A work in progress
From the outset I want to apologise for the quality of the photos in this blog entry, this particular area in life which shall remain for the foreseeable future a weak point.
This piece which I will call 'Sea Almonds at Clifton Beach' is from a ink drawing I did a couple of years ago at a place rather evocatively know as Dead man creek a friend of mine was doing some plein-aire painting at the spot and I was kindly invited to join him.
The original drawing I haven't actually coloured yet but I will get around to that some other time. The photo below is the painting roughly blocked in with oil washes in ultramarine and burnt umbers on a beige ground like I would do if I painting in watercolour. The goal I was pursuing in this painting was to create a art work that attempted that recreate and combine the qualities I like about both oil and watercolour in oil. I wanted to keep the drawn line of the transferred drawing and all so thin washes of oils still visible but to have the glorious physical structure oil applied thickly, it is a tricky objective to pull together.
From the outset I want to apologise for the quality of the photos in this blog entry, this particular area in life which shall remain for the foreseeable future a weak point.
This piece which I will call 'Sea Almonds at Clifton Beach' is from a ink drawing I did a couple of years ago at a place rather evocatively know as Dead man creek a friend of mine was doing some plein-aire painting at the spot and I was kindly invited to join him.
The original drawing I haven't actually coloured yet but I will get around to that some other time. The photo below is the painting roughly blocked in with oil washes in ultramarine and burnt umbers on a beige ground like I would do if I painting in watercolour. The goal I was pursuing in this painting was to create a art work that attempted that recreate and combine the qualities I like about both oil and watercolour in oil. I wanted to keep the drawn line of the transferred drawing and all so thin washes of oils still visible but to have the glorious physical structure oil applied thickly, it is a tricky objective to pull together.
Above: The initial underpainting, all so this is what selfies look like when you don't intend to do a selfie.
Above: The dissatisfying, really ugly phase that every painting goes though. This is the point you think the whole exercise has been a horrible waste of energy, but whatever you do don't give up because it can only get better from this point!
Above: Almost done.
Above: Detail of the surface of the painting.
Above: Detail of the surface of the painting.
The painting is all almost finished, now it needs to be put aside and looked at. I will continue to make changes over the course of the next few months, indeed in the last week or so I have established a mental to do list for this work its just a matter of giving myself the permission to make the changes. In the mean time I entertain myself with something else!
