were three artists there - all with fabulous work.  As it was Open Studio, we looked in the booklet and found another open studio on the way home, that also had three artists, held in a beautiful Victorian (?) racing stable.  I came home with my head absolutely crammed full of the imagery of over a dozen artists and some fantastic scenery, but went to bed at 9pm absolutely shattered.

From trees to harbours

I'm still not feeling 100% today, so I haven't done very much.  I came across this prepped canvas when I was trying to bring a little bit of order to the studio.  It started life in a series of trees, but this one never got finished.  When I picked it up today, upside down, I immediately saw it as another harbour scene - obviously I am in a mind set with harbours at the moment.  I added a little more blue ink to the overall canvas to give it the right feel for a harbour scene.

Textured deep canvas, 12 x 12 inch

It has tissue texture on the bottom half, and texture medium at the top.  I am thinking about copying some of my drawings of houses onto watercolour paper , and collaging them into the flat area.  I like the idea of blocks of smooth collage against the more texture top and bottom.  I may even add them onto some light molding paste so that they are raised from the surface slightly,  I will have to see what works.

No painting today, sore throat and headache.  I'm planning to go over to Easingwold on Saturday, so I hope this clears up quickly.

This is a quick Daily Drawing Practise drawing.

Orange Vase with figs

I was out most of the day as it was the first Wednesday of the month, which is Foston Studio day.  I had a lovely day, there were six of us today which made it work very well.  I managed to finish (I think) the piece I was working on last month, and I have started another which looks as if it will work OK.  I will post them on my other blog when I have time.

I worked on yesterday's pastel for half-an-hour after dinner tonight, but I had loads of other things to do, and I am rather tired.  The painting still isn't resolved, but it is getting better.  The bowl isn't the right colour, I think maybe dull green.

Orange vase with figs

Another busy day tomorrow, but hopefully I will get some time to paint.

Prepped boards for pastel work

As promised I have covered two boards with a random selection of collage papers, mostly hand-painted tissue.  When they were dry I added the pumice powder and acrylic medium mix.

collage beginning for pastel

collage beginning for pastel

I enjoyed making the boards and hope to find the time to work on them in the next few days.

Two posts in one day

I was really annoyed that I missed blogging on Monday, so I am posting again today to make up for it.

This piece is worked on a ground I made myself.  It started off as one of my abstract collages on board, I then applied a mix of pumice powder and acrylic medium to it, to give a key for the pastel.

I forgot to take a photo of the prepared board, so I will do another one tomorrow.  I enjoyed working on this surface, even though it was quite rough and wrinkled in places, it gives the pastel a fresco painting look which I like. The painting isn't finished, but I need to buy another fig before I can work on it any further.

Missed a day

I was so busy yesterday, I didn't get a chance to blog.  I am having another week where I am out most days, so fitting in painting and blogging is hard.


This is another beginning, in a red-violet - yellow-green complementary colour scheme.  These are colours I don't normally use, so it is a challenge.

still life beginning, 8 x 8 inch

still life stage 2

The little purple-pink shape is destined to be a fig.  I love the shape, texture and colour of figs but not the taste, so I don't buy them very often.  I like the way the fig and the vase are leaning in towards each other.
Hopefully I will get more done to this piece later this week.