Project Completed

I purchased this really neat picture frame sometime last year and knew I wanted to use it to display my own work. It's a system where 16 8x10 inch frames are joined together to form what looks like a mullioned window. I was just waiting for the right piece to go in it.

Then John Lovett, a brilliant Australian artist whose work I just love, posted a piece of his recently that sang to me and well, I had to attempt a study of my own. My version was painted as a 5 x 7  and then with the magic of technology I was able to scan it, enlarge it and print it out into a 16 8x10 grid. And this is the result. I'm pretty chuffed with the results as it now hangs above the gorgeous table Taylor Made custom made for me earlier.

My study of a John Lovett piece for my own personal use

Notes to self - in case I try this again with another piece, be careful where the centre of interest is placed. Unfortunately under one of the mullion bars is the majority of a brilliant orange red clump of foliage that is stunning with the turquoise of the water. Too bad most of it doesn't show now that it's in the frames. 

Painting With My Left Hand

Spent yesterday at a terrific creative workshop with a local artist, called Tune In, Let Go and Be Bold - painting with your non-dominant hand. Very interesting and intriguing, dealing mainly with making the mind/body/spirit connection. Can highly recommend it.

 (c) Susan Langdon 2016 acrylic on 18 x 24 inch stretched canvas

Painting this size is normally waaay out of my comfort zone and yet I had no trouble filling the space. What made me laugh after I finished. was realizing how big a role yellow played in this piece - not a colour I normally surround myself with LOL. Clearly my inner child is a big fan though!

EDiM days 4 - 7

It's That Time of Year

Once again I am participating in the Every Day in May Challenge. I'm giving myself permission to be a little more relaxed about it though this time around, at least as far as posting my efforts goes. So it'll likely continue to be every few days I throw up what I've done in the interim. Up first Days 1-3. For my own info, I'm using a 6x6 field journal from the hand-book paper co. It's my first time painting on Fluid brand wc paper and so far I'm impressed. 

#1 - a toy. Only cat toys in my house and even though I had lots to choose from, this peacock feather is Touille's current favourite plaything.

#2 - something with folds. Thought about this one for a long time and for some reason ended up with crow's feet. Thankfully mine aren't quite this extreme yet.

#3 - a hammer. Was much more inspired to paint this Hammer than the one in my tool box. 

From the Depths of My Orphan Drawer

This is a project that I started many years ago - painting the lid of a wooden box meant to hold 2 decks of playing cards. I was working in acrylic craft paint and got as far as completing the background and laying my drawing down. And then I stopped.

Until today, when I was in a really pissy mood - something is draining my car battery and I thought I'd figured it out. Apparently not! 

Anyway, I needed to channel all of that negative energy into something much more productive and this is what I picked. For a first layer I'm really pleased with it. I'm at the standing back and making some more decisions stage. I could tidy it up a bit, paint the rest of the box solid black, sign it and seal it. OR I might put some muted poppies in the background. Seeing it here, I'm leaning towards the first. Cleaner that way. 

That's it, I'm Done

Finally, I can lay the bugs colouring page to rest and by that I mean put it in the drawer and forget about it LOL. It has been on my desk for what seems like ages, nagging at me. I even tried putting it away and ignoring it but it seemed to call out to me - finish meeeeee.

Final stage

Stage 1 - initial wash

Stage 2 - some shading

So as tedious as it was to do, it's done. Overall yes, I'm pleased with where I ended up considering I only knew how I wanted to start it. When I look at the 3 digital images of the stages side by side I like how it developed. (Blogger and I are still not formatting friends so if you move counterclockwise from the bottom left you'll see these in order. sigh)

Perhaps one day when I'm doing a collage piece and it just needs that certain something, this will pop out of the drawer and be the answer I was looking for. 

Colourful Bugs part 2

I told myself that after this, I was done with this colouring page but now that I see it here on my monitor I definitely want to go back and make all of the legs black. Plus tidy up a couple of the red beetles. Just not happy with those. 

My faves are the indigo ones but that's a no brainer because in my world indigo sings. 

Okay, it looks like there'll definitely be a part 3 to this post. It's a particularly miserable, rainy, trying to be warm but too damp to get there, kind of day so I my even get it done today. We'll see. Or I may need to go and paint some happy tulips! 

Hoppy Easter

I so love the style of painting very loosely with watercolour, leaving a good bit of the painting up to the viewer to piece together and yet it is so difficult for me to do. I literally have to make myself walk away from a piece to stop myself from filling in 'just a little bit here' which leads to a little bit more over here. That's where it would be wonderful to have a magical undo' switch, sigh. 

Hare (c) Susan Langdon 2016
140 lb CP 5 x 7

This is painted with permission from  Peter Winshaw"s photograph from the Photos for Artists facebook group. It is done in a limited palette of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. I'm really pleased with his face and ears, which is what drew me to the photo in the first place. 

I'm still working away at the colourful bugs seen in my last post and also have the acrylic piece and another watercolour on the go. So lots to work on at the moment, depending on my mood LOL. 

Colouring Bugs Part1

This is the underpainting of a colouring page my sister gave me from the Secret Garden colouring book, artist edition. First, I must say the paper is lovely to work on, tolerating this amount of wet media. I imagine it could handle a wash fairly well as well, given that it feels comparable to 140 lb HP paper. 

The concept of a rainbow/colourwheel theme came to me as soon as I saw the page and since the weather persists in giving us an overabundance of greyness - well this just seemed the perfect time to hit up some colour! 

My plans for the next stage are not as clear cut - I can continue on in watercolour or I may delve into a mixed media approach using either my tombow markers or a bit of acrylic. Hmmm, it's a mystery to even me at this stage LOL. Stay tuned for part 2!

Spring Cleaning

Yes, it's that time again - the temps are warming, grass is greening. I did a major purge of my art supply cupboard just last month so no need to change anything there. My studio is pretty darn tidy if I do say so myself, well, within the parameters of being functional which is key. 

So what''s left to be done?? That seemingly never ending problem of the cat hair to pigment ratio in my watercolour palette. It finally got the better of me while I was playing in my paints this afternoon. 

So, time to scrub it out and lay out fresh paint. This is also the time that I make brutal decisions as to what pigments stay and which are relegated back to the cupboard. 

Indigo has long been a favourite of mine when you need that perfect hit of dark but sadly, it just doesn't play nice in my palette. It somehow manages to ooze it's way into the other paint wells during the wee hours of the morning and continues to do so even as I try and clean it up. So, back to the tube for you!

Undersea green is another one that may be put on time out, especially since I plan to bring Q gold back to the palette - mix it with some ultramarine blue and boom howdy!

But the cat hair really has to go.