We’ve been waiting for the snow to come. All the forecasts tell us that it’ll be here in the south west of the UK on friday. Everywhere looks different shades of greys, blues and purples – occasionally when the sun manages to make a slight appearance we see some hints of yellow-orange. It’s these shades which inspired my painting today:
Fingers crossed we get to go sledging at the weekend !
Yesterday we went to the City of Bristol Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition, there was so much talent on display, it was stunning. One of the photos was of a line of trees of varying shades and sunlight shining through them. It inspired me to do this painting today – and it was lovely to paint again !
It’s been a while since I painted a ‘negative’ image i.e painting the areas around the shapes (in this case, trees) but I saw one recently that had a small amount of overpainting done with a sponge. This is the result of a few hours painting and stopping to let each layer dry before painting the next:
I’ve read recently that developing a painting style is a bit like developing your own style of handwriting. This helped me put my recent frustrations with my painting in to perspective. I’ve been reading lots and feeling inspired by several different artists but have found it increasingly difficult to work out how I’d like to be able to paint.
The painting below is indicative of this. I used paint and watercolour pencils and I also dabbled in a little decoupage, as a result, whilst I love the colours, I feel it lacks cohesion.
Having visited Westonbirt Arboretum at the weekend, I felt totally overawed by the sheer beauty of the trees. The autumn colour was just beginning to appear and with the sun shining bright but low in the sky, the whole place took on a really magical quality. It looked stunning:
I used the acer as the inspiration for my first painting from Westonbirt. The shape of the leaves and the colours they had turned were beautiful. I was able to use many of the colours in my new paint sets, I also decided to use some pastel as well, to increase the definition of a couple of leaves:
vision in blue
And now to the painting part of my blog. I chose water colours despite the fact they seem to be acknowledged as the most challenging of paints. I love the colours that can be created and I especially love the fact mistakes can be easily rectified. Sometimes it’s the mistakes that turn a painting in to something wonderful.
Here are some of my initial attempts at water colour painting, painted in July and August 2011:
snowdrops
trees
sunset
Brush, Needle & Whisk 