“Do and give your best and let the results take care of themselves…. Slow down, lighten up, take it in, let it go and most importantly enjoy the ride. It is but a short one at that.” Kathie Pugaczewski, WordPress blogger at Cast Light.
This painting has taken me on quite a journey. When I began, I thought I would stay fairly true to the digital study that I created as my reference image but when I started painting, I didn’t like the colours. They were bright but they were not happy. The sky was blue but it was too blue, unrelentingly blue. It was bright and bold but it didn’t feel right.
So I added some texture. And I found ‘the zone’ and added some more texture. Then I blurred the edges a bit. And then a lot. And then I took away some of the bright by adding lots of Titanium White. Oh I’ve had fun with this one. Does it show? So even though I’ve wandered away from my original vision, and in some ways I prefer the digital study, I’ve ended up with something that feels like a hot summer’s day. There’s also a lot of paint on that canvas now and I dare not add any more.
As for the title, I was going to call it ‘Market Day’ or ‘Sunny’ but they’re not very imaginative. My husband calls it ‘Beach Pizza’ (which I will admit I quite like) but I’ve opted instead for ‘SPF 30’ because the day I took the photograph was a very hot day and we really needed the shelter of those sun umbrellas.
‘SPF 30’ may not be what I set out to paint but it is what I wanted to paint.
“All progress is experimental.” John Jay Chapman
Today is my little blog’s fourth anniversary🎈🎈🎈🎈 and so I thought I would go back in time to the very beginning. Here is my first post from 13th March 2012. Have a creative day.
A couple of years ago, I started an illustrated journal. I was inspired by Danny Gregory and his book The Creative License and I wanted to see if I could draw.
One month and 19 sketches later, I drew Villa 10…
…and the road home (among other things).
I enjoyed sketching so much that I decided to take an art course at the Design & Arts College in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Pablo Picasso
“It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.” Elbert Hubbard
Having decided to paint this photograph of bunting flags and sun umbrellas, I played around with colour options and cropped them to fit a square canvas (see below), and I ended up with two versions that I like equally — and so I’m now going to paint both of them.
Yes, I think Mr Hubbard makes a very good point.
WIPs to follow soon.
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 