Don’t try this at home…

The June sketch of my calendar pictures: 6 fairies for the sixth month. A teetering tower of bodies all balanced in the most unlikely fashion, topped with a wine-pourer for a little twist of extra silliness and perhaps to dispel an impression that this is all about yoga. (I have nothing against yoga, I was very enthusiastic about yoga for nearly a year, once, and can probably still do a passable headstand, but it’s all a bit too pure and wholesome for my art!) Of course my title applies to the carefully balancing of one person (or fairy) on top…

78 Fairies… One calendar.

I have begun planning next year’s calendar. It may not even be July yet, but it occurred to me rather suddenly that in order to have it available for Somerset Arts Weeks in September, I would need to have it all finished and ready to print by the end of August. That’s about two months away… So, apologies to those to whom I said next year’s calendar would be all flower fairies. So far I have three ‘flower fairies gone to seed’, and four ‘poison flower fairies’, (and three ’emergency’ fairies that would fit in at a pinch). If I…

A most peculiar portrait commission

Last summer I was asked to paint a portrait of Karen, not by Karen herself, because she has been dead for quite a long time. I was asked to paint this portrait by the man she has been haunting for many years… This was, I think, the most unusual portrait request I have had to date. Because of the nature of my ‘ordinary’ paintings, people generally ask me to paint portraits of them, their family, girlfriend and so on, only if they want to be depicted, or have someone else depicted, as some kind of supernatural creature. And then I…

The Caper Spurge Fairy… finished.

And another Fairy spreads her wings… I suspect she may squeak a bit as she flies, in her all-over latex outfit, but, given the dangers of this particular genus of plants, this is a small price to pay for the safety of inhabiting the Caper Spurge. The trouble with Euphorbias is their sap, which is not only toxic, but can cause severe skin reaction and damage to eyes, which explains why my fairy is wearing goggles, too. I have this plant growing here and there in my garden, and it readily oozes toxic sap at the least damage. So I…

Painting the Caper Spurge Fairy, part 2

The Caper Spurge Fairy is beginning to come to life…. Ok, so when I said there wouldn’t be a huge range of colour in this painting, I think I was forgetting a few things… like the fact that I tend to just layer on washes of colour because it’s fun and not because it’s actually the right colour 🙂 So I have begun the ‘colouring-in’ stage of this painting: Having first done the shading part of the under-painting (see previous post), I am adding a basic colour on top. Most of this layer of paint ends up being washed off, but…

Painting the Caper Spurge Fairy

And another poison flower fairy begins to emerge! This one is Euphorbia Lathyris, fairy of the Caper Spurge. I have (probably) finished the blue under-painting stage now, and unlike the last painting this one is definitely going to be in colour… Not a huge range of colour, I must admit: the Caper Spurge is basically green all over – no coloured flowers – and given the toxic effects of this plant the poor fairy has to wear an all-in-one latex outfit, which will probably be black. I shall, however, give her pink rubber gloves, I think! For a little more…

Finished Painting: “Vis-à-vis”… a masquerade in gold and orange

So, I finally finished the latest Masquerade painting: This painting is an absolute so-and-so to photograph in order to give you any idea of what it looks like in real life. So I have done my best with a lot of close-ups, but clicking on the images will also bring them up bigger so you can see them better. The colours are very subtle, which is hard to capture, but the main problem is that as you move, or the painting does, or the light source does, the gold leaf springs to life, sometimes much darker than the figures, sometimes…

Adding gold leaf and paint to ‘Vis-à-vis’

So, it’s been nearly a month since I posted the start of this painting, and since then things seem to have been going even more slowly than usual. I know what the problem is: quite apart from the fact that I seem to get slower and pickier with each year, at the back of my mind is a slight doubt that I actually want to render this painting in exactly the same way as the last several masquerade scenes. I am liking the gold leaf background, and the blue under-painting, but usually this is the base on top of which…