What am I up to? Well I am shifting things around here on my website (bare with me) in order to utilise this blogging thing. Do many people read blogs? Maybe someone wants to read about art – I can in fact talk art all day, ask my family haha. So lets talk art! Acrylics are my current love in the art world. I just love picking up a paint brush, mixing some colour and laying it down on the canvas. And which brush I use will depend on what I am wanting to paint. In front of my canvas about to get going for the day can seem daunting when I look at how much I have to do but I just love that feeling of diving in and seeing where my mind takes me, and I just go for it. A flat brush for block in and turn it on the side for painting hairs, a filbert brush for block in and washes of colour, a liner for those fine lines and a round for painting hairs too, generally just a few brushes of different sizes per painting. I use a painting medium to help with blending mainly for backgrounds, otherwise I like how fast the acrylic dries and enables me to keep building a section.
What am I working on? Well I’ve recently completed a northern saw-whet owl which I painted from a photo reference by Johnroquet. Acrylics on canvas 50x50cm. This one was a real difficult project. I jumped in with enthusiasm as I always do and found myself bogged down with my inability to see the details due to the photo being limited upon enlarging it. I tend to avoid painting photos that are similar to this for that very reason, I love to paint from crisp clear photos so I can see the details as I am a detail freak. There was just something about this photograph that said ‘paint me’ so I did. I pushed myself through and I rather enjoyed building the layers of washes of colour to bring it together at the end. A tick for completing this one. Here is a timelapse I put together of his creation, hopefully it won’t come up too big and blurry on the screen….
And what next? Well I’ve been wanting to do a painting of a koala from a photo that I took last spring time here at the local lagoon. We have lots of koalas here in Portland, often you can see them high up in the trees. I even hear them in the neighbourhood and yearly have them visit in our gum tree. Have you ever heard them? They are cute bears but their calls are something else, a deep grunting sound. So I have a new painting on the go of a koala in yes acrylics again, seems as though I am turning more and more into an acrylic artist! That’s okay with me 🙂
This koala is on stretched linen canvas 60x90cm, my first time using linen as a support. I’m chipping away at this handsome bear when I can escape life and pick up my brushes. I’m having a blast with this one, loving the detail but that’s also daunting when I look at how much there is to do but I just put on some music and get lost in my painting, fun fun! When painting larger pieces like this one I do so by both standing and sitting to paint, I move the canvas lower resting it between my legs at times. I just make it work the best I can with what I have as I’ve always done. My everyday easel is an artists desk where I can lift it to different heights to work. Often I just use table easels ontop instead as I like to use the table itself for holding my brushes and tablet etc. I’ve never been a big fan of actual easels, I did have a large one and I ended up selling it due to the size of the thing and no space to store it!
So here are some photos so far of my koala, local bear of the lagoon…
He’s slowly coming together! I always work from my tablet, I am able to enlarge sections and I like the richness of colour it portrays plus its like having the photo right there in front of me. I look forward to stealing more time to paint when I can. Currently we are in lockdown here in South West Victoria which means home schooling AGAIN! Lockdown number 7! Seriously a pain in the backside but that’s life now isn’t it. Stay safe everyone!
