A small study of a New Zealand fantail (piwakawaka) flitting around in the forest (a.k.a. “the bush”). One day I hope to take a good photo of one of these fast little flyers. Every single picture I have ever taken of a fantail is a blur. The shot below is my best to date. Happily, there was just enough detail to be able to use it as a reference for the painting.
I have so many painting ideas waiting in folders that I’m in no danger of suffering from “artist’s block” any time soon… but then there are so many ideas, sometimes I’m at a loss to know which one to paint next ~ so maybe that is a kind of “artist’s block” after all. In an effort to reduce the backlog, I’ve started a series of small studies on paper ~ and I’ll be choosing the subjects more or less at random, so anything might happen : )
The first two to get picked from my ‘photos to paint next’ file are a tree dripping with autumn leaves (2017) and a daffodil positively radiating sunshine (2013)…
This is excellent advice and I feel a painting spree coming on : ) Meanwhile here are a couple of small paintings that I finished this week…
As much as I love black canvases, they can be tricky to photograph ~ ‘Night Garden’ has gold and silver highlights and a texture that makes it look wonderfully 3D in certain lights and ‘Hearts of Gold’ has gold lines that accidentally (or not) ended up looking like hearts ~ both paintings catch the light in ways that a single picture can’t really show.
I love the way seagulls park on street lights. What views they must have! I gave this painting the working title ‘Seagull Parking’ but I always knew that was a little too obscure to be a keeper. The inspiration was a photo I took in a carpark ~ in the golden hour before the sun sets ~ while we were waiting to collect our pizza. Yes, inspiration is everywhere : )
The original plan was to create something more like the reference photo, quite subdued and almost monotone with the seagull as the focal point, but the purple/grey underpainting took it in a different direction ~ one which was more in keeping with how spectacular the sky really looked that evening ~ and that meant rethinking the title.
P.S. I’m particularly pleased with those two birds flying in the background. The simpler it is, the harder it is.
Fresh off the easel: the lights of Christchurch as seen from the Port Hills. The paintings are lightly textured and best seen from a bit of a distance. I was going to varnish them but I am really liking the subtle shifts in colour and texture of the unvarnished canvas and so I’m not going to risk it.
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 