Goofy flowers in a vase

Been trying lots of loosey goosey techniques this week. Quite like the goofy charm of this one..

Goofy flowers in a vase
A4 water-soluble oil pastels on paper

Hedgerow and Barn

Did a painting over the Easter holidays, inspired by life at the barn where we were a year ago.  I am also fascinated by hedgerow life and conservation.  I used acrylics for this piece on stretched canvas.  To make the marks, I didn’t use any brushes but potatos cut up to stamp the paint with, as well as cotton buds, cotton wool balls, sticks, pieces of wood and cardboard, even tin foil.  I was pleased with the final result and it has received a lot of compliments on Facebook.

‘Hedgerow and Barn’

Acrylics on stretched canvas.  Ready to hang – does not need a frame.

22″ x 18″ x 3/4″  or 56cm x 45.5cm x 2cm

Pictures below to show detail and reverse.

New series – flower studies.

These are the first in a series of flower studies.

All on A3 double gesso-ed acrylic paper.

‘Cosmos – mixed’

Oils blended with glazing medium on acrylic inks background.

‘Daisies in sunlight’

Acrylics on acrylic ink background.

 

Oil pastels and paints – blended with glazing medium on acrylic ink background.

‘Cosmos -2’

‘Pastel poppies’

Oil pastels blended with glazing medium

Oil Bars

Apologies for such a long time in posting any arty updates – been lots of family things to sort out lately, I’m quite exhausted by all of that, so let’s get on with it hey?

I discovered Winsor & Newton Oil Bars quite by accident and only have a small selection at this stage.  But boy am I enjoying this new found freedom.  I am still doing fiddly small things while I get used to manipulating the oil bars on different surfaces.  These are some of the more recent things I did over the weekend.

 

‘Patchwork landscape with blue’

14.5″ x 10″ or 37cm x 25cm – actual painting size.

Acrylic inks, oil bars and oil paints on acrylic art pad.

Surface worked with sgraffito technique

 

‘Poppy field’

9.5″ x 6.5″ or 24.5cm x 16 cm

Acrylic inks, Oil bars and oil paints on Daler Rowney acrylic paper

Surface worked with sgraffito technique

 

‘Poppy field with buildings’

7″ x 5″ or 18cm x 12cm

Acrylic inks, oil bars and oil paint on mixed media paper.

Surface worked with sgraffito technique

I am also working on a largre canvas piece, as well as a larger landscape piece but these aren’t ready to put up here yet.

Hope you enjoy!

Small soft pastel paintings

A few more soft pastel paintings … I’m now using Rembrandt materials, although some of these were done with the other pastels I already had.

    This is sold

These are each about 11″ x 10″

Various … oil and soft pastel experiments

‘Oil Poppies’

Approx. 12″ x 8″

Underpainting of alcohol inks, added area of gold metal effect medium, then overpainted with oils (not artist quality) on canvas board.

I didn’t have any linseed oil or other mediums, as well as cleaning solvents, so was hesitant to try out these oils but then discovered that I could use Baby oil to dilute the paint and to clean the brushes, also much better on the skin!  So far the baby oil doesn’t appear to have created any dull patches – the paint is still wet, I expect it will only be dry and fully cured in a month’s time.   The oils and canvas board came with the set I describe below.

Soft pastel studies – my first attempts using this medium:

‘Dartmoor landscape’ from reference photo in a book.

Approx. 11″ x 7″

Soft pastels (not artist quality) on cheap scrapbooking type project paper (blue).

‘Orange landscape’

Approx. 5½” x 7″

Soft pastels (not artist quality) on cheap scrapbooking type project paper (blue).

Footnote:

I was given a compact artist’s kit comprising oils, acrylics and watercolour materials, plus palette and sample canvas boards, sketching pads, brushes, painting knives etc. etc. for a Christmas present.   These sample paintings are the results of playing about with the stuff in the kit.

I have never used soft pastels (chalk pastels) before and am finding them really fun to work with.  I enjoy the way I can layer over the colours and blend to get quite interesting effects.  This has inspired me to try and purchase better quality soft pastels as soon as I can, as well as some good quality paper – I’d like to turn out more impressive work in the future – so watch this space!

I hope everyone who visits this page had a lovely Christmas and everything of the very best fo 2017 – let’s hope it’s a positive year for all of us!

Mixed Media

This was a commission.   (Not my usual style!)

“Cosmos”

Acrylic, putty, iridescent paints on stretched canvas

30″ x 24″

 

Texture detail

 

This painting is for sale on eBay