Thursday 15 September 2011

The importance of value / tone & observation....

Whoops!  My promise to post more regularly seems to have gone by the by....Sorry will try to do better next time...

Have been waging a war in my classes against the tonally or value challenged & have been TRYING to get all participants to use a grey scale to help them to see that often values are darker or lighter than we think or perceive. I came across this clip in my travels on the web & think it illustrates beautifully the point I have been trying to make:

Never judge value or tone in isolation , it must be related to those values around it. What appears light in one area can be dark in another.
In this clip the light square in shadow only appears light because the values around it are darker....




Tuesday 5 July 2011

A few pictures from the exhibition....

"Approaching Storm"
(Barton Highway)
Pastel on Storm Blue Colourfix paper

"Brittle Gum II"
 Pastel on Elephant Colourfix board

"Storm at Sunset, Hall, ACT"
Pastel on Light Tan Mi Teintes Tex paper

"The Goodradigbee"
Pastel on Light Tan primed board

"Moonrise" (from the Studio)
Pastel on Rose Grey Colourfix paper

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Exhibition.....

Sorry to my one follower for the lack of posts lately.....Lots of dramas & have also been painting madly for this exhibition. The link below will take you to the gallery, then click on Winter Exhibition for a preview of some of the works plus some older pieces. I will post some of the images soon.


Friday 3 June 2011

Pastel Making....

Last week I had my class making pastels. Some were keen, some weren't. It is a tedious process but it seems it is made more enjoyable by company as all ended up thoroughly enjoying it & the wonderful colours they produced.



Crushing & Grinding


Adding liquid
 

Dividing the "dough"

 
Blotting out the excess water

 
Powder...


Dough...

 
Stick !

This is why you were supposed to be wearing gloves!
Lucky it is a non toxic pigment....
 
The finished products & some really useful colours

My colours:
"Scrap Brown" a wonderfully useful greyed brown, already much in use !

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Exploring a theme....

 In the previous post I spoke about exploring a favourite subject or trying different formats. Here are 4 works all derived from the same reference photo. A very typical summer scene in the area where I live. I felt the need to explore it further as I love the combination of elements & the feeling it gives me 


This vertical panel 34cm x 72cm was the first in the series & I wanted to explore the range of clouds & I wanted to attempt to show the tree on the left being buffeted by the wind (See close up below)




Close up of above



This piece 23cm x 30 cm I think may well have been started before the previous picture .... It started out as a demonstration piece showing a rough, quick & fairly minimal under painting in gouache. It then sat for quite a long time gathering dust until I decided to finish it off.



This large piece 67.5cm x 47.5cm is a tighter crop than the above piece & more highly refined




This smaller piece 18.5cm x 18.5cm explores the scene in a tight square format.



Wednesday 4 May 2011

May....

Oh my gosh  here it is May...... where did the time go? Didn't think it was quite so long since my last post but have had school holidays & a multitude of horse events to attend with daughter..... Very little time spent in the studio...sigh.

Have managed to do a little work. Here, a small commission & it's tonal study. It is a subject I have painted before but from a slightly different aspect, time of day & season. I think it worthy of a larger work than this tiny piece.

Tonal study

Rolfe Road Study



 I have favourite places & areas  I love to revisit from time to time. The light can be different or it can be painted from a different aspect or in a different format. I enjoy the challenge of revisiting a subject & exploring it further or in a different manner  (but I get very bored with making clones, I won't do that). Sometimes I will zero in on an area of a larger subject to explore it  further, often in a different format.


Larger earlier work "Rolfe Road"



Further down the road.... "Yellow Box Trees, Rolfe Road "