Playing catch up

I seem to be in the mood to write posts today, so I am taking advantage of it.  I feel so much better having worked out why I am not being so productive.  I accept that I am not going to be a "painting a day" sort of person.  I need to work on several pieces at the same time, going back from one to the other.  Often two out of three paintings may be abandoned as not worth pushing further.  It's the way I work, so I'm not worrying about keeping up with a painting a day.  I do feel that I need to blog most days though, otherwise I could stop working at all.

I am my own worst enemy though as I have added another string to my bow, and I am now spending around an hour each evening doing scale model buildings for my husbands model railway.  I have been promising to do them for over a year, and there is nothing on the TV in the evening.  I am quite enjoying doing them as I am working on a kit at the moment and just have to follow the instructions.

I realised today that there is yet another exhibition I wanted to enter, although it is only the entry form that has to be in by next weekend, and not the actual work.  This is a 'postcard' exhibition being held at Woodend, Scarborough.  There is only one stipulation, and that is that they be 6 x 4 inch (10 x 15cm).  As several of my watercolour paper experiments turned out so well, I though this was an ideal opportunity to use some of them.  I just need to choose, trim if necessary, then count the number I want to enter.  So not a huge undertaking.

More mini canvasses

I have been thinking about why I feel I am not getting on with work since I came back from holiday, and I have come to the conclusion that I was working an 8-10 hour day then, and it isn't something I can keep up.  I am therefore going to stop beating myself up about it and just try to go with the flow.

Just to show willing, and to bump up the number of posts, here are a couple more of the mini canvasses.  I managed to work on them between trips out.

stage 1, painted canvas

I quite enjoy doing the backgrounds, they don't always come out looking good, but it's fun to let the acrylic inks flow and run.

stage 2, adding collage

On this piece I have just started to add the collage, and it obviously needs blending in, using some tissue type papers for the beach and the space between the beach and the houses.  I love how the sea has turned out on this one, so may just put in some beach umbrella's rather than boats.  I think this one will have to be called 'Low Tide'!

Missed another day

I can't seem to catch up with myself since I came back from holiday.  I planned a quiet day yesterday, but it didn't turn out like that as I had work to get ready for an East Riding Artist exhibition.  Today I have to take it to the venue, so another day broken up - it's also Slimming World this morning, and I have to call in at the framers for the next exhibition's work.  That exhibition has to be in next Sunday!

Anyway, I did get a little work done yesterday and Sunday.  I am trying out working on some small canvasses I bought last year and never used.  They are tiny, 5 x 7 inch.  I bought a pack of canvas boards and a pack of shallow stretched canvasses.  I am finding them very fiddly.

stage 1, painted background

I painted the backgrounds first with acrylic inks.  Some I added salt to make a bubble texture, and some I just sprayed with water.  The one above came out particularly well.  I could use it this way up and have an orange sky, which I love, or I could turn it around and have a beach with a stormy sky.

stage 2, collage added and windows painted

On most of the canvasses I am adding collage to some degree, although one or two I have just painted.  The one above is mostly collage.  The next stage is the very fiddly stage of painting in the window bars, and chimney pots, on the houses, adding masts and other bits and pieces to the boats.  I may add a beach umbrella or three.

These are not giving me the same feeling as the free-flowing landscapes on the watercolour paper.  I am finding them fiddly and frustrating.  There are five or six of each type of canvas, and I am going to get them finished and out of the way.  I may then try a similar imagery on watercolour paper.

I haven't got back to the compositional exercises I was doing, and doubt if I will in the near future.  Sometimes you just have to let plans go.

Angie McCall workshop

I was out all day again yesterday and was so tired when I got back that I forgot to post again!  I had a lovely day, although I didn't like the work I produced there, but at least I did get some work done.  Everyone else at the workshop painted watercolour flowers, but that just isn't me.  I thought the workshop was about collage, so this was a compromise that didn't work.

I'm hoping for a quiet day with a little work, so will post again later.

Cornish fishing boats

This is a piece I started whilst on holiday, and I worked on it for a little while this afternoon.  It needs loads more work, and something happening in the mid ground which is a bit empty at the moment.  I decided to post it today, to make up for the missed post yesterday.

Cornish fishing boats, acrylic mixed media collage, 10 inch square

I don't know whether to add more boats, or just add more detail to the quayside.  Everything seems to be a struggle at the moment, and only a month ago painting seemed to be getting easier, but I don't ever think it does get easy really, unless you paint the same thing over and over again.  I want to learn and move on, not stay in the same place, but it is hard.

Missed post

I missed posting yesterday, I just forgot.  I have been out every day since I got back from holiday and am just so tired.  I need to get back into a routine of working in the studio, and hopefully I can get going again next week as I am only out one day and one evening.

Here is another of the Renishaw Hall experiments.  I was trying out texture paste and tissue, and was in a hurry to see how it looked so didn't bother with the drawing much, or even letting the texture stuff dry properly and it shows.

Renishaw Hall front

I like the quirkiness of the centre tilted walls, but it isn't quite what I want in the final painting.  I need to do lots more drawing and experimenting.  I added some soft pastel white and ochre, and I do like the broken effect, but think it would work better as part of the painting, in a dry brush technique.

 

Experimental Composition No. 3

Today's composition is less than exciting, but in my defence I had very little time.  It was Foston Studio Day today, and I had to go out before 9am and didn't get back until after 4pm.  I had a lovely time, and hope to write about it on my other blog Material Matters, which is sadly falling by the wayside at the moment, as is my sketchbook/ideas book.

Experimental composition No. 3 parallels in monotone

I'm out again tomorrow, stewarding at the Old Town Gallery, I'm taking a sketch book to work on the Renishaw Hall project, but I'm also taking a couple of books and may give myself a break and just read.