Acrylic Painting Scares Me!

Cecca

In my office/spare room sits a box of acrylic paints gathering dust. Often when I go in there, I glance across and think to myself "you haven't done a painting in acrylic for some time". In fact, the acrylic works that I have done can be counted on one hand. It's just as if I'm scared to get them out because a: I don't know what I'm doing with them and b: I can spend hours on a painting with them and the whole thing turns into one sticky mess!

fig.1

A few days ago, I decided to grab the bull by the horns and have another go. Running around my mind are great ideas for a painting in this medium, but on a large scale, and in the loft I know I have some fairly large canvasses on frames, which I would just love to have a go on, but I just don't have the confidence to start on such a large work. So, I got to thinking that I would start with a small work and see how I get on.


The work above is my attempt on a 10x7 inch textured paper. At our art club, I've watched speakers do demonstrations and have taken mental notes on how they go about a painting, and have brought this into play here. I started by giving the paper a thin wash with burnt sienna to avoid having any white parts showing through in the finished work. Next I roughly sketched out Cecca's profile with a brush and darker tone and waited a short while for it to dry off (fig1). With portraiture, you have to keep checking measurements all the time if you are going to get a good likeness, so next came the first round of corrections, shortening the nose and moving the mouth (fig.2).

fig.2

By the end of the first session, I had got to (fig.3). The mouth was still not right here, nor the nose and her hair largely undefined. At this stage, things were getting really sticky, including the palette!

Another afternoon saw the next session, where I completed the work, adding more definition to the nose and moving the mouth a little. This time I used an acrylic flow improver to give me more time before the paint dried out on me. This helped with the work on her jewellery and lace-work on the ruff. I could have worked more on the detail, but there comes a point when I think you have to say enough is enough, so I've called this one 'finished'!

fig.3

Last night I watched a program on TV about Lucien Freud - quite an amazing artist who's work is so dramatic but really rather vulgar I feel - nevertheless, incredible work. One of his quotes I found particularly true in my case - "the promise of happiness is felt in the act of creation but disappears towards the completion of the work". 

The source photo below is only of Cecca's head and shoulders from a larger picture, where this talented girl has made a complete outfit depicting Queen Elizabeth I. My intention, if ever I get round to it is to do the full painting of her in all her regalia of robes, crown and jewellery on one of my large canvasses. But first, I have to be sure that I am good enough for the attempt!

source photo

Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Rajasthan Lake, Jaipur.

This is the last painting with a Rajasthan theme before I move on to something new. This lake is somewhere near Jaipur, but I'm not sure where - could be Man Sagar Lake. I'm trying to get the feel for water, but at present it is still eluding me.

Rajasthani Woman

Rajasthani Woman: watercolour. Source: video frame.

Rajasthan lies to the North West of India bordering with Pakistan. While literally meaning "Land of Kings", it is also known as "Land of Colours", and it is easy to understand why, as everything in this country is so brightly coloured - furniture, embroidery, wall paintings and clothes.


The woman in this painting is wearing typical traditional clothing, most beautifully and brightly coloured, and adorned with beads and trinkets. Here, the cloth covering the head is both for protection from the heat as well as for modesty.


We hear that, the world over, traditional clothing is giving way to more modern attire, and I personally think that to lose traditional attire such as this would be a huge shame. Rajasthani women are the most beautifully dressed that I have ever seen.


I've tried to keep the work here as near as possible to the correct colours, but it is quite difficult to get the colours so bright and pure using those I have in my palette. Also, the photograph of the painting has lost some of the vibrancy of the work.

Gila. Confidence Regained

Gila. Watercolour and coloured pencil on 300gsm Cotman Paper

I've been through a really bad patch with my paintings for the last few months. There have been times when I've looked at a blank sheet of paper and given up before I've started. Where I have started, I've given up before finishing the work, or ended up with something dull and uninspiring - way below what I wanted to achieve. I know that I am busy at work these days, and when there has been time to paint, there always seems something else that needs doing.


Yesterday, it all changed. I thought to myself 'No TV tonight, I'm really going to make an effort, loosen up and do a painting from start to finish; not worry about how good or bad it turns out!'


With this portrait of Gila, I've used a slightly different technique. Out has gone the pencil and eraser, and I've used a mid brown coloured pencil instead, sketching her face very loosely, leaving in all the unwanted lines. If you look closely, you can see initial lines that were were altered, as with crayon there is no rubbing out. I also used the crayon to enhance the shadows and darks initially, just to show a little form before adding watercolour. This has mostly been covered with paint except lighter areas.


The finished work has given me much more confidence, being a good likeness and by the way it has turned out. I feel like I have just come out of a deep depression and that I am getting back on form. Thank the Lord!

Visit to the National Gallery, London.

