Monotype landscapes
these were all made using a gel plate, many layers of acrylic paint, plants .. on Japanese paper. Each is about A4
Tag: Small Abstract Paintings
Small soft pastel paintings
A few more soft pastel paintings … I’m now using Rembrandt materials, although some of these were done with the other pastels I already had.
This is sold
These are each about 11″ x 10″
Various … oil and soft pastel experiments
‘Oil Poppies’
Approx. 12″ x 8″
Underpainting of alcohol inks, added area of gold metal effect medium, then overpainted with oils (not artist quality) on canvas board.
I didn’t have any linseed oil or other mediums, as well as cleaning solvents, so was hesitant to try out these oils but then discovered that I could use Baby oil to dilute the paint and to clean the brushes, also much better on the skin! So far the baby oil doesn’t appear to have created any dull patches – the paint is still wet, I expect it will only be dry and fully cured in a month’s time. The oils and canvas board came with the set I describe below.
Soft pastel studies – my first attempts using this medium:
‘Dartmoor landscape’ from reference photo in a book.
Approx. 11″ x 7″
Soft pastels (not artist quality) on cheap scrapbooking type project paper (blue).
‘Orange landscape’
Approx. 5½” x 7″
Soft pastels (not artist quality) on cheap scrapbooking type project paper (blue).
Footnote:
I was given a compact artist’s kit comprising oils, acrylics and watercolour materials, plus palette and sample canvas boards, sketching pads, brushes, painting knives etc. etc. for a Christmas present. These sample paintings are the results of playing about with the stuff in the kit.
I have never used soft pastels (chalk pastels) before and am finding them really fun to work with. I enjoy the way I can layer over the colours and blend to get quite interesting effects. This has inspired me to try and purchase better quality soft pastels as soon as I can, as well as some good quality paper – I’d like to turn out more impressive work in the future – so watch this space!
I hope everyone who visits this page had a lovely Christmas and everything of the very best fo 2017 – let’s hope it’s a positive year for all of us!
Some new thingies
“New beginning”
Acrylic, inks, gels and pastes on stretched canvas.
17½” x 23½” x ½”
Close up of texture.
“Going for a walk”
Acrylics on stretched canvas
20″ x 16″ x ½”
Close up of texture:
New painting
“Blue shift”
50cm x 40cm x 1.5cm
Acrylics, inks, pens on stretched canvas.
Below to show room view (for scale)
Doodling
“In the field”
10″ x 8″
Acrylics, Inks, collage, gels, gold foil on acrylic canvas board/panel.
Close ups of texture:
I’ve been in a bit of the creative doldrums since I returned from South Africa, artistically speaking. Pottering about with clay hasn’t really helped, it’s just made me work small and that’s not what I’m about. I decided yesterday that I needed to put all the clay away and get back to er ‘making art’ … lest I forget how.
Again, I’m working small, so I wasn’t feeling very confident. I started working with tissue and forming the texture, the ground … I wasn’t really sure where I was going other than I wanted the little panel to express a feeling of wide open space and emotional depth. Then I got to thinking about the other evening when my daughter and I were travelling home from doing our shopping. It’s almost harvest time here and the wheat and barley in the fields is very high, golden brown and thick. In this vast expanse of golden beige, there he was just popping his head out of the grasses to have a look around. So he became the inspiration for this final bit of rather naive collage.
I hope to be able to get going with a very large canvas I have sitting around downstairs next week, it’s calling to me.
Collage on paper
“Field study”
15 ½” 10 ½”
Acrylics, inks, found objects (threads), aluminium foil and gels on acrylic paper.
Close ups of texture:
The rape seed fields are now turning a glorious golden / electric yellow – I took this picture whilst out on my own last week, when I went to go and find some bluebells in our local woods.
Bluebells at Tyrrel’s Wood
Collage on panel
“Hot – study”
“10” x 8″
Inks, glitter, found items for texture, pebeo fantasy prisme paints (for the round ‘stones’ in the foreground) on acrylic canvas board.
Photos to show texture:
Abstract on paper – small
“Spring fields”
11 ¾” x 7 ¾ “
Acrylic paints, Daler Rowney inks, Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paint (still settling and drying, so there will be changes in the final effects once it’s dried and cured overnight).
Texture detail:
Driving home the other evening, I took a quick photo out of the side of the car of the rape seed fields … I love this time of year. I was inspired by this scene but didn’t want to create just another yellow, blue and green picture … so got fiddling about with the Pebeo paint, which takes an absolute age to dry completely but the results are always interesting. I will also press this when completely dry so that it lies nice and flat.
Abstract on paper – mock up for larger work
Close ups of texture:
UPDATE: After weighting the painting last night, it’s not as rippled as in the previous photograph – so I’ve updated this post with new photos.
Another reason why working on acrylic paper is not always the best thing for me to choose but I didn’t have any canvasses lying around that were ready and as I’ve got kids home for the Easter holidays, time is limited. The paper (even though it’s like linen and thick) wrinkles something horrid – despite the gesso, binders and what not … anyway, this is a ‘sketch’ really. I want to work on a very large canvas that I applied texture to several years ago in the form of waves and spray. With this mock up, I wanted to see if I could get the colours I need for the ‘sea’ with inks.
I only used white acrylic paint, the rest is ink and pencils and globules of texture paste (actually grout). The finished thingie is about 11 1/2″ x 7 1/2′ and needs to be weighted, which I’ll do in the next couple of days (to flatten it out). The colours are much richer in natural light, it looks dull in the photo.
Abstract on paper – small
“Sparklers with a fire stick”
Acrylics, inks, gel, metallic effect medium on mixed-media paper.
