6x4” study ‘black jar and apple’

6x4” study ‘Chrysanthemums ‘

Black Jar with Apples 13x12" oil painting on panel

Ive been meaning to try some larger paintings, and recently some very helpful advice from another artist finally gave me a push to get started. It is harder for me to visualise the composition when working larger, but I think the only thing to do is to keep making paintings and it will become easier with practice. I started off with the piece above, and am currently working on the painting below. It felt pretty awkward at first to be painting on a larger scale. But I’m getting used to it already. The paintings have a much bigger impact this size.
I’m now working on a project making a lot of these larger flower paintings, so there will be less time for the little daily paintings, but I will keep updating my blog with progress shots, possibly on a weekly basis for the time being.

13x14” work in progress ‘Chrysanthemums in a black jar’

Oil painting on primed card 5x4"

Time to get back into the swing of daily painting!
I've a whole load of objects in my shadow box, waiting to make an appearance ( I do find something very theatrical about the set up)
Here are a couple of books I found in a charity shop: Lieutenant Hornblower, and The Art of Thinking. I've not read them - I'm afraid I only bought them because they look beautiful - I love the faded, loose covers. I wonder whose they were and if they enjoyed reading them. 
A rather peculiar composition, but these studies I'm doing are designed as experiments rather than finished pieces. 
Its nice to finally feel like I've got the hang of technique to the point where I can play around a bit.
​I feel like I'll be using these books in a larger painting soon.

Oil painting on primed card 6x4"

Another little compositional study completed on Wednesday- two sick children to look after now - hence the lack of paintings! I’ll be back soon...

Oil painting on panel 5x7"

I've got an ill child again unfortunately - just a virus, poor little thing, but she's been ill for a few days now so I'm back to trying to paint and write late into the evening.  
I made this little study last night, the objects have crept round to the other side of the shadow box where the light is a little different again.  I like the strong diagonal shadows on the objects, but am not happy about how close they are to the drapes at the back.  I was thinking of painting the backgound entirely black but I think ill leave it as it is and try something different next time. 
I painted this pretty quickly, and only with sable brushes just so that I could try out the composition.  Ill be doing a few more quick studies like this as I'm planning on trying some larger still life pieces.

Not going to attempt to paint tonight as I finished this one so late  night last and got woken up a few times as well.  I feel a bit odd not painting on the days I can't paint, like something really important is missing.

So far I've managed 43 out of 64 days which isn't bad considering how little time I get.  Its definitely improved my painting a lot.

Oil painting on panel 10x10"

I started this painting late on Saturday night, but by 1.30 am I decided I had to go to bed - its a shame because now I won't be able to complete the painting alla prima (in one session) as I'd hoped. The jug still needs some work and I'll have to let it dry before working on it again. I'm happy with the daffodils though so I can leave them as they are thankfully. The slide show below shows some progress shots up to where I left off last night.

Oil painting on panel  8x10"

After all the dark paintings recently I felt like trying some flowers against a white background.  The weather returned to grey wintry light which gave nice soft shadows. It was great to be able to use these rich magentas and purples - not colours I often get to use. The cyclamen were obligingly easy to paint but the glass I'm not happy with, so this will have to stay another morning on my easel ( so much for completing this as a daily painting as I initially hoped!)

Oil painting on panel 5x7"

Oil painting on panel 16x11"

I managed to make four paintings over the half term holidays - I had to stay up late to do them, and because my kids happened to be not sleeping too well I found I just couldn't keep going for the whole week! Also I didn't get time to update my blog, just facebook and instagram. 

  6x4" oil painting on panel 'Blue Jug with Clementine' (available from Newbloodart)

I'm still trying out the possibilities that I can create with my shadow box.  I like the incredible amount of shine this set up created, and the diagonal shadow in the background. It was good to work with a light coloured background for a change after all the dark paintings I've been working on. 

 3x3" oil painting on primed card 'Lemon Slice' available from Etsy

 4x3" oil painting on primed card 'Green Marble' (available from Etsy)

Above is the  set up for my final painting of the week.  There is something very theatrical about the overhead lighting in my shadow box, combined with the black fabric.  The jar of heartsease reminds me of a dancer waiting in the wings.
The intensity of the light really makes the petals glow, and I like the way it picks out the leaves within the jar.

6x4" oil on panel 'Heartsease'

Oil painting on panel 5x7"

Another bright frosty morning had me setting up my easel by the banks of the river Thames again.  This group of trees is becoming a recurring motif in my paintings. You can find it in Orleans Gardens, looking over towards the Ham side of the river.
There was a lot of haze in the air which really increased the atmospheric perspective.  Its only a couple of weeks since the last frosty painting  but the light seems very different already as the sun is now higher and the light  stronger.
Maybe because of the smaller panel size, I didn't feel in such a rush this morning.  I remembered to step back and consider the overall effect a lot more.  I've been thinking about how to create colour harmony and researching this in Edgar Payne's book, Composition of Outdoor painting. I used a lot of blue and yellow today, it seems to tie the piece together quite well.