Homecoming close ups and the next idea for a painting!

Thank you for all your lovely comments about the Kettlewell painting. A couple of you have e mailed asking if I could post some close ups so here they are:

firstly of the shepherds and their sheep



and secondly of Blue Bell Inn.



I am so glad that the relaxed feeling comes across in the painting. Creating an atmosphere is a large part of what I enjoy most when painting landscapes.


A few of you also wanted to know more about the village itself so if you are interested click on this link to find out more.

I'm thinking about my next painting already. Well actually I'm already beginning to draw out the outline. Its a change of subject matter once more. We took some photos recently of a group of Canadian geese youngsters and they each had such wonderful characters I just have to paint them. So, I am going for a cutsie painting of the baby goslings but with a very serious twist to it. There are just a couple of blades of grass left, poking through a tarmac'd path, symbolizing human's destruction of habitat.



I have drawn out the goslings. You will have to imagine the remaining blades of grass in the area of the middle two goslings. I am now thinking about the background. I plan to keep it fairly plain except in the area where the last remaining blades of grass are. I am really looking forward to developing the characters and feelings of each of the little goslings over the coming weeks.

Ona

Homecoming

It's taken a while but i've finally finished the Kettlewell painting. Before I show you I thought I would let you see Doug's reference photo and explain how i decided to use it.



I wanted to change the composition slightly so that the sheep had somewhere to walk. Its so useful having google steet view just to be able to add in the extra parts of the building on the left hand side.

I also wanted to change the light direction and general feel of the scene. I was imagining a time late on a summer's afternoon when the light turns that wonderful golden colour. I decided to take out all of the modern day extras and even make a road appear more rural without the road markings. I just wanted that relaxed feel to the piece, away from the hustle and bustle of modern day living.

so this is my finished painting.



Ona

Kettlewell Traffic Jam WIP 2

so after 2 days work at the meet and another couple of hours today I have nearly finished the buildings. It has been fun altering the light direction from the reference photo and working out how this would effect each element of the architecture.

I also want to share a painting I did a couple of months ago but it had to be kept secret because we had a 'guess the painting' game at the Ontario meet. All the artists were asked to paint something related to our 'be in the mix for number 6' slogan and then last Friday evening we had to try to guess which painting was painted by which artist. I decided to paint a portrait of one of our meet artists Uschi appearing as if she was on my watercolour palette. I wanted to make her appear to be part of the paint mix so in places she was there but in other areas she just became the paint.



I will post again once the kettlewell painting is finished.

Ona

Kettlewell traffic Jam WIP plus exciting news!!!

I have been thinking about a colour palette for the birds eye view painting and in the meantime have made a start on the Kettlewell painting. My aim was to get the background done before the Ontario Meet so on the day's workshop I can focus on the buildings and foreground detail. There is just no way I would get it all done in one day.

so this is what I have painted so far.



I have also been busy making magnets using some of my pen and ink animal drawings for the local animal hospital.



The Animal hospital have also agreed to sell my cards, bookmarks, magnets and small prints which is very exciting. I have also designed some Pet portrait business cards for them.



I hope you will all being seeing some more animal portraits very soon.

Ona