paintings prints and stuff

The cliffs at Hunstanton in greyscale to show tonal values Tonal Values Getting to grips with tonal values is essential to capture your subject in an interesting way.  The original version of the striped cliffs at Hunstanton in colour You need to use the full range of tones observable - this may be a limited range as in a subtle Gwen John interior (below) or a misty day - but more often has a wide range of contrasts.   I find students are often wary of pushing the darks enough and the finished work lacks impact - deepen those darks (with colour not black) and the painting comes to life.   Gwen John This Gwen John interior is a beautiful study using a limited tonal range, the shadows under the chair the darkest area, though not intensely dark, the rest bathed in a diffused light. Half close your eyes to simplify tonal values and capture them with more ooomph.  Colours are a totally separate issue from tone - yellow in the shade c...

  The envelope from Ronelle Van Wyk These exuberant, lyrical, expressive - so alive - sunflowers brightened a bad day enormously :>) and the cards received so far. This exchange has been so much fun - and it still has a long way to run :>) You can see all the cards in the exchange so far,  here at Postcards from my Walk .

There is an exhibition coming up in mid July by one of my all time favourite living artists - David Prentice.  It's at a great spacious gallery in Moreton in Marsh, the John Davies Gallery .   As yet the images aren't on the website, but they will be nearer to the time. It's a retrospective of his work in celebration of his 75th birthday, with work going back many years.   A great chance to see the development of ideas and the strong individual ideas that weave through his work.  I highly recommend buying the catalogue and reading the interview. DP walks daily in the Malvern Hills, sketching and observing.   Then he works in the studio, huge canvasses, pastels, watercolours, intimate smaller pieces - all with this keen observation and wonderful handling of colour and light and a sense of place, time, passing weather systems, movement. Get there if you can. The paintings are so much more in real life than a tiny image onscreen can show. ...

Blues, mixed media still life, 8,5 x 11 inches, Vivien Blackburn , media: watercolour, oil pastel, caran d'ache neocolor II The group of friends I meet up with once a month are doing a still life project. We've set ourselves this task to take ourselves out of our comfort zone and make us all try something different. Each has their own particular interests in subject matter - which doesn't really include still life. It was my idea ........ will I live to regret it? We'll all be looking at it with our own particular viewpoint/angle/ideas. I'm working out what approach I'm going to take, I don't want to do traditional set ups as they don't 'grab' me to do. I do like the way some contemporary artists play with the patterns, shapes and colours and that's the way it will interest me. This is my start on the project - ongoing work to be shown at next month's meeting. There is more variety of blue in real life. I've taken the patt...

John Atkinson Grimshaw, Liverpool from Wapping Last night I went to a really interesting talk by Sue Edwards on the stories behind paintings. She was not a painter but an art historian and so her slant was on the hidden stories, the significance of objects/settings, the social commentary, the background of the artist etc. And she really knew her subject. Fascinating. Some I knew some I didn't. It was a really interesting night. This was one of the paintings she showed and it introduced me to an artist I didn't know, John Atkinson Grimshaw . The light in his 'moonlight' series was beautiful - here the warm colour from the lights on the right, it's security and safeness contrasting with the cool light and possible danger of the docks on the left. The glow reflecting off the cobbles and those difficult dusk/night colours, things disappearing into the gloom in the distance are all handled brilliantly. I'd like to go and see some of these in real life. ...

Today I went to the Open Studio of a very very talented local woodcarver, Jenny Cook , who is in one of the groups I belong to. These 2 are details of one I would have dearly loved to have bought - but can't afford :( And below is the whole piece. It brings back vivid memories of Grand Harbour , Valletta, Malta. I lived in Malta in my teens and Grand Harbour holds special memories - it's a spectacular harbour with fortifications by the Knights of St John from 16C There were also a lovely series of local cottages .... lighthouses .... gorgeous little cupboards, painted beautifully .... flowers ..... I nearly bought one that I really couldn't afford but was saved from myself when someone else bought it :>( ...... The work is mainly made from reclaimed wood, carved and painted. Jenny's studio is a converted stable in the garden of her cottage and I am very very deeply seriously envious! it looks out onto beautiful cottage garden flowers and is light and spac...

