Thank you all for your encouragement and warm wishes concerning my new (ad)venture. I listed three more paintings on Etsy this morning. Freshly varnished (and now dry), the Moeraki Boulders (above) are for sale. I photographed them prior to varnishing because, as anyone who has ever tried to take a decent photo of a varnished canvas will tell you, shine is no friend of the camera.

‘Springtime’ is also now on Etsy. What a tricky little painting it was to photograph! I tried all my usual tricks. Shooting outside on an overcast morning usually gives me the best true-to-life results but the layers of gel medium mixed in with the paint made it very shiny ― nice to look at but not so nice to photograph. It seems to be more of an issue with dark colours. I’m still not completely happy but Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights and Exposure adjustments helped a lot. And it’s still better than scanning (which produces strange and unattractive ‘shadow blobs’ where the surface touches the scanner).

Getting the shop organised over the last little while has meant less time for painting (boo) but I plan to throw myself back into it again… starting today : )