Just a little painting (20x30cm) that I did yesterday - I am so glad to see the blossom, I have always loved it and would love to have a blossom tree in my garden. Last year I missed the blossom altogether, as it hadn't come started in Glasgow by the start of May but was been and gone in New York.
So this year I am appreciating it enough for two years!
The Paisley Art Institute Open Show opens next Saturday and I am pleased to have two works up on display. This is my fifth year as this was the very first open exhibition I entered, the first time my work was shown to the public - and my first sale!
Anyway, promises to be a good show - I'll try and post my favs on facebook next week - so hopefully you can get along.
(For those of you wondering why I'm posting less these days, it's because big things are afoot.)
Is this photograph too dark?
This morning on my laptop it seemed fine - but now, on a different computer, it looks far too dark. This sis a problem I have had before - and as I use my laptop for most image manipulation etc it is important for me to work out. For example, I find the image shown on the camera itself is often too small to judge, so I take the laptop too, download an image or two, and adjust from there.
The worry is that doing this makes all my images too dark - reference material, publicity shots (ha! as if!) as well as the photographs of the paintings that I take. Although I do try and get most of my work professionally photographed these days, there are always some that slip through the net . . . or there isn't the time before a competition deadline.
What do you guys think?
Just a little one today - at 8x10 inches. Recently I have been thinking quite a lot about scale and I have decided that I will mainly work at a maximum of life size - it just seems to work better for me, rather than the big heads popular at places like the BP portrait award.
Partly this is because that although I do work in (many) layers, what you see (especially skin) is generally done in one go - and that gets difficult beyond a certain size.
The paintings done in the life room are also "one-go" paintings and don't seem to work if any edge is longer than 12 inches. I suspect this will hold true of painting plein air too.
So currently I am investigating supports - how to get good, small surfaces in various proportions - and this seems much harder than you'd think, with most manufacturers producing a very limited range. However, I have found a source of small stretcher bars and am working on stretching and preparing my own small canvases. Boy does oil primer stink!
Titling paintings is a very odd thing. Some have a title before they even start, some develop titles as they are painted where as others just stay "the blue one" while others only graduate to a title once they are painted.
And some still do not have a title then - like this poor painting. It has a name - that of the model (and bonus points to those who know who it is) - but not a title. Which is beginning to become a problem as it soon needs to go to the framers and then on to an exhibition.
So I am opening it up to the floor - any suggestions out there?
The above clearly is a painting, not a drawing, but was done at Wasps Studios Thursday Life Drawing Group.
It occured to me that I have been to lots of life drawing around Glasgow over the years, and it might be useful to you folks out there if I listed a few of the untutored, drop in groups.
My favourite still has to be the Friday group at Wasp's Hanson St, which runs from 1:30pm till 4:30pm, with a break for tea in the middle. This is the group that really encouraged me and set me on the path of being a professional painter - I cannot thank them enough.
But these days I can't go on Fridays, so have started going on Thursday mornings instead to Pam's group. This also runs in the big room on the right and often has the same models, but tends towards longer poses - perfect for painting. There is also cake and much chat.
Over at the Briggait there is a much smaller group on a Tuesday morning that every time I have been there has had a model I've not seen before. Because the group is small it is easier to decide on a pose and (like most groups) the standard of the other artists is inspiring. There is also just the one big window, giving more directional light than there tends to be at Hanson St.
All of these groups tend to be around seven pounds - to cover room hire and the cost of the model.
A cheaper option at four quid (but only two hours, not three) is All The Young Nudes at the Flying Duck every Tuesday night from 8pm. Being in a bar, there is booze - always a bit of a plus - but sadly as I normally drive there (there is a car park is just round the corner) I stick to the mugs of tea. There is a much younger, more informal group here - lots of student types - and a very wide range of ability and experience. Much effort is put into the music playlists, which is sadly lost on me as I'm a bit deaf. Oh well.
Another fun option is Dr Sketchy's monthly at the Tron. Must admit I've not been for a while, but they let you take photographs which was brilliant for figuring out stuff in the early stages. Also, the models normally do a bit of a burlesque routine which again tends to be a little lost on me but I can see the appeal.
Sandy is an amazing teacher (who first got me using oils) who runs both tutored and untutored classes in the Botanics - very handy for me - the Sunday afternoon four hour poses are especially useful and I'm glad to see more oil painters coming along to it now!
These are all the ones I have personally attended - please comment if you know any others.
My biggest and brightest painting so far - this is about a day's work. Had to stop this stage as most of the canvas covered in paint and I need it to dry before beginning the next stage.
There is a little slide show of how I got there over at youtube .
What I've done is pretty much just a sketch so far - general placement of values and colours - although I've not yet used any opaque paint, so the creams have still to be added. What'll I'll probably do next is work on the main horse - which is pretty dark - with a full range of colours and brushes, adding to it stroke by stroke, using what I've done so far as a guide as to where everything goes. This may take some time.
In theory everything should darken, except for the lights - leaving them to glow.
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