autumn

Seasons come, seasons go

| Anna Cull
‘The Language of Trees’ acrylic on paper, 148 x 210 mm, 2020. Available.
‘The First Daffodil’ acrylic on paper, 148 x 210 mm, 2020. Available.

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)…

Showing off

| Anna Cull

The Last Autumn, 2015 — photograph by AJ Scott Construction
AJ Scott Construction

What a lovely surprise ― The Last Autumn has appeared on AJ Scott Construction’s website in a feature about my client’s beautiful Waitikiri home. I’m thrilled with the photographs they took of the painting (which only went up on the wall the day before the photo shoot). Click on the image above to see the complete slideshow.

The last autumn

| Anna Cull

This commission was a bit special, both for the client and for me. The Press Building was the home of The Press newspaper from 1909 until February 2011. A beautiful building situated in Cathedral Square, it was one of the casualties of the Christchurch 2010–2011 earthquakes. Even though the painting shows its last autumn (in 2010), we wanted it to represent happier times and evoke fond memories.

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The painting is a combination of two of my In the Style of… paintings: the building and tree from The Press and the leaves from Tram. The red geraniums originally appeared in Press Lane, an experimental sketch I did in 2013. I photographed the final painting on a dull day — the tree is actually very dark brown, not black. And at 40″ x 54″ (1015mm x 1370mm), it’s my largest ever painting.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Cathedral Junction

| Anna Cull

Cathedral Junction — ink and watercolour, 240 x 180 mm, 2014
Cathedral Junction — ink and watercolour, 240 x 180 mm, 2014. SOLD

Tram photograph and WIP
Tram photograph and WIP

I’ve been meaning to get around to this one for ages. The photograph originally featured in my In the Style of… Fougasse and became an ink sketch coloured in Photoshop. I’ve redrawn it and replaced the digital colour with watercolour. After a little bit of trial and error experimentation, I decided on the version you see here. I did try it with more colour but it just looked wrong. Overworked and wrong. I may paint it again and colour only the leaves… ‘Cathedral Junction’ is now my first watercolour for sale on Etsy.

A little light relief

| Anna Cull
Through the trees — acrylic on canvas, 100 x 305 mm, 2014
Through the Trees — acrylic on canvas, 100 x 305 mm, 2014

This is one of the smallest paintings I’ve ever done! It’s based on this painting and this photograph that I posted last year. It may still be autumn (officially) in Christchurch but this month has felt a lot more like winter ― the sunny glow coming from this little canvas has been very welcome here in the art cave.