It is snowing outside as I write this. The temperature only reached 8 deg C today in comparison to late last week when we topped 18. I am so lucky to have a lovely warm studio to retreat to.
I have been working on two new paintings over the past week; both not yet finished but showing great promise. The first is inspired by some loose gestural sketches I did a few weeks back. I tried to keep the same feelings and sense of enjoyment I felt then. There is such power and beauty in the ocean.
The second larger painting I have been working on arose from limiting the colours I use and experimenting with a different composition. This is a ‘s’ composition. One of the skills an artist learns is to use marks or colour to take the viewer’s eyes around the painting. I am loving the colours and textures in this one.
In the Find Your Joy course I am doing, along with several hundred people from all over the globe, a transition or catch up week was allowed. I have been working pretty well full time on this course so a breather was very welcome. There were still exercises to do if you wanted. One of these was to experiment and document various sets of colours(variations of the three primary colours) and their mixes. I don’t really like doing this. It is a bit messy with oil paints because the paint takes a few days to dry. But I will persevere. I prefer putting paint on an actual painting. From these experiments we had to play with one of the combinations we liked. These measure about 25cm square. I felt the colours were too saturated(bright) and competing with each other in my first layer. Did a couple more layers attempting to let one colour star in each.
First layerBlue, green, pink and orange
In the module I started this week, I have to choose another artist whose work I admire, choose two aspects of it that I really like and the ‘steal’ these and apply to a new painting. I am going to attempt four over the week. Working with oil and cold wax requires a day or so between layers, so to stop overworking its good to have another few on the go and move from one to another.
The following are works by Joan Fullerton. I love the colours and layered texture.
A very busy and enjoyable week ahead for me. Stay warm and safe
