Pikes Peak Watercolor Society International Watermedia XVII acceptance!

I had some exciting news this afternoon. My painting of James's Grandpa "Finishing Touches" has been selected for inclusion in the Pikes Peak Watercolor Society International Watermedia XVII. The juror John Salminen received 494 works for consideration. Of these, 90 were selected for the exhibition.

The exhibition will be at the
Cottonwood Center for the Arts
427 E. Colorado Avenue
Colorado Springs
CO 80903

and runs from June 24 to July 23, 2011.

Ona

Positive feedback from Luminosity Show!

Its always nice to get feedback from exhibitions. I was very fortunate in that the juror of the BWS Luminosity show, Andrew Hamilton, left written feedback for some of the award winners. This is what he wrote about my painting 'Artist at work'

"Great use of the material to create depth and light on a portrait. Shows wonderful technical ability to capture an intimate portrait of an artist at work."

 

I also had some lovely feedback from visitors to the exhibition especially in respect to my other painting 'The Guardian of Ra'(the painting of the white cat below)

 There were some magnificent paintings in the exhibition. Congratulations to all the award winners!

I know I feel honoured not only to have won an award but also to have two of my paintings hanging in this gallery as it was once the home and studio of Frederick Varley, one of the founding members of the Canadian Group of 7.

Ona

Painting low key!

I'm having such fun exploring and stretching my techniques at the moment.

 I'm still refining my skills in gallery wrapping a watercolour. This time I used some foam core cut to size on top of the stretcher bars and then wrapped the stretched watercolour paper around both. It makes the painted surface far more sturdy both while you are working on it and once its finished. I still have to fix and varnish it but its looking promising. I'm getting to grips with the wrapping stage but It is definitely worth having a willing helper for a few extra hands.

This one has taken a bit longer than the last (about 7 hours) as I wanted to play with a low key effect. The black background is created with transparent watercolours (no black was used) Its actually about 10 glazes of different blues, both siennas, sepia and raw umber.

I took the photo from this angle so you can see that I have gallery wrapped the painting too. I ended up balancing the stretched frame on an upturned pot so I could work on the sides at the same time as the front of the painting to get a nice smooth wash over the whole area. I'm really pleased with the effect and it will certainly be an option that I offer to any future client requesting a commission. This painting, along with the painting of the baby are not for sale but will be used as examples of the effect that can be created in this style of presenting a watercolour.

Ona

Honourable Mention in BWS juried show!

 

I have just found out that my painting of Denis Keegan 'Artist at Work' has been awarded an 'honourable mention' in the Bayview Watercolour Society "Luminosity' juried show.  The exhibition opens tomorrow, 1pm at the McKay Art Gallery, Main Street, Unionville. It is an exhibition of smaller paintings (half sheet or less) in either watercolour, acrylic or mixed media. 

As I was selecting a couple of paintings to enter into the show I suddenly realised how few smaller paintings I have completed over the last year or so (Only two in fact not counting 'Rations' which sold at the CSPWS open water exhibition last fall and the tiny stretched canvas that I have just finished), most of my work now seems to be full sheet or larger. Its amazing how you just get used to painting a certain size. I think I will have to make an effort to paint some smaller ones too.

Ona

Gallery Wrapped Watercolour!

I've fixed and varnished the painting today. I'm pleased with the effect. Its certainly a different way of presenting a painting.

 

I hung it on our wall so you could see the effect. I used satin varnish to give the painting that slight sheen and to bring out the texture of the watercolour paper. Ideally I would put the painting in a floater frame for a bit more protection but I will have to get one cut to size as I didnt have one that would fit to hand.

Stretching the paper over canvas stretcher bars is certainly a technique I am going to continue to explore.

Painting babies

A local gallery has expressed an interest in using me for any portrait commissions. Last weekend I put together a portfolio of portrait examples and as I was doing so I realised that although I have examples of toddlers, young children, older children, adults and older people I havent ever painted a really young baby so this is a small 10 by 12 inch painting that I can use as an example. I think it might make a popular design for my greetings cards too.

I wanted the focus to be those huge wide eyes as the baby takes in all the new experiences that are around but also include those cute baby features, the button nose and toothless mouth. 

This is actually an experiment too because I pre-stretched the watercolour paper over stretcher bars and now the painting is done I am going to fix and varnish it. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Ona

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, We Love You!

Here is a photo of the finished painting. I added a couple more paint colours into the mix for the car to create a more vibrant, toy car yellow. I also increased the values of the darks on the car making it ours as well as the child's centre of interest. To me it just made the painting feel more intimate that way, making us the viewer part of the imaginative experience too. I hope you feel the same way.

Ona

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang WIP3

 I have finally managed to take a decent WIP photo of this painting so I thought this would be a good stage to share my progress with you all.

