Gaye’s Studio News

Pulled in many directions

13 November 2023

This happy painting  Another vase of red was sold on Bluethumb last week. A nice surprise as BT  nsales have  been quiet in the past few months.  A few days later another work titled Cloudscape, on canvas this time, sold as well.  So very happy!

The two others in the floral set shown in my last News have been subject to minor modifications and are finished at last. After all the florals I wanted a change and experimented with a black underpainting and random shapes in a limited palette of red, turquoise and greys. Bit of a disaster really if judging based on intention. They morphed into something else. These are some of the stages:

What a transition!  Sign of a chaotic mind?

Two other experiments, not yet resolved but fun to do, involved rich orange and red backgrounds. One was worked into in what is called painting the negative space and the second has applications of collage and some layers of paint. The first shown also happens to be my 1000th recorded painting.

Inspired by my recent paining Rising mist I attempted two others depicting fields of flowers. Almost finished I think.

I volunteered to demonstrate my painting process at the Lady Franklin Gallery one recent Sunday afternoon. The audience was small but I was able to revisit some oil and wax techniques as well as using oil sticks. I have developed my own processes with these media,  as you do, so it was good to revert to the traditional approaches. The exhibition was themed Loose and lively. I was anxious at first but it was fun.

I enrolled in a series of plein air workshops with Rick Crossland hoping to improve my skills, especially with composition. Had 2 sessions now, with the first a tonal painting.

There is a level of urgency to get things done in a short time frame with the result that I skip the odd step and rush.  The light keeps changing too. It was mostly cloudy both days and the bridge was backlit so the face we were painting was in shadow.

I had trouble with the roofline on the cottage. Will work further on this.

Not happy with the composition and think I know why.

A new set of paintings was created for the Sandy Bay Doctors rooms to add to two regular sets(which rotate two monthly). The new set is a coastal theme and a nice change. I do this space on the alternate month to my others.  It lead me to create two new  more realistic coastal scenes. The blues seem more exaggerated in the photos. The first is #1001 Freycinet from Swansea and the other #1002 Macquarie Heads Light

I have been very busy it seems, although it is more than a month since my last news. Being pulled by inspiration in many directions but always continuing to learn.  A plein air day at Marion Bay next week and two more sessions at Richmond.

I have taken up pilates and zumba to look after the body and am enjoying those. My roses are magnificent at the moment and the young broad beans almost ready to pick. This is Abraham Darby.