Summertime in Australia

Well I'm not so sure we have had such a great summer here in Sydney, but I woke up this morning and the cicadas were chirping away in the gum trees in the park across the road from our apartment.  It reminded me of my summers as a boy, in the Australian bush, where the cicadas would carry on with their incessant chirps all summer long.

The other thing I noticed today was how the wind had blown all the gum leaves into a pile in the gutter.... I had never really looked at gum leaves before (just bloody leaves after all), but I had Evie with me and we started to pick some of the best leaves out of the pile.  The colors are beautiful... I hadn't really noticed.  Reds, yellows, browns, even blues and purples.

I took the camera out and we shot some reference photos of piles of leaves.  This is a watercolor I did today of gum leaves... not a really exciting topis, but I just couldn't resist.

Have a great day

Pete

The finding of John Lovett

In my quest to transition from oils to watercolors, I have been surfing the web for handy hints, examples, tutorials and demonstrations of how to paint with the watercolor medium....  Enter John Lovett.. John is a very accomplished artist from Queensland who specialises in watercolor art.  His works are quite exceptional.  And even more importantly, John is happy to share his technique and expertise with the rest of the world.

So watercolors out, brushes out, and lets do a John Lovett tutorial off the web.  I have to admit, I almost gave up halfway through, coz it was just not coming together.... but in the end I finished up with a painting that I am moderately happy with.

So... here is "After John Lovett No 1."

and here is the original tutorial..

http://splashingpaintblog.com/2010/01/18/suggesting-detail/

Let me know what you think
Pete

The time has come

Ever since I was ejected from my studio down the road, I have been set up in a corner of the third bedroom of out apartment.  Anyone who has stayed over would have smelled the sweet smell of oil paint chemicals, turps, thinners, mediums, smelly rags etc.... Well, we have finally decided that this can't be real good for our health, so I have packed away all my oil painting gear until I get a work space that's away from human habitation.

The big question now of course is what medium do I use for my art... Watercolor, Acrylic,.... Digital?  I almost feel like I am back to the drawing board and starting out from scratch.. All that time invested in learning how to use Oils, and now I have to move to another medium.... One thing is for sure.. Don't expect any masterpieces out of me in the very near future.

In the meantime I have  started to dabble in watercolors... A very different medium to oil, and requires a totally different technique.  I will post my progress on the blog I can document my progression, although I won't post any of the works on DeviantArt or my web site until I am convinced they are worthy pieces of art.

These are my first.  Remember, this is the first time I have used watercolors in over 10 years so don't be too harsh :)

The first is of one of the girls at work, from a recent photoshoot to create headshots.  My apologies to gabrielle!

And the second is just out of my head... 

All the best

Pete

Portrait: Debbie-Lee, First for 2012

Whats the point of painting portraits if you don't paint your favorite model every now and then.  I put this one together the other night, and I kind of like the result.... I though I would do a quick post to share

Pete

More experimentation

What is this flurry of activity....I must have found my mojo.

I thought I would try something different so I played with some technique.  In this case I blobbed colors onto the canvas, then smoothed them (and blended) with a cotton cloth, used like a sponge.  This wiped off the excess paint, smoothed out the brush marks, blended the colors, and created an interesting texture.

This is the result

 

Hope you like

Pete

A burst of activity... something new.

Around this time of year, when I am usually a little more relaxed after the obligatory Christmas break, I usually start "mucking around".  This is the time when half finished painting that just didn't quite work start littering the studio floor.  Usually because I have tried some new technique that is outside my usual comfort zone... This is the time of year where I tend to stretch myself.

This January was no different, although this time I had a penchant for portraits.. I won't post all the disasters (there were a few), but I thought I would post some of the more interesting paintings to come from this time of experimentation.

Firstly, I was reading a book on watercolor portraits by Alex Powers.  I like his technique and thought I would try and reproduce in Oils.  To make oils behave like watercolors you have two main problems.  Firstly, you have to emulate the wet in wet technique common with watercolors, and secondly, you are pretty much restricted to transparent colors and there aren't too many in a normal oil painters palette.  To solve the first problem I used a medium of 50/50 gum turpentine and Damar varnish.. It had the added benefit of drying quickly, and being able to be reworked using pure gum turps.

This is the result... I hope you like it.

The second painting using this technique didn't work out near as well, but was OK all the same... Compare the difference

I think the main difference was my use of whitespace.. In the second painting I slipped back to my usual style a little too much.

Have a great day
Pete

A new source of inspiration.

As many of you may know, I paddle around (as opposed to surfing... I was born in the bush, so any kind of surfing just seems unnatural to me) on Deviantart to post my work, and see what others in the global art world ar up to.  Anyway.... paddling around one day and I found Greta Tuckute, a photographer that does beautiful portraits.. Greta's portrait photography is amazing, but what is really amazing id that Greta is only 17 years old..

She has also consented to let me use her work as reference materials for portraits, so today I took one of her photographs and painted a portrait from it.

Here is her original work;

and here is Greta on Deviantart... gretatu.deviantart.com., and her website http://www.gretatu.com/
now for my rendition....

hope you like it
all the best
Pete

Happy New Year.... 2012

Hello folks,

Well its been a while.. unfortunately my real life job has a habit of taking over and I don't get to do any art stuff.  Well I have just had 2 weeks of over the Christmas break and managed to lift a brush on a couple of occasions.

I am still going through my portrait phase.,  I just love doing portraits.  Debbie-Lee says I should paint directly out of my head because I have a vivid imagination, but I can't seem to get past this desire to paint the perfect portrait, and I'm damned if I give up until I do... smart huh!!!! Not.

What I did do was finish the portrait of Rocky Elsom.  His mom saw it and seemed OK with it so it must look something like Rocky.. here is the finished article.  Pardon the crappy iPhone photo.. I plan to redo it tomorrow in the sunshine with a decent camera

Working on some other portraits.. will blog them later

cheers for now

Pete