I'm still keeping to the very limited palette with this painting so far because I don't want the child to be the main focus. I am however increasing the tonal ranges when I paint him compared to his reflection. I still obviously have lots of hair to paint, some reflective shadowing in the corner of his face and another couple layers on his sleeve before I can move onto the car. but it's beginning to come together.

Ona

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang WIP2

I can't decide whether I am happy with this so far or not. I guess I'll just press on and see how it turns out.

 I have used the same sequence of glazes to create the table top as I used for the background. The 7 or so layers of glazing were applied wet on wet over the reflection detail. This helped to soften the reflections, flatten them slightly and unify them with the table.

Because of the amount of glazing its very hard to get an accurate photo. As usual the camera just seems to latch onto one of the colours used and a lot of photoshopping is needed to get the photo looking even remotely like what the painting looks like in real life. This is the best I can do at this stage. The background is more like the photo in my last post and there is a little more warmth in the table.

Ona

It`s an upside down world!

With the background completed I began painting the  car reflections on the table today working upsidedown (the painting that is not me). It was easier this way to see where and what everything was. It`s a weird angle but makes much more sense especially when I havent yet painted the real car to put the reflection into some sort of perspective. In fact both Alex and the car are hidden under layers of making tape and fluid to keep the paper clean while I finish the reflections and then paint the table.

I thought, for some fun, I`d show you my progress on the painting as I have been staring at it all day.  Yes...Upsidedown!!!

 

I will paint in Alexander`s reflection next and then use glazing to finish the table while helping to soften the reflections. Then I can turn the painting the right way up again.

Ona

...and all because I had this spare frame...

If you remember I had to buy a frame locally for the MEH!! painting because the one I had ordered over the web had not been shipped in time. It has now arrived so, with a spare frame to hand I thought carefully about what I could paint to fit it. I wanted to choose a subject for the painting that not only fitted the frame colour scheme and size wise but also one in which I could have the opportunity to experiment with glazing to create different effects again.

My inspiration for this painting came from an old photo of my son playing with a bright yellow car that he fondly named 'Chitty' after seeing the stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This is a quick snap shot of me adding the final details to the drawing on the watercolour paper. The paper is flat on the table hence the slightly strange persective but it gives you an idea of the size of the painting which is about 24 by 15 inches.

In my reference photo I loved how both the car and Alexander were reflected in our coffee table and it was this that gave me the idea for the title of this painting to be... as both Alex and his reflection stare dreamingly at the car I can almost hear them thinking  'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you!'

Ona

Finished Painting

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull this one off this morning. I had a drastic change of thought regarding the composition. I wasn't happy with the man in the painting. It just felt too cluttered having him there. It also meant that that lovely shaft of smoky light falling onto the chair and surrounding area was partly hidden so I decided to remove him. I'm much happier with the overall effect now and VERY glad that my experiment is finished.

I've made a couple of close ups so you can see the effect created more easily. Firstly the smoky upper section of the painting where I used mostly blues to help accentuate that feeling of height and distance.

secondly the woman crouching by the fire, enjoying its warmth while quietly waiting for the men to return.

I haven't a clue what to call this one. Any ideas?

Ona

Long House WIP 6

  

  It's been slow going over the last few days but the painting is beginning to take shape. I have a little more work to do on the basket next to the chair but other than this I just have the fireplace and people left to paint. Its so hard to get a true reflection of the painting on the screen. Some of the smoky atmosphere is lost in the photo above and the colours are slightly off but I hope you get the idea. Multiple glazes really help to create distance and atmosphere but its so hard to photograph.

Ona

Long House WIP 5

After a few days rest from this while I was sorting out the frame for the NWWS exhibition painting it was good to be able to pick up the brushes again.

I've now finished the background of the long house. Missionaries who visited these long houses often wrote about how dark and smoky the interior of these dwellings were. I wanted to capture that smoky, dimly lit atmosphere so the painting is much darker and more smoky than my reference photo. These traditional buildings were windowless structures between 25 and 30 metres long and six to nine metres wide and high. They were made of poles bent over to form an arbour, which was then covered with bark and saplings. There were low doors at each end and holes in the roof which let smoke out and light in. There were usually three fires in each long house so they would often get extremely smoky. Indeed the smoke often caused eye disease among the old.

I think I am going to paint in the floor of the building next.

Ona

Framed and Ready!

I thought you would like to see the painting "MEH!!" now that it is framed and ready to be sent to the NWWS 71st Annual Open Exhibition.

It has been a stressful week as the frame I had originally ordered had not arrived. I phoned the company and discovered that it had not even been shipped! So yesterday I found a very helpful local supplier Framing Depot who cut the frame to size as I waited. Thank you Framing Depot.

Tomorrow the painting will be packaged up and shipped to Mercer Island WA. The exhibition opens on March 21st and runs through to May 12th.

Ona