Sunday, September 20, 2009

Lots Finished . . . included an already finished one . . .


So this was my weekend: two days of 7-8 hours straight painting with the sound of a ticking clock (timebomb?) in the back of my mind . . . yet strangely enough I've enjoyed it muchly (perhaps because I a) finished what I needed to finish and b) am happy with the results.

This (at left) is a first on two counts: my first painting from the camel farm I've just started visiting. It's called Pindar camel farm, so the pic's called Pindar pair (I think the camel on the left is Betty, a camel I've done some sketches of, but I don't know the other one. The second 'first' is that it's my biggest camel pic so far (at a respectible 91x121cms), which I failed to take into account in judging how long it would take me to finish . . .

The girl at left (a life model whom I've painted before) took a while to finalise but for different reasons. She's only 66x77cms, but I was playing around with letting glazes do their own thing (which tended to be drip) and not getting to detailed or 'finished'. So there was lots of 'put a blob on, put some more medium on to make it drippy, stand back and look, watch it do silly things, wipe it off . . . '



The lad below is from a, by now, quite old series of photos I took out at a community primary school. The surface of the canvas is quite lumpy (textured I think is the technical term) as I initially played around with big bold brushstrokes . . . which didn't really work. But the lumpiness stopped me from getting too precious with the details.






















And this, of course, is the finished one that was subjected to being finished again . . . It was the eye I was not happy with, so two days before I wrapped it up I did a bit more on the eye, on the inside corner of one of the spectacle frames and the nose. Greyhound have it now (for shipping to Darwin for Wednesday's deadline at Parliament House) which is just as well I think, as I'd still be fiddling around.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Finished Ron


Ron's Landscape: 60 x 90 cm Oil on Linen

All done! and just in time really, as it needs to get on its Greyhound bus to go to Darwin next saturday, and of course needs to dry before then so it doesn't stick to the packaging.

So this is what 6 hours 'finishing off' looks like . . . would have finished in about half that time if I hadn't started fiddling around with the main eye, moved it up, moved it back etc. I also decided to put the paint marks on his neck that perhaps look like my mess and not Ron's, but drew the line at the splotch of yellow he had on his beard, as it just looked odd.

Off to see if I can finish the kid with the icy pole (just some face work to do, re highlights and tonal stuff), as the next deadline, the Peta Appleyard Gallery group exhib is fast approaching.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Nearly Finished, Ron

Had a couple of big days at the easel last weekend and got through the 'I've completely messed this up' phase with my 'Ron's Landscape' portrait of Ron for this year's Portrait of a Senior Territorian Award. Even nearly missed the plein air session on Sunday afternoon out at Simpson's Gap, but managed to get there for the last hour of light, and the Sav Blanc afterwards of course. Though poor Ron had the disconcerting experience of sitting chatting over a glass of wine with me peering rather intently at certain features of the right side of his head ('umm the ear's more dented than I'd thought and that crease alongside his mouth is really quite prominent . . . ') Luckily he paints portraits too, so was as comfortable about my distractedness as one could be. Just leaving it now for this week, having a look at it on saturday to do any final plays with highlights and tonal contrasts and then the delights of signing it. There's 3 of the Studio 12 artists entering this year (Ron and Iain Campbell) plus a couple of other artists I know from town; so it'll be a good showing from the centre up in Darwin this year. Now if I can only organise some workshop the department need to send me to up there during the exhibition . . .

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

ready for the changeover

Finally put the finishing touches to a couple of landscapes that can go into Studio 12 on the next changeover day (10 days away). The one above is Ormiston, the one below Swansea Bay (dim and distant past) from a walk I took visiting Chris many years ago.


This one's nearly done

And here's the completed window installation . . . with the glimpse of the S12 logo (bottom right) that inspired it . . .