Saturday 24 March 2012

"Remains"

Another go at "pulling" a picture from the results of lots of layering. For me, it is finished but don't know what others think. To me it came out looking like an ancient engraved wall painting and when I got to this stage, I just wanted to leave it at that. Would love to know what people think though....is it finished or not do you think? :-)

Sunday 18 March 2012

"Just Fly"

I am rather stupidly thrilled by this crazy painting of mine. It is another go at "pulling art" which we learned with Mystele on the "Willowing Life Book" Course. I had such fun with this one and it happened that I have been working on her during the week when I had a clear scan (related to my cancer) so it really is a feel good painting for me and why I chose to add the butterfly and the words "Just Fly" as I have been given another year to fly free sort of thing. I found myself feeling so ridiculously fond of this quirky faced lady.....I would love to know what feeling she evokes in you ..... if you can see into her "soul" I would love to know what she is saying to you. I used all sorts on this one.....acrylics, gouache, gesso, watercolours all mixed up together!

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Week 10 on Life Book (Willowing)

This piece was intended to feature stencilling to the side of the face. There is stencilling there but I only had one stencil and it is not a particularly obvious one, just small flowers but it is there hidden for the most part under seeral other layers of ink, stamping and paint! I never pursued stencilling as I found it hard to control the colours from oozing out from under the stencil but I need to persevere. Funnily enough my lonely only stencil is very like the background to my blog page! I have to learn to be a bit bolder with shading my faces. I do shade them, this one is in neocolour IIs and I used salmon as the base coat then added golden ochre, ochre, rose pink and white acrylic. I always get a bit nervous of the end result looking blotchy although I have learned that blending in additionally with a dry brush helps here too. Also I really must learn to scan my paintings rather than just photograph them as the photographs never come out as clear as the paintings and also if the skin tones do appear blotchy in the photograph you actually cannot really see it in the painting. That sounds like an excuse but it is true! :-)

Monday 12 March 2012

"Mother Love"

I did this painting as part of Tam's Life Book course on Willowing. I painted it to honour my three beautiful children who I brought up for the most part on my own. It hasn't copied very well and hasn't come out as clear as I had hoped. At the top I wrote a sentence one of them (my oldest son I think) wrote in his news book when he was 6. It reads "My mummy always wears a brown jumper with a brooch and hoovers all day." The quote around my hair is from Isaiah "I will never forget that I have held you in the palm of my hand." I have always loved that and associated it with my three children. My daughter, Juliet, is at the top, she is now 40. Paul is my elder son, on the left hand side and he is now 41 and Daniel is my younger son and he is now 37. They had a really difficult young life because of our family circumstances and I am so proud of them all because they are all really beautiful human beings. I made lots of mistakes but I hope I got some of it right, they tell me I did. They have certainly taught me a lot too.