House update and a new ZIA to celebrate!!

Well the house sale went through with very little to do on our part.  We are now tenants of a local housing association who will carry out some refurbishment to bring the house up to their standards.  This should start in a few weeks though we haven't had the meeting with them to discuss when and what etc. 

Here's a piece of work I did to take my mind off what was happening last week.

It hasn't got a name yet so if you have any ideas please let me know.

ZIA

I completed this earlier today.  I drew the sunflower and painted wet in wet watercolour and let this dry.  I then used tangles over the petals and leaves using my black micron pen.  Absorbing to do.

What I've been working on.

There has so much been going on in my life that I haven't been able to get online much.  The completion date for our house sale is 29/09/14 and we have been sorting out 21 years of accumulated 'stuff'.  Not that I've been doing much of the lifting etc. but boxes of things have been brought down to me and I've been going through it all.  Most of the books, children's toys, games and small items of furniture have gone to various charity shops, whoever was willing to collect them was welcome to take it.  Okay it's been hard deciding which books to let go but I reckon my days of criminological research are behind me!  I've given my huge collection of teddies from around the world to the local hospice.  Given we are not even moving it may all seem a bit silly but apparently the housing association want to put central heating in and do various other things including completely redesign the kitchen and bathroom to more suit my needs.

I have still been creating art, getting into Zentangle as it's something that can be done on a small scale.  I've been experimenting with alcohol inks too, but more on that another time.  I'm just going to share some of the pictures I've finished in the last month or so.  Remember if you should like a picture so much you want to buy it just email me with an offer.

 

This is what is termed as Zentangle Inspired Art.  I used Michelle Collier's photograph of a rose bud as inspiration and then did Zentangle pattern in separate petals, also doing various patterns as a background to the rose.  I think this has a lot of possibilities for future work, especially if I use more colours etc.

 

Another ZIA work, though looking at it now perhaps it should be the other way up?  That's one of the beauties of Zentangle, there isn't really a correct orientation.

 

I decided to play around with colours and flowers for this piece.  That's one of things I'm beginning to like, there is no right or wrong, no such thing as a mistake, just an opportunity.  Go with the flow and loose the stress.

 

 

And now for something completely different, inspired by the remarkably talented Jean Haines.  Is it a rabbit or a hare?  I used Winsor & Newton paint markers for this on with a micron black pen.  I think the markers are really good for achieving a furry texture.  A lot more practice with these and I can see oodles of possibilities.

 

 

Well that's just some of my latest works.  I'm currently reading a book on the methods used by Degas as I love his work, especially the ballet dancers. 

Derwent graphik pencils.

First attempt at using Derwent Graphik Line Painter and Line Maker from a photograph by Michelle Collier at Chirk Castle in Wales. I lightly drew the hydrangea flower head first then used the colours Brilliant and Paradise both wet in wet and dry then wetting them to draw out the colour. I then used envy wet in wet to give a faint background. I outlined a few petals using a Line Maker 0.5. The  paper is % cotton, not, 12 x 9. The pencils are lovely to work, both used dry and on wet paper. I loved the control they allow for tone in each of the colours. One word of warning the darkest blue in this occurred when a blob of colour came from the pencil instead of a thin line. This was easily used up in the picture though. I think I will use them wet in wet as this gives you a little more time to play with the effect. I may even purchase some more of the colours, I have palettes 2 and 3 together with the six pack of black Line Maker. All in all a lovely product which I can see becoming a firm favourite for me.

 

 

Ink paintings experiment.

Today I decided to try something different as I've been disappointed with the last few acrylic paintings.  I've used F&W Iridescent Inks.  Firstly I put on a wash of the gold ink which was diluted with just a little water.  When this was dry I drew the roses and painted over them with different inks

 

These roses were drawn with white ink.

 

 

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The roses in this picture were painted in iridescent copper ink, with the wording added in the original gold ink.

 

 

 

I wanted to see how the ink behaved on paper and how much you could dilute the ink and still get the lovely iridescent appearance.  They were quite simple to do.  Now I have experimented with these small paintings I can incorporate the ink in other mixed media work.

Roses again.

Roses again!  But as this is quite probably our last summer here I want to paint as many of the flowers in my garden as I can.  This one is painted in acrylics using them in a watercolour style on 1/4 imperial Bockingford paper.  Using acrylic is very different from watercolour, some good (you can paint over mistakes), some bad (quick drying time).  But it's interesting getting different effects dependent on the thickness of the paint.  I'm using Atelier Interactive acrylics at the moment but have got single tubes of various brands to see which I like the best.

Art and me

I've been going through my paintings, I keep everything I've done even the ones I don't like and those that didn't quite work how I wanted them to.  It's fascinating to see how my work is developing and I look at some with slightly more experienced eyes and think with a little tweak here and there I might be able to make something more pleasing out of them.  Others I love bits of them and not so much other parts so I'm thinking of starting work on a collage of the bits I like to see what comes of that.  Maybe also a collage of the parts I don't like so much would be interesting too?

When I first started painting just a couple of years ago (though it seems much longer) I doubted I would ever paint anything recognisable.  But with lots of practice and the help and advice of lots of art friends on Facebook (you know who you are) and watching lots of dvd's I don't think I'm doing to badly.  I like trying new things and have all sorts of art materials bought when I retired that only now am realising can be used together and don't have to be separate entities.  Sometimes I prefer a simple pen drawing and others I love to paint a watercolour rose, my favourite flower, which I honestly think is one of the most complicated flowers there is, especially the David Austen roses.  I'm trying to get the hang of acrylics, there's something about putting the thick paint on with either a brush or a knife that I'm beginning to like.  I've tried oils but it took days to dry and I simply haven't room to leave paintings out for any length of time while waiting for them to dry and acrylics fit the bill.  I'm willing to experiment with any medium but I have a sneaky feeling that watercolour will always be my first and last love.


Just a little watercolour that I did some time ago and I've just rediscovered it. I love the way the petals turn in this one.  Okay the background isn't great but I'm still learning.

This one is in pen and watercolour pencil, it's such a simple painting but nice.

Art is something precious in my life and one of the few things that can chase the 'black dog' away.