the show

still playing with backgrounds

twitch

bird time

and a small figure

water works

lost and found edges

back again

got some hols time so getting back into it all.  Good.

 So got the bigger brushes out and started loosening it all up a bit.  Like the contrasts.

This one got all tight, which wasn't what I wanted at all.

inching

Shifting Positions

 of eyeline, hand, shoulders, lots!  feels much better now so may start with the glazes and lighting next

Back to the Stands

Finally got some sense of what kind of a loose 'area around' I want, both in terms of colour and texture (been scribbling with the oil pastels into a thin mix of Liquin (an oil medium, my all time most cherished) and paint.  Not finished yet, but enjoying having found what I was so fruitlessly looking for the last few months.  Hope is indeed that thing with feathers . . . (thanks ED)

Fire Starts and On

How long will the dodgy fire metaphors go on for?  How many dodgy fire metaphors are there. . . ono.

Playing with Fire

Added some oil pastels to this, then attacked it with a palette knife, then turps.  Laying on and scraping off, destruction and creation (with luck): how very meta-textual . . .and with no idea if it'll come off or not. But the playing's good.  And look no matches.

Darcy Moment by Moment

Really enjoying the rich reds here, even if what they do to the skin tones is a bit of a challenge.

Beginnings of Darcy

Still toying with two different compositions here . . .

Contemporary Camel

Thanks, Barb, for the above moniker . . . putting some initial blocks of colour onto Betty using what was left on the palette before leaving Mbantua . . . quite enjoyed the less realistic effect, but don't know if I'll be able to follow it through with the finished pic.

First of the Fire Season

Did some painting at Mbantua Gallery today (pictures on the wall at the back):  pretty quiet apart from one bus load of tourists, so managed to get the first of the fire paintings pretty much finished there, apart from some little bits back in the studio.

People's Choice

Delighted that John Flynn's portrait picked up what John called the 'punters' pick' award when the Senior Territorian Portrait Award closed at the end of last week.  Love the fact that people were connecting with it in some way, as that, beyond simply a likeness is what I'm trying for (with the people and the camels!)

Boy in the Window

Back to this one for a bit: still playing with the glazes to get the luminescence of the back lighting and skin tones.

glowing