still life with caran d'ache neocolor II
Experimenting with Caran d'ache Neocolor II in the A3 moleskine sketchbook - the paper tolerated me using water with these in the underlayers.
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non traditional still life continued: experimenting in coloured pencil
Copper and Rose, coloured pencil, A4 folio moleskine, Vivien Blackburn details close up: Using coloured pencils I developed the digital experiment , not copying but making some alterations to shape, pattern and colour. I wanted to develop the warm coppery, rosy glow in this one with the blue as a supporting element, not the main one. It's in the large A4 folio sketchbook. I like the way coloured pencil behaves on the waxy paper surface. It may not allow quite so many layers as a paper with tooth but it allows quite a lot. The surface of the vase contains probably 10+ colours glazed over each other to change the warmth and colour balance across the surface. It also allows the Jakar battery eraser to lift the colour effortlessly for 'drawing' back in by removing colour. I think I'll do some more of these in coloured pencil (as well as paint and pastel) as I've got a pastel society exhibition coming up and pencil is allowed :>) feedback? what do you think? I...
non traditional still life variations and maybe a challenge?
Blue still life version 2 , watercolour and mixed media with copper metallic Sennelier oil pastel, Vivien Blackburn Another version from the same starting objects - playing with blue leaves from a vase pattern (top left) and green real leaves (top right), with the pattern of the cloth and plate floating, weaving in and out and elements used wherever I wanted them rather than where they actually were. Hillary asked if I minded her doing a theme like this with her group and I suggested she leave a link to the work they did in the comments section . Challenge: Does anyone else feel like having a go? a challenge? I haven't thrown out one of those for a while. Have a go at playing with still life items in a non-conventional way and then post a link in the comments on this post and later - about a month or 2??? - I'll do a post with links to everyone who took part. For ideas and inspiration look at the list of artists on the earlier post and then find some others you know and ...
Influences
Over on our group Watermarks blog Lindsay has just done an interesting post on Kurt Jackson. Tomorrow I'm doing a follow up to it. It made me digress into influences on our work and the importance of looking at other artists past and present, learning, but retaining our own 'voice'. We are all influenced, consciously or unconsciously by work we see. David Prentice quotes Rupert Bear (childrens books) as an influence with their aerial viewpoint in the illustrations. :>) His work has this wonderful feeling of flying slightly above the scene but isn't remotely illustrational. I love marks - splatters and scratches and brushmarks and knife marks, drawing with a twig to get those lovely not-quite-predictable marks I also love colour and masses and line. I spent some time managing to work out how to unite my disparate interests into a cohesive image when I was at college. Influences range from KJ to Monet, Turner, Gwen John, Joan Eardley, Egon Schiele (lo...
playing with colour fields in pastel, harmonious and complimentary colours
Colour field experiments in pastel on pale grey paper. Golds and blues. Vivien Blackburn Colour field experiments. Pastel on grey paper. Blue, Violet and Gold. Vivien Blackburn These small pastels - just over 5 inches square, were pure 'playing' with colour interaction - taking complimentary colours and making vibrant little squares of colour as the complimentaries zing against each other. The second one hasn't photographed very well - the magentas are much more glowing in reality than they appear here. Colour field experiment in pastel on grey paper. Greens and Russet. Vivien Blackburn The last one makes me think of apples and autumn, the middle one of beaches on one of those deeply vivid blue days and the first late summer harvest time. They were done with Inscribe pastels, which is a very cheap brand but really nice to use and with a wide colour range, I use them alongside my Unisons. I do love the vivid colours of pastels and the kind of marks they make - that lovely...
Contemporary painters of seascapes, beaches and the coast
Having looked at a couple of painters of flowers I like recently, I thought I'd look at some of the contemporary artists who paint the coast that I admire. David Tress : http://www.davidtress.co.uk/ copyright David Tress I love the abstraction of his work, forms dissolve into pure marks and drama. The wildness of the sea is beautifully evoked by the dramatic slashing use of the paint. This is how Cornwall was in the winter, where I lived as a child, the wildness, the weather and the danger are all there. Neil Pinkett : http://www.neilpinkett.co.uk/ copyright Neil Pinkett I love his use of colour and the way that he simplifies elements to the essentials. Kurt Jackson : http://kurtjackson.com/ copyright Kurt Jackson I've mentioned his work before - just a couple of times! - but I love the drama and movement and terrific sense of place and the exciting use of paint and marks in his work. Ross Loveday : http://www.rossloveday.co.uk/ image copyright Ross Loveday I love th...