Monday 22^nd February

I think I have finished the second stepping stones painting.  Using an old canvas for this one.

Issues:

1. Biting the bullet and actually painting over something that there is a slight attachment to.
2. Really weird painting on canvas I again after wooden panels. Not sure I like it but I think I am going to have to get used to it because painting large on panels is going bring on some weight issues.
3. Not being able to use the texture making that I love – no using the brick on this! I might have to learn a lot of new ways of making texture.  I did discover that under this particular canvas, two cradled panels stacked were just the right height so it was right  up against the canvas and did help being able to press onto the canvas.
4. This particular canvas was seriously annoying as it has slightly rounded edges so I had to really work on getting the paint round the edge.

 

Tuesday 23^rd February

What do you when you are a starving artist?  Paint!

Working on the day job today decorating a house that my brother-in-law is renovating.  I did manage to get today’s collage done before I went to work.

When I got home I tried video making with my new stand – worked out really well apart from being upside down.  Took me a while to figure that out – had to download to my laptop and edit it on a video editor.

 

Wednesday 24^th February

Tearing out my hair with the website.  I am overcome by all the things that need doing and I just can’t figure out the order that I should do them in.  There is so much to do to editing three versions of each painting, cataloguing them (note to self – do that as you paint them), and then there is the nightmare of trying to sort out doing a shop.

Finished the first nine of my collages.  After I photographed them I put them in a block of nine – they look really nice together.  Am I going to make it to the end of 81?  Why 81?  Not as random as it may seem.  Then I can have them as a picture 9 x 9.  I should have made them smaller.  Its going to use up so much paper!  Very annoyed that the paper I ordered is too small so I am going to have to order more.

 

Thursday 25^th February

My fantastic brother-in-law has just got a new tool in his woodworking arsenal – a track saw.  Now he can cut really straight lines with a beautiful finish.  He is going to cut me panels saving me a small fortune.  We are going to figure out the cradling now as I really like a cradled panel.  That should be the easier part.

Working on the last of my self-induced blue period.  I am still firmly in love with blue.  Have discovered a lovely colour mix today of coeruleum blue with quinacridone burnt orange – give a gorgeous range of greys.  I can see that featuring a lot in my future work.  I do need to do more experimental colour mixes.  The last four little panels are coming along but it has raised some questions for me.  The idea of doing the same subject in different compositions and formats.  How different do they need to be?  I’m also beginning to look at the stepping stones and thinking about how I can further simplify them to more abstract them.

 

Friday 26^th February

 

Finishing off the last 4 of my 30 days of blue challenge today and beginning to wonder about what comes next.  In discussion with another artist, I realized that something that I am really interested in is moving objects in space through value changes and also to a lesser degree with colour.  Last year I was introduced to Damien Hirst’s circles and was blown away by how even though all the circles are the same size with the same spacing between them, the value change makes them shift in space and some look further away.  You would think it is the colour that does that but it isn’t.  If you put the picture into greyscale it does exactly the same thing.  We see value before we see anything else – the greater the value difference between objects determines the order in which we see it.  This was we can also bend space by having different values at different edges of spaces, creating the illusion of depth on a flat plane.  I love that!  It’s magic!  I think this is something I might explore more in the coming weeks.

The final 30 days of Blue finished 14 paintings!

Saturday 27th February

Feeling a bit loose-endish.  Not really any idea what to do today.  Gentle gessoing of panels and thoughts about work to come.

Glorious day so a lovely hour spent tidying in the garden and seeing lots of things sprouting – the rhubarb is showing, spiraea is showing leaves as are the clematis and lilac too.  Spring is sprung!

 

Sunday 28th February, 2021

Determined to do something today and settled on some playtime.  Its an interesting exercise because, in theory, you really don’t know what you are going to get until the end.  Take a sheet of gessoed, watercolour paper, divide it up into squares and then paint across all the squares as if they were just one piece.  In practice I end up being aware of the boundries and painting into each one individually.  Using a mix of black, parchment, white paint, red crayon, black ink and pencil today.  I really am never sure about these pieces but when you pull off the tape its always quite surprising.  Really annoying is the way inky water has dribbled under the tape and spoilt the edges.  There is a way to avoid that but I can’t remember exactly what it is.  Note to self – figure that out for next time.  Having removed the tape I did then work into them a bit more.  I like some of them more than other ones, inevitably – probably the bottom three.  Love the palette as it came out.  I must explore the muted palette more in paintings.