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:
Tag: Textured Paintings
And flip …
I was moving things around over the weekend and ‘accidentally’ stacked my latest large painting the wrong way up. When I stood back and looked at it, I realised that it is far more dynamic this way up and has more sense of presence. There is something almost cathedral in the illusion of space. To me it feels like I am standing on a snow covered street looking up the road – either side at very tall buildings. What do others think?
Untitled – August 2016
I am going to stop now … quite happy with it on the wall.
120cm x 100cm x 4cm
Acrylic, inks, pastes and gels (for texture) on stretched canvas.
Below to show room view …
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 panel
“Big sky and windmill”
10″ x 8″
Acrylics, Inks, found collage materials (for the foreground) on acrylic canvas board.
Close up:
This is very much a bit of whimsy. I will not be posting on here for a few weeks, as I’m going to be in South Africa soon for a short holiday, visiting friends and family.
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 canvas – large
“Sea”
47″ x 39″ x 1 ½”
Acrylics, metallic paints and inks, on stretched deep wrap canvas.
Ground has been highly textured over a period of months, resulting in a very robust, cured surface that is quite hard. I used caulk, modelling paste and other gels to get the texture. It’s currently hanging in my bedroom (swamping my room as well because it’s quite a large painting), ‘cos I don’t have anywhere else to put it!
Close ups of texture detail
Abstract on paper
“Reef”
11 ¾” x 7 ¾”
Own modelling paste and Inks on acrylic paper
Smaller photo below of picture in a pre-cut frame.
This is heavily textured and I decided to only use inks for colour.
Close ups of texture – sorry took the photos as light was fading, so I’ve got glare on the image.
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 Canvas
“Vibrant field”
20″ x 16″
Acrylics, inks, gels on heavy textured and sculpted surface (my own texture paste), displacement chemical (Surgical Spirits), Montana copper metallic spray paint on stretched canvas.
Again, I haven’t sealed this yet with a binder or clear gel. My daughter likes this one so much, I don’t think I will be allowed to do anymore work on it 🙂
Close ups of texture:
Abstract on canvas
“Warmscape”
22″ x 18″
Acrylics, texture paste and gels, inks, spray paint on stretched canvas
I haven’t sealed this one yet with an acrylic binder or gel, waiting for it to cure.
Close ups of texture
Abstract on paper – A3
“Rocks”
Acrylics, inks, thick bonding agent (sort of like grout), gels on A3 acid free paper.
Some close ups of texture:
I may have finished this series of abstract on paper paintings for now, as I would like to get back to using a more robust support, like canvas or board. This particular piece has not yet cured, so it is still a bit rippled and wrinkly, it will settle down eventually and be completely flat. However, I need to start preparing a body of work that I hope to exhibit and hopefully sell 🙂 in the spring/summer (not sure where yet).
I would just like to say thank you to everyone who visits this blog and ‘likes’ or comments on my work, it is very much appreciated and if I don’t automatically go to your blog and like your work it’s not because I’m a cow, it’s perhaps because I got a bit busy and didn’t have time. I look at all the blogs by the authors who visit this site and all of them are spectacular. I feel really privileged to have such a strong, experienced and talented ‘peer group’ of people who regularly make the effort to pop by here and look at my work – thank you all very much!
Abstract on paper – A3
“Somewhere, a place”
Acrylics, inks, glues, gels on A3 (297 x 420mm or 111.7 x 16.5″) acid free acrylic paper using various techniques.
Close ups of colour and texture detail
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 – larger -A3 size 2
“Flight (for Laura)”
Inks (metallic and standard), acrylics, irridescent medium, on 140lb A3 size acid free Acrylic paper (Oh and I did so cheat, using a Google search for line drawings … wickedness. Laziness. Well it’s Sunday)
Actual size of painting: 14½” x 9¾”
Close ups of texture detail
Thanks for the inspiration, Laura 🙂
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:
