Moorland Oil

Hello once again!

Seems it's the proverbial case of "All or Nothing" - and to prove it's an "All", here's my latest oil work for you to have a look at. As the title suggests, it's just a place - anywhere - on one of England's moors.

This work is once again done using palette knives, and is on a stretched canvass, measuring 10" x 8" and at the moment, is unframed.

The two pictures give you a chance to have a better look at it - one close and one from a slight distance.

Hope you enjoy it, thanks for looking, and please leave a comment if you wish.

Whetever your art - please enjoy it.

Paul

Coastal Oil Work

Hello again!

As previously promised, as soon as I have been able to, here is my Coastal Oil Work now in a card mount, and fitted into a nice wooden frame - completed and signed.

Approximate measurements are - area of work 11.5" x 8", total size of frame approximately 17" x 14".

Price for this is £50, so please contact me if you are interested in owning an original signed, oil painting.

Thank you for having a look, and whatever your art - please enjoy it.

Paul

Moorland Oil

Hi there.

I told you in the last post that despite a lack of picture evidence, I was still working away, and I can now tell you that I have finished my latest oil work. This one is a very small moorland scene, complete with a couple of sheep and a drystone wall, very loose like the last one, but this does seem to be my developing style.

Like may artists, having a style is something that often does not occur naturally, and it cannot be developed overnight. You have to get used to sketching and drawing in the first place, to have a sense of perspective, balance and tone, and even then you have to grasp the materials you are using and learn their characteristics in differing situations, methods and application.

Finally it seems that at last I can say to myself that I am "getting there". It is something that I do take great pride and care in; I don't want to churn out endless pieces of inferior work just for the sake of it. That is false, both to any prospective purchaser, and to myself, and is not a road that I will knowingly go down. Each of my works are individual - nothing is printed or copied - each work is unique, and will remain so. There will be times in the future I will see something I did a few years back and think "erm, that's what I did, right". Hopefully I will be able to look at it and see how it could be improved, and how far I have improved. I said before - we all live and learn.

This weekend my wife and I, along with 2 very dear close friends are going away, so the work has some time to dry, though even next week it will still be wet in places, but by then I may be able to get some sort of frame for it. Probably not the right one, but at least you will have a better understanding of it, and it will look so much better for having a frame round it just for photographic purposes.

Hopefully some of you may have noticed the new blog layout, and I hope you like it. My hand goes up though to say I was actually playing around with it, and lost the previous one, so we all have this through default!

Whatever your art, enjoy it.

Paul

Pochard Box

Hi there, how are we all doing?

No new work for you yet, but there are a few WIP's strategically positioned around the place!

In this post I want to tell you of a new piece or art "kit" I have just bought, and thought that I would take this opportunity to share it with you - just in case you have not heard of it. To set the scene, please read below.

The coastal oil work you have all seen, was being taken to some friends to show them, but as it was still wet I placed it on a medium sized board with a small lip to hold it during the short car journey. Unfortunately it mysteriously managed to fall off the board and into the footwell of the car, but somehow avoided being damaged. That started me to look around for some "clever idea" that would stop events like that from happening again.

I have hopefully found the solution, which is an item called a "Pochard Box". So far the only downside I have found is the size, but I'm sure larger ones may be available somewhere. The box/easel I have found comes in 2 sizes - taking 2 canvass textured boards sized 10" x 12" or 8" x 10". There is more than enough storage space for brushes, palette knives, tubes of paint etc, and once opened out, the hinged lid provides a comfortable angle on which to paint, and part of the box also makes a fair sized palette for your paint!

It has great uses for oils especially, but also acrylics, and with a little preparation watercolours too. The surface to be painted slides down between grooves set in the easel lid and are held securely in place. You could use it for your proper work if you so wish, and also for a quick en plein air session. The whole thing only measures around 15" x 13" x 4", is light to carry, and even comes with a shoulder strap and handle!

Apparently it has been stated that similar items were said to have been used by the likes of Turner, so if it's good enough for him................   Hope this little article is of help to you - I'm just waiting for my oil paints to arrive before I'm off out and using it!

Whatever your art, enjoy it.

Paul

Small progress!

Hello there, and welcome!

I've not seen you for just over a week, so the kettle's on, go get yourself a drink and we'll settle down.

