Some new work

Well, we have at last settled into our new house.   My painting space is very limited but I’m managing to scrape a hole big enough for myself and the paints … the large one below [abstract seascape) was painted mostly outdoors, great fun that was in 32 degrees C, trying to keep the acrylics wet!

The others were kinda commissions – Bay scene (Devon) was requested by the lady of our house and is now enconced in our seascape themed downstairs bathroom.  Photo is crap, ‘cos there’s not enough room to stand back and get it in the camera frame properly.  Never mind.  The poppies was requested by a friend of mine, hope she likes it.

 

‘Seascape with sand texture’

Acrylics, inks and texture paste (sand) on stretched canvas.

120cm x 100cm x 4cm

 

‘Bay- Devon’

Acrylics and inks on stretched canvas 100cm x 39cm

 

‘Poppies and wheat’

Acrylics and inks, gel pastes, structure pastes on stretched canvas.  45cm x 35cm

View below is minus the reflection.

New mixed media

Quite some time ago I started working on a series of paintings relating to the South African landscape, for some reason I didn’t finish that work.  I decided to go back to one of them over the weekend and this is the result, might still do a bit more tweaking (as always!).  This area holds a very special place in my heart (and psyche).  It is one of the most beautiful parts of the world, glorious in any weather.  This is a view of the ampitheatre from the river below. (My own reference photos)

For this one I used acrylic inks, soft pastels, then oil pastels on mixed media paper.  Paper size is 16.5″ x 11.5″ (A3), painting takes up all surface of the paper.

 

New small painting

‘Little Field’

Acrylic inks, oil bars and oil paints on gesso-ed multi_media paper.

This small painting is available to purchase here

I am using this post to test out connection to my existing blog community on WordPress.  I am not certain that my website is visible to you all and I’d appreciate comment if you can or can’t see the website via this post.

My website address is:  http://www.janiceheatherscott.com

 

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!

Yee-ha

Yesht, so I have managed to eventually get myself sorted out with a bit of space to paint in.   I tried it out today because the rest of the family have gone away for the weekend, so I could make as much mess as I liked and actually get to concentrate on something for a whole day. Wonderful.    I made a little video of the process I use to make paintings on stretched canvas (that are considered abstract) … I don’t work like this all the time.

Anyway, hope you enjoy and I’d appreciate comments on my video if you have the time (or inclination) … be brutal, I can take it.  [Yeah, right] This is the finished product:

‘Sea and Sand’

21 ½” x 18″ x ½”   [55cm x 46cm x 1.5cm]

Acrylics and inks on stretched canvas.

 

 

New mixed media abstract work

“Reef”

14″ x 10″ (A3) unframed 297mm x 420mm

Liquid acrylics (inks), Rembrandt soft pastels, Pebeo gold effect foil on 140lb acrylic paper (Daler Rowney system 3)

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!

Ink landscapes

Yes, I’ve been absent from WordPress for quite a while … the whole of November has been a bit of a bugger up on my side – mainly because I’ve been in and out of hospital.  I’m on the mend now and getting stronger all the time but it’s been a very long, stressful and  frustrating process, don’t recommend it.

I was doodling about with inks recently, just to see if I could still do something artistic while I was feeling so down.   So here are the results … one (the daisies) was a request from a friend of my daughters, I hope she likes it.

 

 

“Inky summer sky and field” 14″ x 10″ Inks on A3 mixed media paper 250gsm

“Daisies” 10″x 8″x ½” Inks on Streched Canvas

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Art exhibition!

I’m very pleased to write here that I’m going to be exhibiting five works in a local show, which is to be held towards the end of October.  I understand up to a hundred artists take part in this exhibition, so this is a brilliant chance for me to meet and mingle with fellow painterly types and make some connections (I hope).    I’ve had very positive comment from the curator of the show on my work.    I’m going to be showing the following pieces:

One large work:

And four smaller paintings:

  

 

Some new thingies

“New beginning”

Acrylic, inks, gels and pastes on stretched canvas.

17½” x 23½” x ½”

Close up of texture.

 

“Going for a walk”

Acrylics on stretched canvas

20″ x 16″ x ½”

Close up of texture:

Untitled – August 2016

I am going to stop now … quite happy with it on the wall.

 

120cm x 100cm x 4cm

Acrylic, inks, pastes and gels (for texture) on stretched canvas.

