Friday 29 April 2016

Trio of Mushrooms

6x4" watercolour on paper. $30. Available here

Here's a little watercolour postcard of mushrooms I painted a few days ago. I really wanted to explore the range of soft yellows and browns the subject provides.

Monday 25 April 2016

Yellow and Red

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

Lemons converse with a strawberry. I really love the vibrant colours acrylics provide, though my scanner choked on the yellows a bit. These wedge shapes are great fun to paint, and you can build a really wide variety of great compositions with them.

Sunday 24 April 2016

Pepper Portrait

6x6" acrylic on canvas. $40. Available here

Here's my entry for the Vegetable Challenge- a red pepper cut in half. I really enjoyed this little study. Capturing the different tonal values without desaturating the colours was quite tricky. 


Saturday 23 April 2016

The Yellow Card Scenario

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $20. Available here

Sometimes I really struggle to title these little still life paintings, and I end up coming up with weird stories in my hunt for the perfect phrase. Here, the tomato referee is issuing the blue vase with a yellow card for tripping a sugar snap in the penalty area.

...Well, it's that or 'Vase and sugar snaps and tomato, like, for the fifth time this month.'
 
 

Friday 22 April 2016

Shallots and Button Mushrooms

 6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

I wanted to try a still life with a colour scheme I hadn't used in a while, and a favourite green shirt of mine made a great backdrop. I've never painted shallots before, I really like the shapes of them!

Thursday 21 April 2016

Brown Glass and Strawberries

8x8" acrylic on canvas. $65. Available here

Here's a slightly larger still life composition, featuring another find from the Isle of Wight. I love the way light shines through glass and creates coloured shadows.

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Strawberries

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

A composition using just strawberries. I'm quite fond of this one, the high contrast and pops of red make it quite eye-catching.

Tuesday 19 April 2016

Onion and Button Mushrooms

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

I really like the rusty reds and yellow ochres you get in onions, very fun to paint. I decided to keep to a calmer, more natural palette for this still life- I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Monday 18 April 2016

Brown Vase in Evening Light

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here:

Here's another still life composition with a different small vase bought on the Isle of Wight. I was struck by how it looked when the warm sunlight hit it- it became almost purple. So I pushed that colour, and set it against complementary yellows and creams. I am liking how my brushwork is becoming more confident, I put it down to the larger works I've been doing- they loosen you up a lot.

Sunday 17 April 2016

Small Vase in Primaries

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. SOLD

I've finally got around to using this little vase in a still life! I bought it in a little shop on the Isle of Wight, which was full of all kinds of fascinating things- there were shelves and shelves of empty glass bottles, lots of crates of vases and jars for 50p each, old posters and collectables... I loved this guy's shape and the strong blue colour, and had to have him.

I paired it up with lemons and strawberries to make a composition focusing on the primary colours. More and more these days, I find myself painting only with white and primaries on my palette. I don't miss the secondaries as much as I thought I would.

Saturday 16 April 2016

Three Strawberries

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here!

I was in a shop the other day and noticed strawberries on sale. Another sure sign the weather is warming up (though we saw snow yesterday morning, so... supposed to be warming up...) I meant to ask mum if she'd buy some for me to paint, but forgot. Luckily, she saw them seperately and bought them. Great minds think alike.

Thursday 14 April 2016

Small Cloudscape 1

 5x7" watercolour on paper. $30. Available here

The impossible has happened- I'm finding larger works easier than small ones right now! So I'm switching back to watercolours for a bit for my daily paintings. Clouds are a favourite subject of mine in this media, I find it very relaxing to paint them.

Monday 11 April 2016

The Shed

6x8" oil on canvas board. Not for sale.

I really want to get out and do some plein air, but the weather's not been cooperating recently, so I'm painting views out of windows. It's tricky painting overcast days, with no strong light source to guide you. This is the shed my dad built for me, to store large sketchbooks, canvases, drying paintings etc. It's such a pretty building that I thought it deserved a painting of its own.



Wednesday 6 April 2016

End of the Pier

6x8" watercolour on paper. $45. Available here!

I've done quite a lot of bright, colourful paintings recently so for a change, here's something calmer and more subtle- a view of the end of Ryde Pier. I loved how the structure was reflecting in the water.


Tuesday 5 April 2016

Thatched Cottage I

6x8” watercolour on paper. $45. Available here

A thatched cottage in Shanklin, Isle of Wight. This was a really tricky subject to paint and I'd like to give it another go in the future. Windows like this take a while to complete, you have to be very delicate with them... easier said than done when your brush is starting to lose its point! I do like the way they look when finished though.

Monday 4 April 2016

A Path By The Sea

6x8” watercolour on paper. $45. Available here

I've been in a watecolour mood lately! Here's one painted from a photo I took out of a bus window on my trip. I liked this little curving path running alongside the sea, just past Yarmouth. I've not done much watercolour since last summer. It was fun to work wet-in-wet again and let the colours run and blend.

I find watercolour a great medium to use when working from photos, as you can't really be too fussy over minor details; you have to see where it takes you, use your creative instincts and relax. And the results often wind up much more vibrant and atmospheric than the photo anyway, as is the case with this painting. Or so I feel... I hope you all enjoy the finished work as much as I enjoyed painting it!




Friday 1 April 2016

Little Stream, Hertfordshire

5x7" watercolour on paper.  $30. Available here!

Here's a little watercolour painting of a local scene. It's a small river near the college I went to- I used to wander up near it on lunch breaks with friends. It's a very peaceful place, despite being near some quite busy roads. Here it is in spring/summer, green and sunny.