Finished productions have slowed down since the last post, but 2 completed works in one week was a bit much - especially for me! The acrylic Iris was loved by the recipient, and should hopefully be hung and on display by now. The oil coastal scene has been well received by many people, both online and in person, and I thank you all who have commented on it. It is extremely rewarding to have people, especially complete strangers, make comments on your work, even more so if they are all positive, but I can take constructive criticism too you know, so don't be afraid!

As you may be aware I'm new to oil painting, and have been sat waiting patiently for this first one to dry. I never knew it could take this long, but maybe that's because I have always worked with watercolours or acrylics which are pretty much instant drying. One interesting tip I did pick up during this time, and which may be of interest to some of you, is that if you let oils dry in the dark, or very dim light, they can develop a yellowish film which can show when dry. This can be avoided by letting them dry naturally in a dry, well lit and ventilated area. So please remember that.

The Iris was easy to see to afterwards, as I had made and fitted a nice wooden backing edge to the hardboard work, so it was very easy to get on the wall. What I did have was a couple of annoying, but easily surmountable problems with the oil. First I went and bought what I think is a very complementary frame for it, then got home and found it didn't fit - the frame was slightly larger than the board, and there was no room for a cardboard mount! Arrrgh!

So, back to town, this time armed with an identical board to ensure that I came away with the same style frame and a cardboard mount, ensuring a properly fitting oil painting once I got home and it had dried. I just checked it again today and there are just small areas of it that are not quite dry - but we are getting there.  Hooray I here you all shout!

In between I have been working on what I thought were some good ideas involving butterflies and watercolours, but after a couple attempts I'm not entirely convinced, but a few more runs and my mind will be firmly made up if I'm going to go with it or not.

Also during this last week, plenty of my time has been spent online, and like so many people, on Facebook! On there I have been trying to get an art page up and running, called EdrickArt, and linking it to as many people and groups as I can. This has lead to some success, and at the moment I have 64 members which keeps growing, slowly but surely each day. If you would be interested then please go and join, or get your friends or other art followers too - the more the merrier, and hopefully we can make a nice site to share and exchange ideas, projects and generally encourage each other.

Some of my ideas will come to fruition, some will fall by the wayside, and others I will just forget! But that's just part of the fun, and that is what I want you all to experience - whatever your art, please enjoy it.

Paul

Acrylic Iris

Me again - how you all doing?

I'm on a roll here, so had best make use of it while I can!

Here is my second completed work this week. It's one I have recently posted and told you that it had been requested as long as I could change the background colour, so off I set.

The background was changed to a much lighter, slightly greener toned blue colour, which looked good and matched the colours in the room where it's to be hung. After doing that, the black lines needed to be tidied up some, but before that, I decided to change the petals. In the original work they are basically a very deep purple, but I now went for a lighter blue colour, and tried to give them some highlights and a bit of "form and structure". That also involved re-working the centres, blending the whites and yellows, plus introducing an orange into the centres, which gave it some focus and "lifted" the whole thing.

Once that had been done, I then went and completely changed the leaves and stems, introducing differing shades and tones to them all. The last thing to do was to re-paint all of the black linings to everything, but this time I decided to make them much thinner if I could. That still gave them an edge, but not a thick black one that could dominate - especially with thinner stems etc.

So there you go, now have a look below and see what you think.

The first image is the work as a whole - 4' x 2'8", with the second image being a detail of part of it.

Please feel free to leave a comments, I appreciate them all.

Whatever your art, enjoy it!

Paul

Oil Coast

Hello there!

Finally I can now post the end results of my first venture into oil painting, after hopefully managing to put the finishing touches to the work on Tuesday night without overworking it.

This is done on a 10" x 12" canvass board using a small selection of palette knives, and as yet remains unframed or mounted. Wonder how long it will take me to find what I think is the most complementary means of doing that? Luckily I have plenty of time, so I'm not worried.

Anyway, hope you like it and remember that I always welcome any feedback you care to leave.

Hope you enjoy your art, whatever your style of work or preference of medium.

Paul

Oil painting!

Greetings Bloggers!

At last I have completed my very first oil painting to my satisfaction, but have no time to upload it here tonight, so I'm afraid you will have to wait until tomorrow - Thursday - until you can see it.

Hopefully you will be able to have a good look, and leave me some comments as to what you all think. Good or bad, I don't mind any constructive criticism. Honestly, as long as you leave comment.

So, whatever your art, until tomorrow, please -  enjoy it!

Paul