Self Portrait in coloured pencil

Friday 28 June 2019

Tidying my Workspace


Tidying my Workspace

Last week, including last weekend, I was improving my kitchen storage. I bought the Welsh dresser and the drawer unit from IKEA, and, yes, I put them together myself apart from the top of the Welsh dresser which I had to remove to make the top half of the dresser light enough to lever in place. Then I couldn’t lift it back into place because I have a problem with raising my arms above my head, so I had to ask a friend to do it for me. But I did the rest.
I had to move a lot of furniture around to make space for the new cupboards, so I had to find good places to put it. One trolley ended up in the catio. I don’t know what will happen to it in the end but for now it is something for the cats to play on.
I thought that life would be back to normal once I had had a rest, but it took much more resting than I expected. 

Today I have been cleaning the front room including my workspace. I have put the drawers with the pastels back behind the easel to make more space though the boxes of pastel pencils are still there. They don’t cut out so much daylight of course. And the light is the best thing about my workspace because it is a northlight. Talking of the light, I have clamped my light to the shelf behind my easel. I will move it back if it doesn’t work but clamped to the window sill it tended to foul the blind when I wanted to close it at night. 
I have added a metre ruler across the worktable to show how small my workspace is. 
I am waiting to get back to the portrait on the easel until I have finished the portrait of Bentley which I am working on upstairs (also with a northlight aspect).

Here is a photo of the two new units in the kitchen. Don’t be surprised at the cat barrel on the kitchen worksurface, or the cat bed on the dining table! I am not a crazy cat lady, but when I take an animal into my home I do my very best for it. And I have to have somewhere to keep them away from my easel. 







Friday 14 June 2019

Latest Work in Progress



Latest Work in Progress

It is nice to get back to this portrait of Bentley in acryl gouache. The photo is of a small area to show how much more work I have to do to finish. If I show the full image you would think it is nearly finished but the minute I sat down and looked at it I could see that I still have a lot to do. 
When I am working in acryl gouache I use very small spotter brushes and lay the strokes of paint one at a time in layers. You can see a medium grey at the bottom right waiting for strokes of sepia and dark grey to build up the effect of fur. The difficulty is where there are white hairs lying over dark hair. 
Acryl gouache is lovely to work with because the paint doesn’t dry hard for a few days so mistakes can be lifted. Also it is opaque which means that I will be able to layer clean white hairs over the dark areas.
The nose is a completely different kind of texture. I expect that the spotter brush will live up to its name when I get there!
I should mention that the strip of white thick paper is to rest my hand on to protect the paint from grease.

Friday 7 June 2019

Exhibition 2019


Exhibition 2019

I have been busy trying to finish as many portraits of Gypsies as I can.
It has been a difficult year but I have managed to have seven oil on canvases in this year’s exhibition. 
I have introduced myself as the artist to everyone who took an interest so I could explain why I had painted these portraits and why I feel that I have a mission to fight against prejudice. You would be surprised at the interesting people I have talked to. One was an American pastor but I didn’t tell him that I was a Buddhist! 
A lot of people love the portrait of the deerhound and wanted to buy it so I explained that I work on commission. I may have a commission coming. 
One man walked in and said “That’s Walter” (behind the dog) before he saw the label. You can imagine how pleased I was that I had got that good a likeness. He knows Walter’s friend Sue so I was able to arrange that someone can pick up the portrait on Sunday and give it to her. Walter died a few months after I took the reference photos. 
The furthest portrait is a “work in progress” of the deerhound’s owner so it was a nice talking point. I told people that the dog was gazing into the boy’s eyes. 
I have another portrait that I would like to finish enough tonight to add it to the exhibition as another work in progress. If I can get the second boy’s face painted and leave their clothes as the underpainting, it will look fine.