Canaletto: A Regatta on the Grand Canal

While I have been to many local art exhibitions and seen some fabulous paintings, it had been playing on my mind recently that I really ought to visit one of the art galleries in London. This in mind, I booked a couple of train tickets for my wife and I earlier last month. The extraordinary thing about train travel is, though fairly expensive, if you can book your journey off peak, a month or so ahead, you travel for peanuts in comparison. Our tickets from Market Harborough to London cost £17 each – the same journey bought on the same day as travel would have been near £90 each!

Regatta: (detail)

 Although it was October, the weather proved outstanding, with a lovely warm sunny day where we were all walking around in our summer clothes, but unlike summer, it wasn’t too hot and we weren’t looking around for somewhere shady to be comfortable. The great thing about London is that there is so much to see, and like Paris, much of which on a grand scale. Our chosen venue was the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, a huge building with the most impressive portico elevated from the north side of the Square.  From this portico, the view across the Square was brilliant, dominated by Nelson’s column and those huge lions at the four corners of the statue, this set amongst the fountains, all rounded off nicely with Big Ben clock tower in the distance.

I learned later that the National Gallery houses well over 2000 of some of the world’s greatest paintings! More amazing though is the fact that entry to view these marvellous works is absolutely FREE! Having said that though, there is a large donation box as you go in, and as soon as I stepped inside the first hall and saw the magnificence of the work that greeted me, I realised that the note I dropped into that box was the best value for money I’ve had for a long time!

OK, I’ve seen some really old paintings at various historical houses we’ve visited over the years, but nothing could have prepared me for this. I was absolutely in awe of some of the works on display. So much so, that the amount of time it took me to take in various paintings left me way behind my wife in the viewing stakes! I was glad that we took advantage of the audio commentary, where we wore headphones, and just tapped in the painting number to hear the info on work and artist.

National Gallery, London (C)(Frank Bingley)

Some of the paintings were incredibly large, some taking up almost entire walls in these halls, which in themselves are huge affairs with sky high ceilings! This in itself had dramatic impact, but even more so was to see work by the likes of Monet, Renoir, Degas etc. close up and REAL – the actual work right before my very eyes. It is difficult to describe the effect of seeing a well-known painting in front of you rather than in a book or on the computer screen – just amazing!

A blogger friend of mine, Sandra, recently blogged of her visit to this place, where she was so taken by the works of Van Gogh. Well, I never got to see his work as it soon became very apparent to me that it would take considerably more than one day to see and appreciate everything on show in the National Gallery. I am very much a fan of Renoir, and I did get to see a number of his best known works, but the artist that I was so taken by was Canaletto. His huge works – vistas of Venice on a grand scale, were a marvel to behold indeed. His portrayal of all the buildings, canals and hundreds of people throughout his works was astonishing, and in such detail too. It must have taken him months, no years to paint these scenes. Incredible!

After we could no longer stand on our legs, a cup of coffee in one of the bars was a welcome respite. Here, there were lots of computer terminals where you could look up all the details and location of works on show. Again, free access – all the information readily to hand. Afterwards,  there were the (inevitable) gift shops, where one couldn’t resist coming away with a little souvenir of our day at the National Gallery, London.


This post duplicated on Market Harborough Art Club blog.

Nude Study

It's been 15 years since I did a nude study, or any type of life drawing. Not sure if this constitutes a life study, as I used a model from pixellovely gesture drawing, but it is the nearest I am going to get to a life study just now.


Goodness me, I'd forgotten how hard this can be! This should have taken me 30 minutes, but I spent a good hour on this, and went into too much detail (as usual). The medium here is Conte pastels, but being quite chunky sticks, I think it's impossible to get a lot of detail with them, and they are really, really messy!


This is on a large scale (A2) cartridge paper. My life drawing tutor from way back would not let us use any smaller than this, and I can see why, as with larger sheets you feel less restricted and end up with a looser drawing.


This has been an interesting little exercise, but I feel that I would have done a much better job if I'd have stuck to watercolour. The only point here being that, if I'd have used watercolour, I would have probably made the same old mistakes, whereas with pastel, I've managed to make a whole lot of NEW mistakes!

Foxton Locks

Foxton Locks

It’s been so long since I posted anything on here, that I should think most of you have deserted me!


To be honest, I really haven’t done a lot of art work over the last few months – there always seems something else that needs doing, and of course, you now the old saying about “a well-oiled rag” etc., well it really is true, because I am so very rusty that I may have to start all over.


This is a very quick sketch I did the other night of Foxton Locks. It’s a popular local attraction that gets very busy especially during the summer months, by both visitors and spectators alike. It consists of a staircase of ten locks, which raise or lower canal boats by more than 75 feet. The view is across the top two locks, and shows the upper side ponds, which save a lot of water that otherwise would be lost as the boats go through the system.


While this is only a rough sketch, intended for a proper painting that, well, may or may not get done, it has shown me how rusty I have become – something of a wake-up call really. If I am ever going to master this watercolour thing, I really have to buck up my ideas and get some practical work in!