Below to show room view …

Doodling

 

“In the field”

10″ x 8″

Acrylics, Inks, collage, gels, gold foil on acrylic canvas board/panel.

Close ups of texture:

I’ve been in a bit of the creative doldrums since I returned from South Africa, artistically speaking.  Pottering about with clay hasn’t really helped, it’s just made me work small and that’s not what I’m about.  I decided yesterday that I needed to put all the clay away and get back to er ‘making art’ … lest I forget how.

Again, I’m working small, so I wasn’t feeling very confident.   I started working with tissue and forming the texture, the ground … I wasn’t really sure where I was going other than I wanted the little panel to express a feeling of wide open space and emotional depth.     Then I got to thinking about the other evening when my daughter and I were travelling home from doing our shopping.   It’s almost harvest time here and the wheat and barley in the fields is very high, golden brown and thick.   In this vast expanse of golden beige, there he was just popping his head out of the grasses to have a look around.  So he became the inspiration for this final bit of rather naive collage.

I hope to be able to get going with a very large canvas I have sitting around downstairs next week, it’s calling to me.

Collage on panel

“Big sky and windmill”

10″ x 8″

Acrylics, Inks, found collage materials (for the foreground) on acrylic canvas board.

Close up:

This is very much a bit of whimsy.  I will not be posting on here for a few weeks, as I’m going to be in South Africa soon for a short holiday, visiting friends and family.

Collage on paper

“Field study”

15 ½”  10 ½”

Acrylics, inks, found objects (threads), aluminium foil and gels on acrylic paper.

Close ups of texture:

The rape seed fields are now turning a glorious golden / electric yellow – I took this picture whilst out on my own last week, when I went to go and find some bluebells in our local woods.

Bluebells at Tyrrel’s Wood

 

Collage on panel

“Hot – study”

“10” x 8″

Inks, glitter, found items for texture, pebeo fantasy prisme paints (for the round ‘stones’ in the foreground) on acrylic canvas board.

Photos to show texture:

Abstract on canvas – large

“Sea”

47″ x 39″ x 1 ½”

Acrylics, metallic paints and inks, on stretched deep wrap canvas.

Ground has been highly textured over a period of months, resulting in a very robust, cured surface that is quite hard.  I used caulk, modelling paste and other gels to get the texture.    It’s currently hanging in my bedroom (swamping my room as well because it’s quite a large painting), ‘cos I don’t have anywhere else to put it!

 

Close ups of texture detail

   

Abstract on paper

“Reef”

11 ¾”  x 7 ¾”

Own modelling paste and Inks on acrylic paper

Smaller photo below of picture in a pre-cut frame.

This is heavily textured and I decided to only use inks for colour.

Close ups of texture – sorry took the photos as light was fading, so I’ve got glare on the image.

Abstract on paper – mock up for larger work

 

Close ups of texture:

UPDATE:  After weighting the painting last night, it’s not as rippled as in the previous photograph – so I’ve updated this post with new photos.

Another reason why working on acrylic paper is not always the best thing for me to choose but I didn’t have any canvasses lying around that were ready and as I’ve got kids home for the Easter holidays, time is limited.   The paper  (even though it’s like linen and thick) wrinkles something horrid – despite the gesso, binders and what not … anyway, this is a ‘sketch’ really.  I want to work on a very large canvas that I applied texture to several years ago in the form of waves and spray.  With this mock up, I wanted to see if I could get the colours I need for the ‘sea’ with inks.

I only used white acrylic paint, the rest is ink and pencils and globules of texture paste (actually grout).  The finished thingie is about 11 1/2″ x 7 1/2′ and needs to be weighted, which I’ll do in the next couple of days (to flatten it out).   The colours are much richer in natural light, it looks dull in the photo.

Abstract on Canvas

“Vibrant field”

20″ x 16″

Acrylics, inks, gels on heavy textured and sculpted surface (my own texture paste), displacement chemical (Surgical Spirits), Montana copper metallic spray paint on stretched canvas.

Again, I haven’t sealed this yet with a binder or clear gel. My daughter likes this one so much, I don’t think I will be allowed to do anymore work on it 🙂

Close ups of texture:

Abstract on canvas

“Warmscape”

22″ x 18″

Acrylics, texture paste and gels, inks, spray paint on stretched canvas

I haven’t sealed this one yet with an acrylic binder or gel, waiting for it to cure.

Close ups of texture