I wanted to paint another portrait, do I picked a great shot of my daughter Eve and decided to use it as a reference.  It was taken in the bedroom while she was mucking around on mum and dad's bed.

It started off life as another palette knife painting, but quickly morphed into something entirely different.. This one has taken me a while.  I do a little every second night or so.. maybe no more than an hour or two at a time.. and I want to get it right.

its not finished yet.. I don't expect to have it done til somewhere mid March

anyway.. here it is to date... I'm calling it "Bad Girls Rock".  Its on Canvas and its 40inch by 40inch so its a pretty large painting for a portrait.

I'll post it up when I'm done.

take care all

Pete

Last year was a disaster for me... I finished 3 paintings all year..  between work taking my time for most of the first half of the year, and my battle with the big "C" for the last 6 months, I just disn't get time to do anything with a brush, palette knife or any other applicator.. I hate to admit it but painting was the last thing on my mind.

Well... I think I won the first battle, and hopefully the war.  I finished Radiotherapy in October.. man was that a pain in the rear end.  I still felt like shite right through Christmas, then a wonderful thing happened.... I started to think about my art again.

So my new years resolution is to do much, much more art than I did last year.. I have already completed 4 pieces, with means that even if I quit now I would have reached my goal.... But.. I'm still going to work on... redesign my web site, maybe do something for the Moran art prize.. who knows.

So, for those few people that haven't given up on me, here is what I have so far;

No. 1 for the year was a portrait of my beautiful wife Debbie-Lee

Next I completed the Claudia work I have had unfinished for the last 2 years

Then, I decided to do a palette knife portrait of my beautiful 3 year old daughter Evie.  I am really liking palette knives... they are easy to clean up :), and I like the final result.  I think I am going to focus a lot of time on Palette knife paintings this year.

And lastly, for this post, I did a palette knife still life..

That's it for now.... It's late on a Sat night, and I am going to bed.

Back again.. twice in one day.  Has to be a record

I promised to post some WIPs of the portraits I am working on.  enuff said. here they are;

1) Claudia No. 1

2) Claudia No. 2

3) Ania

4) Zoe

5) Me Mum....


I'll post the final paintings when I get them finished

Bye for now

Pete

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

Wow.. I had a look at my blog today and realised its nearly 6 months since I wrote anything.. Isn't that crap.. whats worse is that I haven't lifted a brush since beginning of January.

You see, I took a real job.. and the problem with real jobs is they take a lo9t of your time.. the upside of course is that they pay real money :)

Now, i'm being told by my landlord that they are renovating the top floor of the shops where I have my studio space... and that I am going to lose my studio.  I don't know what I am going to do now...  the combination of no studio and a real job is making it difficult to paint, so it looks like 2009 is going to be one of those years.. bleak on the painting front..

I will let you all know what I decide.

Also.. I have a bunch of paintings that are partially completed.. will post the WIP

I promide to come back more often

Pete

I am leaving today for London (for 2 days) for a job interview, so won't be getting any art done for a week or so.

I'll blog you when I get back

Pete

Have you noticed the dates all screwed up on my blog entries..  I think I have found a bug in the blog system.. If I edit an entry, it adds a day to the entry date... weird.

Anyway.. 2 down... I have officially finished the sneakers, and the bowl.. still working on the strawberries (haven't done anything since last time... damn that crimson takes a long time to dry), and the cointreau and cigars.

first the sneakers.  I had to finish off some details.. eyelets, laces, paint drips, stitching etc..  On here, as photos it may look as if I haven't done much at all.  You'll just have to see it in the flesh.

and the bowl... well its just a bowl, what else can I say

til next time

Pete

can you believe its October already........ time marches on

OK.. an update.  I didn't do all that much over the last couple of days, hours wise, but you can see the difference in the progress.  Its all base work though (except for the sneakers), where I lay down the first layers of paint.  I also started a new painting with strawberries and an Alizirin Crimson paint tube... see later.

Sneakers

I decided I would make the sneakers a little more interesting, so I painted a tear in the canvas and leaked paint out... dripping it on the sneakers, and pooling on the floor.  I couldn't finish because the paint was a still wet and a little buttery.. it needs to dry a bit before I can do any more.

bowl

The bowl is coming along... not sure at this stage whether it shoul be blue or not.. I might have to cogitate on that one a little

Cointreau & cigars

Started tha main block in and worked on the background a little... I will do some more today

strawberries

This is a new painting I will be working on.. 900x600 so fairly large, and will probably take some time to finish.  So far I have only blocked in the main colours...

take care uintil next update

Pete

WOTE 1/10/08

With the girls gone I am getting plenty of time to paint, although I was a bit slack yesterday and only put in a few hours.

Where am I up to you might ask??? or might not

I started two new works yesterday.... they are

1.  a bowl... I know, I know I said I wouldn't do bowls and fruit and stuff, but guess what, I have changed my mind.  Here is the orginal rough-in

I am going to add some interest in the background on this one.  The bowl on its own just won't cut it, even with the minimalist look I have been using on my paintings lately.

I also started a work based on a box of cigars and a bottle of cointeau I have in the grog cupboard.  I set up and took a reference photo to work off.

funny thing though.. I went through the setup, cigars, matches, bottle etc. and took heaps of reference photos under different lighting conditions.  Then when I started to draw on the canvas I noticed the matches were labeled "Dickheads".  All along I thought they were "Redheads"... LOL.  I drew it as it was.  I might leave it and call this painting "Dickheads and friends" ... what do you think?

I worked on the sneakers yesterday as well.  I wanted to add a little mystery to the painting, so I painted a tear in the canvas..  I plan to have paint dripping out of the tear onto the shoes and ending in a paint puddle on the floor... we'll see how it turns out.  If it doesn't work I can always paint over it

The shoes are finished except for some scuffing to make them look a little worn.  I can't do that (or the paint drips) until the rest of it is dry, in a day or so

Until next time

Pete

OK... Tuesday 30th Sep.  The last day to get another work completed in September.

Whats on the easel today

 the sneakers are starting to come along.  It looks a little bland and I have some ideas to make the painting look more interesting.. but for now lets just get the sneakers finished.

This is what I managed to do yesterday

I have to scuff them up a bit yet... they look kinda new don't they.

Yesterday I also finished the old boots I have been working on.. I have them on the web site under recent works, but here it is as well........

Today I might start a few more in the studio

all the best

Pete