I’m rollering grey paint (Liquitex) onto black canvas (The Works) with a sponge roller. I’m trying to be as bold with my painting as I was recently with my drawings during my residency in Germany. Let’s see where this goes…
It’s #Caturday Saturday again and here’s a photo of Bill (William ChatNoir) in the foreground and Sparta Puss in the background, just a metre or so from each other. Bill’s on the bed, Sparta Puss on the window seat and both are trying very hard to ignore each other. It’s been 14 months since we adopted Bill from the local rescue centre.
She and Sparta Puss are the same age, now 15 years. Sparta Puss has been with us since she was a tiny kitten and poor Bill had been with her human since she was tiny, too. Unfortunately her human died and she was signed into the rescue centre. They really don’t like each other but we’ve now reached the stage where they will tolerate being in the same room. I’ve adjusted the photograph with Adobe Photoshop Poster Edges filter.
Getting ready to try a new approach to painting. I bought some square black canvasses, quite cheap in The Works, and I’m going to have a go at rollering Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint directly onto them with a sponge roller. I have a plan. Let’s see how (if) it works out.
Faces from the past, sketchbook drawings from July 2012, about a year after I started this blog. Husb and family feature in a few, and people out and about in cafes, with a couple of old friends. We’re all older now.
I rooted around in the garden for a selection of leaves for my recent adult education session on Gelli plate printing. The delicate leaves at the top are from a dwarf lilac, Flowerfesta Pink, that is still growing new leaves in mid-September. The ones at the bottom from the hardy evergreen ivy. Although sceptical about gel plates at first, I’m enjoying using them with botanical subjects.
I’m using a Gelli Arts plate with Liquitex heavy body acrylic paints. I used Dioxazine Purple, Pthalocyanine Blue and Hookers Green for the leaves (first layer) and Titanium White for the background (second layer).
I really didn’t like gel-plate printing when I first tried it. I thought it was gimmicky and superficial. But I’m warming to it. It’s a very good technique to use in adult education as it’s very accessible to people who would normally avoid anything to do with art. Unfortunately, so many people had bad experiences in school that put them off art for life. With some practice I’ve learnt techniques that have the “oooohhh” factor as people are peeling their prints off the gel, and that hooks them in to maybe try other arty things.
These leaves are so subtle and delicate, the detail is gorgeous. I’m using a Gelli Arts plate with Liquitex heavy body acrylic paints. I used Dioxazine Purple, Pthalocyanine Blue and Hookers Green for the leaves (first layer) and Unbleached Titanium for the background (second layer).
I love Adult Education, it’s such a joy to teach people. I work several sessions a week with different groups of participants. Today I spent a couple of happy hours up Kilvey Hill in Swansea in the sunshine, taking Gelli Plate prints from the local trees and using recycled bubble wrap to create background textures too. Gelli Plate is a very accessible way to make an image and if you take care of the plate, it’s also pretty cheap too. I’m working the Kilvey Hill sessions via Coed Lleol and Swansea Print Workshop.
I know it’s late 😀 Yesterday was one of those hectic days – nice though. So here’s an analytical sketch of the chunky one – Sparta Puss, our naughty tortie. An analytical sketch is one that tries to analyse the shapes and get used to what’s going on before developing further. I’ll probably do 2 or 3 of these before I’m happy with the result.
These sketches were posted on my new-ish blog in June 2012. They’re quite a mix of where I was out and about around that time. There are some people dancing at a gig, a Big Issue seller and some shop security men on Swansea’s upper Oxford street. A friend washing up in his kitchen and people in cafes.
Had a lovely afternoon last Saturday down at Swansea Print Workshop. I and the artists I went to Germany with, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins, Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf, held an open afternoon where we presented an illustrated talk and showed the work we did at Atelierhof Werenzhaim. I cut up the huge paper into 3 sections to carry them back across Europe and I’ve laid them out next to our fabulous 1920s Radcliffe etching press so you can see the size of them. I must count how many figures there are, sometime.
I made a couple of cakes for the event. On the left a gluten-free almond lemon cake decorated with maple-soaked plums. On the right, a classic jam and buttercream sponge. They went down well.
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