☁️☁️☁️ When I started painting this a couple of weeks ago, the days were indeed grey grey grey and the branches of the plum tree outside my studio (the view that inspired the background of the painting) were bare bare bare. But after a couple of unseasonably warm days (warm, that is, for August in Christchurch), an explosion of little pink blossoms reminds me that spring is mere days away. Sun sun sun, here it comes. ⛅🌤☀️
I’ve been on one of my painting journeys over the last few weeks, revisiting Sparkle and Shine, a landscape (pondscape?) from 2013.
WIP #1 I started with black canvases and used intense colours for the underpainting because I wanted the lily pads to really stand out against the blue-black water.
WIP #2 Then I painted green over the pink and yellow over the purple. Lighter blue ‘sparkle’ shapes were introduced to the water.
WIP #3 The final stage included adding touches of pink for the highlights.
I’m going to wait a week or so for them to dry properly, varnish them (because I think reflections should be glossy and I want the water to look deliciously dark and deep), and then these four new paintings will be available on Etsy.
“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.
I’ve been working on Moeraki boulders (two) over the last week and thought it would make a good WIP slideshow. The photographs (below) show inspiration, evaluation, exuberance, regret, pity and perseverance. I’ll post the last stage, abandonment, next week.
I was so impressed with Dunedin’s gorgeous architecture when we were there on holiday last month that I went mad taking photographs ― but then I couldn’t decide which one to paint first… So I arranged a few favourites based on a nine-square grid (editing it in Photoshop and adding a few extra cabbage trees here and there). And now I’m painting it. This may take a while.
the art cave 