Field of Dreams, 24" x37", David Poxon For the last couple of years I've mentioned the work of David Poxon in the RI watercolour exhibition at the Mall Galleries . Last year he was kind enough to send me images of work at a resolution that really shows his skill off to advantage. Today I opened my emails to see that he'd sent me these 2 with permission to use them here :>) Thank you David :>) Do click on them to see them larger - they are well worth it. Catch, 12"x17", David Poxon The word that came to my mind was 'sustaining' - this word was applied to a painting of mine by a buyer and I think it was one of the nicest compliments I've ever had. Sustaining - there is so much in these to keep you revisiting - noticing new things, admiring textures, subtle colours, lost edges, mysterious areas, intense observation , lovely use of paint, unusual and interesting subject matter, the compositions work in an abstract way, quiet areas vs bu...

Just a quick update on the Shirley Trevena exhibition for anyone planning to go. It's well worth the trip. She uses paint so beautifully - lovely marks and use of colour and drama. And some new developments with a series of gorgeous abstracted landscapes from the year she spent living in the Dordogne. If you like Barbara Rae's work then I think you'll like these. The exhibition is now actually at the Orange Street Gallery - which is only a few doors down from the originally advertised gallery space (part of the Goldmark Gallery) - so whilst the Goldmark is well worth a visit, you won't find her work there. Sadly this will be the last show there as the owner, John Gilboy, is going to spend his time painting and spending a lot of time in France. I'm now off to finish that large canvas .....

Shirley Trevena exhibition at the Orange Street Gallery (?now Satellite) Alert for anyone who likes Shirley Trevena's work and is near Leicestershire/Rutland - there is a an exhibition of Shirley Trevena's work starting on Saturday (17th October). I'm planning to get there but unfortunately probably not until late as I'm seeing family for lunch. Don't miss it! Gallery website see her work here - it's wonderfully vibrant and fluid and lively.

Woods, digital experiment. Vivien Blackburn (old work) Last night there was a fascinating programme, David Hockney: Imagine - did anyone else watch it? He has been spending more time in his native Yorkshire and has fallen in love with painting plein air (how sensible! :>) ) and studying the changing light and seasons - exactly what interests me. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the ideas behind the work and thinking 'me too'. He articulates better though! The programme concentrated, after a quick recap on his past work, on where he is now . He was shown working in the landscape in all weathers, faithful assistant setting up easels and canvasses and squeezing paint - oh how I'd like a faithful assistant! He sometimes painted on multiple canvasses, stacked against easels to create one very large image. The largest of these was done for the Tate and is 40 feet long by 15 feet high, made up of 50 canvasses. He couldn't see the whole image until it was hu...

Goody Two Shoes, ACEO, Glen Heath One of my friends, Glen, is a very gifted painter but has only recently started to get interested in computers, websites, blogs and internet sales. I've featured her work here before. This afternoon I helped her to make a start on creating an Etsy store - take a look . So far there are just half a dozen aceo's but more will be added, including larger works. Glen did her BA (Hons) Fine Art as a mature student and gained a Distinction . She then went on to do her MA. Glen's website

David Poxon - Made in England Following the review I did of the Watercolour Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, David Poxon emailed me: Hi Vivien- I always read your blog! Thanks for the nice mention- it is much appreciated. Attached is my pic Made In England in this years RI - please put it on your blog if you like. Size is 27" x37"- pure watercolour of course! With the current state of the nation it seemed like an apt title! My website is www.davidpoxon.co.uk if you would like to post a link . Many thanks- heres hoping I get in the 2010 expo! best wishes david This was an absolutely amazing painting and his website is well worth browsing - I particularly like the rusty hinges and padlocks and decrepit wooden doors - something I've always found strangely beautiful. Thank you David for the picture and permission - and for reading! I wouldn't think there would be any problem getting into the 2010 exhibition! Browse and enjoy everyone :>)

