Lighting

It has rained and rained here. The light has been poor so I have only been able to work on the small paintings and of course my flash work.

My friend Miss T has visited a local church which still has medieval wall paintings covering its' walls. I am ashamed to say that I have never seen them so will cycle over on a good summer's day to see them.

Flash

Yipeee!

I have manged to make and upload my first flash header to my Portfolio Site. Refresh the page in your browser to make it replay.

I use a free site which means that I have to do my own coding. This is a very slow process for me as I have to keep testing and undoing my many failures. I have to work out how to make it work as a header in this blog and check if it works in other browsers then Firefox.

Postcards

Blank ink and water colour wash using a Pentel Aquash pen filled with my choice of colour on water colour postcards 15.2 x 10.2 cm.

A time to dry

Think I better let the paint dry for a while. Working out what colour the trees were going to be made me very nervous. I was so pleased when my son mentioned ... without prompting ... that he felt the tree colour added to the picture. Working in isolation can make you doubt your own vision sometimes.

Thick and goopy!

Eynsham Arts Group Spring Exhibition is now over. Lots of nice things was said about my painting 'The Ascension of The Malingerer' but it large size is still an issue. I have been painting the Morris Paintings at "living room size". I still struggle painting at this size but since the weekend have found laying the paint on with a bamboo kebabs skewer allowed me to get the paint down thickly and to a certain extent play with it's texture.

Rock and Roll Morris comeback!

Picture envy

I have picture envy otherwise 'Rock and Roll Morris' has gone up in flames.

Rock and Roll Morris

Map drawing for the watercolour.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Well ... for once the photo looks better then the original! I have been glazing the darkness back and adding some mid-tone glazes. I am very unsure about this painting but experience has shown that I should keep going. I may end up where I did not originally planned but it is usually a worth while journey.
Again I have been glazing the figures in the dark areas of the crowds. I do not plan to add any significant colour to the watching people.
I've decided to put M into more shade so this small sketch is trying to work out the shadows.
I've been glazing transparent colours on the figures and painting with more meaty opaque paint on the tree
I, once again, am having to wait for paint to dry. So ... a small thumbnail for the new painting. I shall call it 'Rock and Roll Morris'. I based this on the May Day dancing last week-end.

Header Design

I have been teaching myself how to use 'Flash' and using it to make an animated header for this blog. It has been difficult getting the dancers to move across the header in a way that is pleasing. Trial and error takes forever!

The next hurdle will be working out how to embed the file into the blog template. It is good that I like challenges!

Detail

This painting is way to small for the sort of detail I have painted. I am trying for the dancers to be emerging from the darkness on the right of the picture. So I will resolve this after a week of letting it dry.

I have a painting in the Spring Exhibition of the 'Eynsham Arts Group' at the Bartholomew Rooms which starts on the 3rd of May and finishes on the 18th. I am invigilating on both of the Saturday mornings. Hopefully it will be fine weather so I can draw outside the door. Friends and clients are welcome to come and talk to me.