paintings prints and stuff

Vivien Blackburn's work in the Urban/Rural show We've just hung a group show at the The Eye Project, Urban/Rural show.  If you want to come and see it it's on for a month - well worth seeing, 11 lovely artists and some fabulous work. Those large canvasses are 40 inches square. There are rural landscapes, flowerscapes, intriguing textile work including a large knitted building, abstracts .... something for everyone. It's in the gallery below the cafe in the Adult Education Centre at the top of Wellington street, Leicester, opposite Fenwicks.  Meet the Arttists day is Saturday 1st April 10-2.  Come and have a chat with us?

Time is a bit short at the moment so I haven't had chance to get on with paintings - these are a couple of digital variations on the lino prints, playing with colours and time of day. Tomorrow I'm off to the Private View of an exhbition in the Cotswolds of an artist new to me - so hopefully an interesting day.

Evening Light across the Beach. Vivien Blackburn. Charcoal and coloured pencil This is the charcoal drawing on grey paper that I showed you unfinished here: http://vivienb.blogspot.com/2008/02/seascapes-update-february.html (scan down past the painting to it) I said that I was mulling over whether to simply use white pastel for highlights and keep it monochrome or add colour - and if colour what medium??? I decided to try coloured pencils over the charcoal and see how they worked - they worked! I wanted to keep the colours very muted, this kind of evening light softens and dulls colours and the cliff was deeply shadowed and backlit. I worked in multiple glazes of colours to softly build white, blues, mauve, umber, sienna, peach, orange, ochres and a little green on the cliff top which doesn't show much onscreen as it's only a little. The peachy colours are a little less orangey and more peach than they appear here. The clouds have blues and browns in them. The light blues in ...

Across the beach, sunset, 16 ins square, charcoal on watercolour paper. Vivien Blackburn A quick sketch in charcoal with some conte pencil to push the darkest areas. I used watercolour paper which didn't grip the charcoal very well. The texture worked ok for the sand but was sometimes annnoying in other areas. The sand has a little more tone than shows in the photograph - again the flash bounces off the white paper, lightening it >:>( details:

Sunset, incoming tide. Vivien Blackburn. mixed media on canvas This one is virtually finished. Some of the colours aren't showing very well, like the greenier blue on the underside of the waves. It's now hanging above the sofa so that I can decide if I'm going to do anything further to it. That's its working title, which may stick. I'd said these smaller canvasses were 30 inch squares and I've realised they are probably 24 inch squares - maths never was my thing! I do know for sure the bigger ones are 40 inch squares :) Through the Dunes Nightfall. Mixed media on 40 inch sq canvas. Vivien Blackburn This is still wet and so the light is catching the wet paint a little but I'm not planning to do much more to this. (the curved shape on the lower left hand edge is something in front of the canvas and not part of the painting) The other 40 inch canvas is also virtually finished. The disastrous one of the last post has had the sky/clouds sande...

seascapes, work in progress, mixed media on canvas 30 in square. Vivien Blackburn This is at a stage where it looks a bit rough and ready! and the colours aren't showing well. I'm not happy with it at the moment. It's coming on slowly though and when it's finished I'll photograph it outside in better light. Below is a detail: detail of distant cliff, work in progress I'm still working on the clouds in particular, to try to get that effect of the rays of light and the light peachy sky against the dark clouds. Again it needs to dry before I can glaze and scumble more colour. work in progress, 30 inch square canvas. Vivien Blackburn This one has moved on just a little but I don't plan to do very much more. The colour is a bit too warm here, it's not quite so warm IRL, there are cools there as well. work in progress 40 inch square canvas. Vivien Blackburn Sorry it is on the slant but the paint was wet and caught the light otherwise. This is one that I start...

work in progress. 40 inch square canvas. Wild Seas. Vivien Blackburn The beach is a typical Cornish cove - funnel shaped - so the waves come racing in and clash from different directions, bounced off the rocks, as they are forced into an ever narrowing route. I love the chaos and tumult. The sand is carved into hollows and ridges and patterns as the tide moves. I don't know how well I'm going to be able to catch this but it's what I'm trying to catch. My Monday class doesn't start up for a couple of weeks so I managed another day of working on the canvasses :) I'm now at the stage where there is a lot of thinking time or waiting for paint to dry and progress slows. 30 inch canvas work in progress stage 3 - seascapes Vivien Blackburn This one is the most resolved so far. A quieter day, looking diagonally across the beach when the tide is out. The evening clouds a soft apricot. I still have work to do on it though. 30 inch canvas work in progress seascape. Vivien...

work in progress, seascape, 30 inch square canvas The paintings are slowly developing. At the moment there is a fairly limited range of colours in use but there are purples and turquoises in the water that aren't shown well in these photos and the sand has more colour. Each is developing in its own way. This one is about the beach in the evening with the tide out and pools and patterns of ripples in the sand shining as the last light catches them, casts shadows and creates reflections. In the distance the big breakers crash on the shore. 40 inch square canvas, work in progress This one is closer to the waters edge and I'm trying to get the tumult of the waves and the fact that up close like that the horizon is no longer straight - it's made up of multiple swells sweeping in to break close on the heels of the previous wave. Those dark lines need on the right need to be toned down and partially lost. It has a way to go and as it develops the thinking time increases in relat...

It worked! so this show is done with photobucket, where my images are stored to go online anyway, so access is quick and easy. Anyone wanting to add a slide show to their blog, and who isn't already light years ahead of me in technology and knows already :) , can join the sites and create their own by simply clicking on the 'get your own' tab next to the images Apart from the pencil sketch these are variations on the beach at nightfall, from sketches done plein air. There's a small 12 inch square oil painting, some collagraphs and a pencil sketch of the sea defences. Collagraphs are a lovely printmaking method using mount (matt) card as a plate. It's inexpensive and I really like the marks you can achieve with it. It does need a printing press though as it's an intaglio process like etching and not a relief print like lino.

I spent the afternoon painting :) - ignoring the fact that I really should have been tidying up It's based on sketches done sitting on the beach as the sun set and night fell, and memory, it's the last of the light, just catching the sand and sea and clouds. It's only 11 inches square in a black leaved sketch book by Pink Pig, using Unison pastels (I love them best) and compressed charcoal to regain some of the blacks. Unison pastels are so luscious and don't constantly break like some pastels. I know a lot of people like Rembrandt pastels but I found they just constanly broke and shaled into little pieces and were a bit scratchy feeling to draw with. A very good pastel painter told me that Schminke white is the whitest white of all with brilliant cover so I plan to treat myself to a couple when I'm near a supplier and see how I like them. I do love working in pastel but .... oh the framing of it! it's a nightmare. I may just get my framer to do this one comple...