Durer etching This morning I was at the local art gallery and museum with an art group I belong to. One of the members had organised for us to be taken down to the basement and be given a tour of some of the 800 oil paintings and 3,500 watercolours, plus hundreds of prints, miniatures, 3D works and more, that they store there. Simon Lake, curator and conservator gave us a fantastic tour. A highlight for me was a lovely polished wooden sketching box with a palette in the lid and bottles of powdered pigments and oil to mix them with. It belonged to Sir George Beaumont and was from the mid 1800's - before tubes were available. Paints were freshly mixed and stored in a pigs bladder. We saw his paintings (interesting but not having a wow factor for me) and the box that he'd used :>) There were still dry pigments and oils in the containers and some more in papers sealed with wax. I love the 'real' and human elements like this. It was absolutely delightful....

Leicester Market, relief, Glen Heath I sometimes talk about the small group of graduate friends who I meet up with once a month for critiques, art talk and to arrange group exhibitions. I thought I'd show some work by one very talented member, Glen Heath. Some of you will know her work through the sketch book exchanges. The image above is a relief in plaster, about 2 ft square and full of the bustle and noise of the market. Glen uses these limited colours really well to enhance the sense of space and place. Below are plein air pastels done in a local deer park - the ancient home of Lady Jane Grey, beheaded when her family tried to claim the throne for her. The park was left to the city years ago and is a lovely area to walk, with hills, ancient oak trees, the ruins of her house, rocks, bracken and deer. Just look at those anthropomorphic trees With Glen's larger paintings, the more you look the more faces and animals and creatures you find. She says she never does it...

An A H Findlay print of King Richard's Bridge in Leicester near the spot where the body 0f Richard III was allegedly thrown into the river after the battle of Bosworth. Tradition also has it that the monks at Greyfriars, nearby, rescued the body and buried it secretly. Richard was much maligned by Shakespeare (writing for a Tudor king) - he didn't have a hump back and had actually nothing to gain by murdering the princes in the tower as his regentship would end with their deaths. Henry Tudor (the victor) did stand to gain and of course victors write the history don't they? My mother has been having a sort out and found an envelope with quite a few prints of Leicester scenes by A H Findlay. and was going to throw them out - so I rescued them! I can't find any information online on the artist. I've put a slide show of some of the waterways project work on our group watermarks blog if anyone would like to take a look. I've put the aerial views in alongside ...

Draft cover for the book, showing back and front covers and spine. This is what I'm currently working on instead of painting. I decided a while back that I'd create a book of my seascapes - it's escalating! - when I've finished, I now feel like doing a series of others with my digital images, waterways project, landscapes, sketches and flowers in separate books - over time, not all at once of course! it's fairly time consuming. I would also like to do a story book for Sam and a book for his first birthday full of the best photos and sketches of him. I've decided to use http://www.blurb.com/ . I saw whilst arranging to meet up with Tina that she had just published 2 books and asked her which company she'd used and was she happy with the quality? she'd used blurb and was delighted with them. She offered to bring them to show us. Seeing them was so helpful, the quality is excellent, her paintings of course beautiful . http://tina-m.blogspot.com/ check her...

painting by Frank Bowling I was reminded of the work of Frank Bowling when I came across a catalogue I'd bought a few years ago at an exhibition. His canvasses were huge, full of light, colour and texture - utterly beautiful. you can see more of his work on his website: http://www.frankbowling.com/index.html - Casey I'm sure you 'll like his work. :>) .

Paul Klee I thought I'd look at non-traditional composition - where the rule of thirds isn't the key but the painting relies on different compositional methods. in response to an excellent series of posts on the various ways of looking at composition by Katherine (link at end). These alternative considerations or breaking of rules - but making it work - appeal to me more than too heavy a reliance on the rule of thirds. The painting above, by Paul Klee is a 'field' painting' - the composition is overall, the eye travels around enjoying the glowing colour that he creates by juxtaposing complementary colours, subtle greyed greens enhancing the oranges/reds/pinks. Most of the image is composed of the various greens, greeny browns and khakis, with accents of the warm colours. When working this way it's important that the balance is unequal and that the accent colours are placed carefully to keep the eye moving in the way the artist wants. A couple of the brighter...