Sketchbook

By Anita Murphy / December 22, 2008 /

From my sketchbook. Not enough time for anything else today – up to my ears in Christmas cookies. Why do I let myself get distracted with things like that? And tomorrow I wont be home until later as there is a Christmas get together that I could really do without. But then FREEDOM and 11…

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Jubrique

By Anita Murphy / December 21, 2008 /

oil on canvas 9″ x 12″ The white villages of Andalucia are incredibly picturesqe, brilliant white houses cascading down the mountains, their terracotta roofs glowing in the Mediterranean sun. My mother, sister and brother-in-law live in Jubrique, one such village, and we have been lucky enough to visit them there a couple of times in…

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Report Card

By Anita Murphy / December 20, 2008 /

No art to show today. Not that I haven’t painted. I have. All day long. Work is having a competition for decorating doors for the holidays. Our office is open plan so we are using our reception desk as our “door”. It is about 40 inches high and has a ledge on it. today I…

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Yellow Thread

By Anita Murphy / December 18, 2008 /

Another colour exercise. I have these cotton reel pictures sitting next to each other and they make an intersting block together with the differences in colour and positioning of the reels.

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More Chair

By Anita Murphy / December 17, 2008 /

More work on the chair today. A little scared of rushing it. I am still sure I am not putting enough paint on the canvas. I’m not sure about the warmth on the closest arm – it seems a little too warm – daylight check required. This morning when I got to work I decided…

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Colour on “Comfort Zone”

By Anita Murphy / December 16, 2008 /

I worked on the chair tonight – I don’t know what came over me but I looked at it as it leant against the window and my palette was freshly loaded and lo and behold colour has been put on the canvas! I’m pretty sure that I am not putting enough paint on the canvas…

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Lemon Juice

By Anita Murphy / December 15, 2008 /

oil on canvas, 8″ x 10″I should stop trying to photograph work at night! Its a total lost cause! Still here is today’s still life and once again the colours are not quite right. The background is definitely not that dark! I think the lemon is much richer IRL. Another thing about painting at night…

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The Ronda Valley

By Anita Murphy / December 14, 2008 /

The sun refused to cooperate today and was doing that really annoying “now I am shining, now I’m not” thing so today’s painting was from a photo I took when visiting my mother and sister where they live in southern Spain. Ronda is one of their nearest sizeable towns (they live in the isolated white…

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Plein Aire

By Anita Murphy / December 13, 2008 /

I really wanted to go and paint plein aire today but I have too much to do at home (those horrible domestic things that get in the way of painting) so I stayed here but determined to at least try something new. This is the view off my back balcony to the neighbours house behind…

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Vineyards

By Anita Murphy / December 11, 2008 /

I needed to do something different tonight – hard day at work called for something expressive. Trying to keep in my head all that I have learned in the last week but finally being overcome by colour. If I have it right, the greatest contrasts in value should be in the foreground and the further…

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