Still life with Sigi

This is a foray into still Life painting.Not my usual genre, but what the hell. I read/ watched a wonderful tutorial given by Carole Marine (on the website www. Dailypaintworks.com) on color saturation and general colour theory. Man, it was a lightbulb moment for me. I used it today and I cannot believe how easy it was to get the colours and greys that I wanted. Anyway, I thought I would try a still Life with Sigi . He belongs Julius , who wants to keep him, but is worried his friends would tease him if they saw a baby string pull toy in his room. So how about a painting of Sigi instead??? I hope he likes it.

Edit number three

Too many hard edges was the general consensus with this painting. I agree. So I made a few changes. The photo is not the best but the light is different from yesterday, so perhaps that is the issue.

Waikato hospital from the lake

I walk around this lake, close to the hospital. It has a wonderful children's park, small glades of trees and good open spaces for games and events. The houses are separated from the water , in most part, by a wooden boardwalk. Water lilies abound as do dog walkers, mums with prams and small children on trikes, runners and those, like myself, who just like to wander and look at other peoples lives.
The hospital seems to have n number of cranes in use at any given time. There are major building works going on and it feels like they have been building for years .This view will no doubt change, so I painted it whilst I could.

Editing and revamping

I am getting better at editing and amending my paintings. I have enjoyed leaving the painting alone for a while, not looking at them and then revisiting them a week or do later. There have been a few " what the hell was I thinking " moments, but also a few moments when I was quite happy with what I had achieved or when I could clearly see what changes should be made and how. That clarity has been missing for a while and it seems, with practice ( and a willingness to cock it up every now and then) the editing process is proving to be enjoyable and valuable.

So here are a few makeovers.

She said WHAT?!?

Silly title, but this backward glance was a delight to paint.
12 "x 12"
30x30 cm
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Holy cow!!!!

So, these crazy girls were just calling to be painted. Everything is shrouded in mist at the moment and I felt I needed some color in my world!
True, the cows I walked past this morning were not this color, but I bet they wished they were!!!




Acrylic 10"x10"( 25cmx25cm) stretched canvas
For Sale
$80.00 nzd
Contact artist for details.

Morning light with cows

The dreaded lurgy is still in the house! Poor kids, poor me!!!!! I have cabin fever( we cannot, as a collective, move more than 20 steps from a toilet!!!!) and the weather has been just perfect to go painting outdoors . Cruel.

Anyway, I have managed a bit of painting in between my Florence nightingale duties.

I took the reference photo at the start of autumn. The Morning mists and soft light were very pretty and I loved that the cows were laying down in the sunbeams.

I want to use more paint when I paint. I find I can become a veritable water colorist with the amount of turps I use sometime. Time to get gutsy and ladle it on. So, I am squeezing out an inordinately greedy amount of paint into my palette and hoping my " waste not, want not" instinct takes over and I use it all! No saving it, either!!!!! And I might even start with a very small, say 6x8 " canvas as an added incentive.