Drying Rack

I have quite a few smaller panels on the go at the moment and reached a point where I had so many to paint and not enough places to store them while they dried.

This little gizmo, a dish-drying rack is just perfect - now I just have to find a space to put it where it won't topple over!

See all those paintings on there?  Yup, I have been painting, more about those at a later date.

(Also, I am sorry not to be following blogs at the moment, I am trying to find a new blog reader to replace the Google one which is being discontinued.)

Works in Progress from Sketchbook Studies

After sending off all my paintings to the gallery, I decided to clean and repaint the studio and it is only today that I got some serious painting done.

Working in oils from a an old sketch only - I have no photographs to help and I cannot remember where the scene is apart from possible in Grantown on Spey area in Scotland (along the whisky trail).

I had previously worked the underpainting in crimson, yellow and cerulean blue, establishing the main shapes.  Today, I worked in local colour all over and now it is too wet to do anything else until it dries a little.  I want to establish some more shadows and put in some highlights.

It has been fun to do as the sketch isn't very detailed and this has forced me to work loosely which is what I am aiming to do with my painting.

All Wrapped Up

All my paintings are wrapped up and ready to be delivered to the gallery - it seems oddly empty around here now.

Time to tidy up the studio and get started on a new body of work.

Finding Possibilities in my Sketchbooks

I really shouldn't be starting new paintings, I have enough for my exhibition, but I was going through my old sketchbooks and found two plein air pieces that I thought might be good worked up into full pieces.

The first is an old watercolour, that I continued working on later at the place I was holidaying and I kind of overdid it.  I have no additional photographs of the place (I didn't carry a camera around quite so much in those days and it was before I got into digital photography) so I have to work from this sketch alone.  I wonder if I can do it?  It will be fun trying:

Oh dear, it is quite bad, isn't it?  I am very embarrassed to show this!

The next one is not much better, I worked in pastels on this one and, again, brought it back home and worked on it further.  Likewise, no additional backup photograph, but it is a local scene here and I can go back and refresh my memory, although the bales won't be there, I am sure!

Well, it is worth a try and I will post here my results! 

Summers Storm - Another Work in Progress

I began this 3 foot wide painting just a week or so ago and it has been occupying my painting time ever since.

One of my favourite subjects to paint are hay bales, maybe it was my earlier years when I avidly studied Monet's haystack series, I don't know, but I always enjoy seeing them in a sunlit field.

Here it is with the key elements blocked in, I used the largest brush I have and will continue to do so throughout this painting to keep a loose fresh feel to it.

 Here, I have begun to work into the clouds, they form an important part of the composition and I wanted to be sure to get them right. 

After a couple more sessions, where I brought the landmass down a bit as it was creeping a bit too close to the half-way mark (naughty, naughty) and a lot more work in the field areas.  A few hay bales have been hoisted all over the field. I really should have planned that out better before I started painting!

Here it is, very nearly finished, I have a few adjustments to make, but I want to keep it loose and fresh, so will not fiddle, I promise.

Summer Road Revisited

So in an earlier (much earlier) post of August 2011, I showed the work in progress of a panoramic painting of a road nearby.  I brought it to a conclusion some months later, or so I thought.

It was hugely popular and despite quite a bit of interest and two offers to buy it, I wasn't totally happy and kept on feeling it needed some more work.

Finally, after a lot of contemplation, I knew it needed quite a bit of work, mostly in the sky and also in the very foreground.  I worked some more on it and this is how it looks now:

Much better!  It has now sold even before going on exhibition and goes to its new owner when it comes back from framing.

I Aintn't Dead

This poor blog has been sadly neglected over the last year or so.  Work and life had got in the way of updates, but of course, I am still painting!

I will post more pictures of my paintings over the next few days, but shall leave this up as a taster, a detail of a larger painting: