Bowl of Sunshine

oil on canvas, 20" x 16"

I had all sorts of intentions today to go and paint plein air. I spent at least an hour yesterday evening packing up watercolours, brushes (both oil and watercolour0 pencils, drawing pens, water, jam jars, plastic plates to act as palettes, kitchen towl, an old tea towel, two canvases (carefully organised cardboard to protect these) and woke this morning to a deluge. The best laid plans of mice and men ..............

So still life it had to be. Now I have long held that I paint best when I am listening to music and it really is important what music I am listening to. I love things I can dance around to (pictures of Anita prancing around with palette and brushes in hand!) and my new favourite art music is Gabriela and Rodrigues. They play this funky flamenco type music - great beat! So this is what you get when you paint to their music.

I had such fun painting this though it started off badly. I washed the canvas with alizarin and rubbed it into the canvas. That in itself was hard as I had gessoed this canvas and sanded and gessoed and resanded until the surface was completely smooth. And boy does that surface suck up the paint. I then blocked in the main colours in thick paint and then painted into that layer. A real wet in wet challenge! I'm afraid its not a great photo as the wet paint is reflecting light - will try for better tomorrow.

New Year's Resolution 3 - Find enjoyment in everything you do.

6 O'clock Shadow

The name is a misnomer - it was two o'clock but I prefer the play on words! We have a covered back balcony (the sides are just wooden bars with netting) and in the afternoon the sun shines through and makes wonderful shadows with the bars. Ever since we arrived here I have wanted to draw it and thought there is no way I would ever be able to work quickly enough to catch the light before the shadows change. Of course there is no way but I took a tip that Mary gave me (I believe she got it from Michael Newberry) to lay in the shadows first. The colour of the light didn't change much but the shadows moved across the floor very quickly. So having worked out where the shadows were it was much easier to then concentrate on the light. Second question was how much of outside detail should I include and I decided that as it was the shadows on the floor and side net wall that interested me most I would just give a suggestion to what was outside. All in all I am pretty pleased with the way this came out. I tweaked it a bit once I got it inside.

New Year's Resoltion 2 - Keep website updated regularly.

New Year's Resolutions - failed again!

My New Year's resolution for this year was to produce vast amounts of artwork - ok, I'll revise that. My New Year's resolution for this year was to produce a regular supply of work, to post on my blog at least on a weekly basis and I have failed on both counts.

Life, basically got in the way! I know, its a lousy excuse!

Anyway, I'm here today - not to post anything new but to shout out about a new Blog that I am linking to. Michael Newberry has joined the blogging world - AT LAST!!! I would heartily recommend everyone to go and take a look!

And also I am happy to say I have sold a picture - the pastel ....... just checking .... three posts ago ..... "Family Affair". Always nice to make a sale and just the boost I needed. So now I am going to make a Half New Year's Resolution - is that what you make in the middle of the year? - and say that I am going to post at least once a week and do more art!

"New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual"
Mark Twain