10 ¾ “ x 7 ½ “
Close ups of texture:
About the title:
I was going through old dvd’s I have of stored family photos and came across a picture I’d taken when on holiday in the Southern Drakensberg with my family for a long weekend over Easter back in 2008. We made a fire outside whilst we were braaing (you guys in the UK call it a barbeque). My son placed a few twigs in the red embers, waited until they were glowing and then began making circular patterns, zigzags and drawing words in the darkness (as we would do with sparklers on Guy Fawkes night back in the day when people were responsible and there was no need for stupid draconian health & safety regulations for everything). I digress. Anyway, that moment inspired this painting. (even though I promised I’d lay off the gilt paper for a bit, couldn’t help myself) 🙂
Abstract on paper – small – study for larger work (I hope)
“Gold waves”
9 ½” x 6 ½” (Actual painting size)
Acrylics, gels, inks and metallic effect Pebeo paper on mixed media paper.
Detail of foil work
I did a large canvas a few years ago that I’ve never been entirely satisfied with. I used bronze metallic paint to highlight the texture but it isn’t working properly. So I now want to bring it up to speed. The smal piece on paper that I did today is a kind of mock-up for the work I want to do soon on the older large canvas – which looks like this at the moment:
This canvas is 47″ x 39″ and about 2″ deep – I haven’t really had anywhere to work on it because of its size but I’m determined next week to take it downstairs and get started. Wish me luck!
Abstract on paper – group
These are experiments with resists (vaseline), inks, layering
“Hedgerow”
Mixed media paper – small
“Coral”
Acrylic paper – A3 size
This one was an experiment using printing technique – so the paint is applied on another surface, then lifted off with waxpaper or foil and then printed onto the paper that I’m using for the composition.
“Field 2”
Acrylic paper – A3 size
Reworked “Tree”
Mixed media paper – small
Used to look like this:
Abstract on paper – small
“Autumn with rocks”
About 10½” x 7½”
Acrylic, gels, paste, caulk, gilt metallic paper (Pebeo), inks on acrylic paper.
I bought me some Pebeo metallic effect papers yesterday ‘cos they were on sale at Hobbycraft! Of course I didn’t get the gilding paste to go with (duh) … so it’s a bit futile trying to do anything with the metallic paper without the paste. Necessity being the mother … and all that … I used other sticky stuffs that I have laying around and used that to get the metallic paper to bond to the surface of this little piece. It still didn’t work out the way I wanted it to … so looks like I’ll have to go and get me some gilding paste (dammit).
I didn’t gesso the acrylic paper before I applied the textural pastes (I used household grout/filler and glue), so the paper buckled somewhat – I did use a lot of paste though to be fair. I weighted the paper down after a few coats of bonder but it’s still a bit bumpy, which I like. It was supposed to have texture after all! Otherwise why bother hey?
I like the colours on this one, there is just the tiniest smidgeon of metallic powder blue (ink) splattered here and there. I would like to make this one into a much bigger piece with a more rigid substrate.
Thanks for looking at my work and commenting, I really appreciate it! 🙂 Have a lovely weekend.
Texture detail:
Abstract on paper – small
“Orange hills and grasses”
10½” x 7½”
Acrylic, gels, paste, grit, sand, inks on mixed-media paper.
I tried a few larger pieces this week on the A3 acrylic paper but I wasn’t happy with them, so then I fiddled about with this small piece. Also not really happy with it but thought I’d stick it up here for reference purposes.
Abstract on paper series – 3
“A little bit of sea”
Fine sand/grit, bonding agent, acrylics, irridescent medium, metallics on watercolour paper 300grams Grain Fin Cold Pressed NOT Acid Free
9¾” x 6¼” (Actual paper size is 11.7″ x 8.3″)
Close up of texture detail.
Abstract on paper series – 2
“the vestry window”
Modelling gel, acrylics, metallics on mixed-media paper (250gm/169lb)
Approximately 12″ x 8″
Close up of texture detail.
One thing I learnt here is that you must use acrylic medium between layers – I don’t have any at the moment, hence my new found knowledge! Otherwise, the underlying layers become muddy and hard to work on. So I’m off to get me some new medium just as soon as I can – cos all my other stuff is finished!
Abstract on paper series – 1
Untitled – study.
Acrylics, gel medium, metallics on mixed-media paper (250gm/169lb)
Approximately 12″ x 8″
Close up of texture detail.
I have been watching a lot of videos by the German artist, Gerda Lipski and was inspired by her to try layering with acrylics on paper today. This is not something I normally do – because I don’t trust the nature of paper to stay strong during the layering process! Anyway, thanks to some of the tips that Gerda gives on her YouTube channel, I figured it out and now I’m having fun layering on paper for a change! Need to get some more acrylic medium though, as I’ve run out – so had to use heavy gel medium on this piece, which explains why I ended up with a bit more texture in the middle than I thought I would. 🙂
Again, thanks for stopping by.
New small abstract painting
“Little bit of blue”
12″ x 12″ x 3/4″ deep stretched canvas
Acrylics – no texture medium, just varying thicknesses of paint, including metallic (gold).
Close up of texture of paint below.
Available for sale – please email: janiceheatherscott@gmail.comm
this painting is now sold!
Thanks for stopping by.
Slight return
A friend of mine suggested that I do a better job with the images of my work, as this is one of the primary reasons why art doesn’t sell on the internet. I had a look at one painting in specific (Windy Day at Caister on Sea) which has received a lot of likes and so on but no purchase. The original photos were very dull and in fact, when I checked them out most of them had shadow on and were taken in low light. I took this painting out into my garden this morning (the sun is particularly bright today) and redid some photos – I didn’t use the tripod but I will for all future photos of work. I think the difference is quite obvious – any comment from my peers (i.e. you 🙂 ) would be welcome?
Old photos of this painting:
