Shilloette

A study for a Dolph larger painting the dappled light on the incoming waves was what I was interested in and the problem is getting the lights on the water to recede back to the headland. The silhouette seems to be a bit dark so tomorrow I will lighten it further change the tone and value of the body board later

Hawthorne on painting a good read!

"Paint is limited in its range as nature is not, therefore keep the lights (the sky, the water, and the sand, the top of the parasol or anything in sunlight) as near the same value as possible. Keep the mass that is in shadow, always in shadow, and make differences by gradations of color". Hawthorne on painting

I'm reading Thomas W Hawthrones book on painting. It's a wonderful little book but what really got my attention is the way Hawthorne teaches to see colour and paint it. He talks a lot about shilloette against light and seeing the mass of colour against another. 

Just thought I would share this book and see what people think? It's on Amazon and is good in the kindle edition.

The Baltic Exchange the Tamar class lifeboat of Salcombe

The Baltic Exchange slowly returns home after a training session. I saw this motif and just knew I had seconds to capture it. A quick sketch and a fuzzy iPhone image was enough to to give me all I needed to produce this painting in acrylics on board. I love the shilloette of the boat! There was just enought light on the water to completely black out the mass of the vessel. Painting a large shape quickly I blocked in the main vessel then carved the shape with the low light grey of the sky. The water was intresting as it was a lot darker than I would normally paint it. A high dark in parts and mid tone in the foreground. I added a burnt sienna to the edges of the brightest lights to give them warmth and to make them dazzle of the board. There is also a cool blue in the wake of the vessel and some reflected Reds underneath baltic exchange. I feel like I've pushed the light on the water bit further by adding these tones and Hues. Instead of the water being one flat value I put in three values plus the burnt sienna then added the highlight in dots and circles.

Open launch and my value scale in words and numbers

This is a start, I was listening to the Saudi painter.com podcast and in it that interviewed artist was talking about the importance of starting things. The start is really successful for me I put this all down within half an hour a real quick response to a motif. I put down very quick chunks of paint starting from hi dark then mixing in midtone, before putting in the lowlights and the highlight on the shore. I then worked low darks into the boat and closest land on the right.

The values are use are going to be easier to talk about if I named them so starting from the brightest will the latest. They'll be highlight which is white, pure white. Then light, low light then middle grey then high dark, dark and low dark. I also number them 8 I highlight 7 light. 6low light. 5 middle tone, 4high dark. 3 dark. 2 low dark, 

Starring into the light

Here is today's painting.  Painted over two days this painting is a step forward in making work that concentrates on my intrigue in tonal or value relationships. The water in the foreground is made up of all eight values that I use when painting. While painting this I was thinking of a workshop I will be running the end of February. In the workshop I will be talking about my monochrome painting. It struck me today that the water was a good thing to work on in the demo as it demonstrates a lot of the things I've learnt about value painting. Things like visual constancy, and working late and dark and dark into light. I put down the darkest tones and then step-by-step bring the lighter values inside the brushstrokes of the darkest tones. It's hard to explain in words so the workshop will be nice to show people whilst I'm trying to explain it. I will be sure to blog some good images of the workshop and things I've learnt by attempting to teach my interest in value painting.

A deeper way of looking

This is a work in progress, it's not finished but I thought it would be intresting to show it now and again finished. I've started looking in a different way at these paintings. It's hard to explain but I've a better understanding of value now. Gained from all the previous paintings in monochrome. So I've started looking at the back colour of what I'm painting as the first thing to paint. By the back colour I mean the barkest value in the form I'm painting then bringing the form forward by adding lighter values inside the darker one before. This seems to help not just over paint angina and again til I get it right. 

Coves Quay Gallerys Annual charity bazaar at Ullacombe farm, Dartmoor 2015

                                     

A Christmas Bazaar of applied arts and crafts

Coves Quay Gallery, from Salcombe in the South Hams, will be hostingChristmas Bazaar at Ullacombe Barn,

The show has artisans and artists from the South West, showing their work in order to raise funds for charities that include :

Childrens Hospice South West, The Primrose Foundation, The Lymphoma Association and The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association.

The exhibition space at Ullacombe Barn is unrivalled on Dartmoor, it provides a setting for bringing together an exciting mix of applied arts and crafts which will  be featuring paintings  from Greg Ramsden, Lucy Pratt and Sue Lewington, photography from Brian Sedgbeer, Bespoak with their crafted signs, Christmas wreaths and decorations from Briony Dundas, Val Chappelle with her  Winterwood Boards,

 Julia Paramor Cosmetics, Clare Gault's Preserves, Gwen Vaughan's Animal Ceramics,  MW Glass Designs, She Sells Sea Shells Jewellery,  Ambrose Vevers Furniture, Alison West's Saggar Fired Porcelain and Woody Fox's Willow Animal Sculptures.