paintings prints and stuff

  Cat carving and cardoon by lamplight, coloured pencil in A3 moleskine Still looking at the items on the shelf above the tv but moving them around on paper, rearranging and looking at pattern and colour.  They aren't in the positions I've drawn them in at all and I've simply used the colour of the vase, though lightening it, not wanting the vase itself explained.  The same with the wheat and hearts patterns.  Warm light from the lamp and the cool lavender shades are observed so that the whole thing hangs together. Below are the earlier stages as it evolved.  I only have a rough idea of the final piece when doing this, unlike a traditional set up, where everything is where it will be in the image.   It evolves as I go.  Major elements like the cat carving, cardoon, blue of the vase and the honesty are decided immediately - they are the skeleton that everything hangs on.   Decisions about depth of tone, lost edges, patterns...

Work in progress , Saltmarsh in mixed media, 16x20 inches. Vivien Blackburn This is an experiment with a mixed media piece with collage, acrylics, charcoal and ink. It's loosely based on sketches done plein air - but only loosely. The project it is part of is explained here . I rarely use collage so this is about pushing the boundaries, doing something new and having fun experimenting :>) Details below: There is a lot of layering paint, scumbling. glazing. sgraffito, collage. splattering. drawing into ..... and more! What I want to do with this is combine drawing with the collage and paint. The artist I've chosen to look at for the project is J0hn Piper . An example of his work here . The idea is to bounce off the artist you choose and produce your own work. not simply work 'in the style of'. I'm planning to knock the blue border back a bit and make it more subtle and moody. Anyone using collage? any thoughts???