Shoot it, Sketch it: Sunlight is green

May 6, 2013February 11, 2014 | Anna Cull

Sunlight is green – acrylic on watercolour paper, 205 x 295 mm, 2013.

Here, as promised, is my painting of the sunset in Hagley Park (taken from the same photo I sketched last week). If you’re wondering about the title, it was inspired by something I read in The Acrylic Artist’s Guide to Exceptional Colour by Lexi Sundell. Apparently there is research to suggest that sunlight is not yellow but pale green. Think about that for a minute. Green is a cool colour but sunlight is warm. Other research suggests it may be pale blue. Whatever it is, it seems sunlight is not a warm colour. I don’t know about you but that thought really messes with my head.

Sunlight is green – acrylic on watercolour paper, detail.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Last minute

April 29, 2013January 30, 2014 | Anna Cull

Hagley Park sunset sketch – ink and watercolour, 205 x 290 mm, 2013.

Hagley Park sunset – Christchurch, 2010.

A last-minute sketch of the last minutes of a sunset in Hagley Park (because the acrylic painting I had planned to post today isn’t quite finished yet). I hope you’ll forgive the slightly blurry photo (my fault for not taking a tripod). Sunsets in the park can be spectacular at this time of year ― yes, we’re well and truly into autumn now in Christchurch.

Landscape ~ Seascape

December 20, 2012June 24, 2020 | Anna Cull

Artist Rowena Hart has a lovely daughter. Her daughter, Marnie, was one of my tutors at the college where I studied communication arts and design. How amazing to be asked by my former tutor to design a business card for her mum as a surprise birthday present. To say that I feel honoured doesn’t even come close.

Of course I wanted to feature some of Rowena’s art in the design and the white bird is a recurring motif in her work. Rowena paints acrylic landscapes and seascapes (among other things) and also uses mosaic and collage techniques.

Landscape for Rowena #1 – acrylic on card, 150 x 250 mm, 2012.

Landscape for Rowena #2 – acrylic and digital, 150 x 250 mm, 2012.

Landscape #1 is actually two acrylic paintings put together in Photoshop. The white bird was kept on a separate layer so I could play around with placement. The mosaic pattern was drawn in ink and added later.

Rowena said she couldn’t believe that the business cards were so perfectly her!

Happy birthday, Rowena. I’m so glad you like them : )

Shoot it, Sketch it: Paradise

November 26, 2012June 23, 2020 | Anna Cull

Paradise in Golden Bay – acrylic on board, 250 x 320 mm, 2012

I had a lot of fun painting this week’s Shoot it, Sketch it. It’s one that I’ve been meaning to do for almost a year (ever since I took the photo last Christmas). My only real problem was deciding when it was finished. Even now, I’m still not entirely sure that it is — but there comes a point when you simply have to walk away and start the next project…

This is what the painting looked like at various stages. I kept telling myself: just a little darker here, a bit lighter there… How CAN you tell when something is finished?

Follow the links to see other Shoot it, Sketch it offerings from Clouds of Colour, The Little Leaf, Lunch Sketch and Poppytump.