Well I picked up a brush again.  First time since early January sometime... I am still in that portrait frame of mind and recently completed a couple.... see the main web site.  I have another 5 in progress.. you read it right.. another 5.  I will post them on the blog as works in progress so you can see where I'm up to.  Just in case your interested they are;

1)  Claudia in red and yellow.. on canvas

2)  another Claudia in red and yellow, slightly looser style

3)  Ania

4)  Zoe

5)  me Mum!!!!!

Might get some more done tonight

Pete

Well I have been slack haven't I.  First entry in a while.

Whats been happening.   Not much.  I still don't have a regular job which is a bit of a worry, but at least I am getting to paint a bit.

Currently I am doing a bit of still life.. I have always shied away from still life because I don't like the tradiutional vases of flowers, jugs and fruit that you see all over.  I wanted to do something a little minimal, as realistic as my abilities allow, and is not fruit/jugs/vases/flowers etc.

It took a while, but one afternoon I noticed Debbie-Lee's old sneakers laying on the lounge room floor, and I thought what a good subject!!.  I photographed them and painted the following painiting.. in oils.

PUMAS,  September 2008, 91.5cm x 91.5cm (36in x 36in), Oil on Canvas

I have also decided that its about time I was serious about marketing my art, so I am going to put together a series of paintings for an exhibition then flog them around some galleries to see if there is any interest.  They will be still life paintings, starting with Pumas above.  I have already started on my second painting of a pair of old boots.... they won't all be of shoes, just things I find that could be turned into a still life painting.

I'll keep you posted

Pete

I decided the other day to drag out my acrylics... It was while I was playing around with multimedia...  I just got tired of painting and decided to splatter some paint onto an old canvas I had.  I mixed everything.  Acrylics. oil paint, water, solvent.... then dribbled it around the canvas.. this was the result. 

Anyway... It caused me to get my acrylics out again... I started to underpaint with acrylics, then coat with linseed oil, then layer an oil paint mix over the lot... It created an interesting effect.. Then I just startet to play with Acrylics as an underpaint for my oils.  I was working on a black ground with white paint, scrumbling it in, and building it up in layers... easier with Acrylics because they dry between layers.  The result was pretty neat.. looked like a loose charcoal drawing in reverse.. I liked it so didn't go further with my plan to use it as an underpainting.. I have been experimenting with this style since, but using a white ground, painting blocks of underpaint colous, then scrumbling in successive layers of black.

This is the first painting where I used the black ground and white acrylics. 

This is the latest.. I added colour blocks as an underpaint.. 

I'm having fun with this so will keep going... I might try some landscapes as well to see how they turn out.

catch you next time

Pete