White tape lines don’t work! Experiment Reflection

Oil w/ Liquin on paper, primed with acrylics. Painted in one sitting in the woods. The white tape reveals the flatness of the paper. It looks disjointed with the rest of the painting. I think the problem is not that the tape lines are white, but that they are a different colour to the background…… Continue reading White tape lines don’t work! Experiment Reflection

First oil painting outside reflections

This is the first test I did in oil paints outside and I’m surprised at how different the outcome is from acrylic paintings outside. I was painting a clearing of trees in a woodland, with big Rhododendron bushes underneath the clearing. It was a cloudy day just before midday. The process of the painting is…… Continue reading First oil painting outside reflections

Artist: Alex Katz

Katz, A. et al., 1999. Alex Katz, Torino: Hopefulmonster. Painting ‘Reflections’ 1994 (p.170). I am interested in the blocks of colours, and the marks made on top of the blocks of colour. This work has a limited colour palette, and is abstracting its subject quite extremely. Katz believes the ‘all-overness in a lot of the big…… Continue reading Artist: Alex Katz

Artist: David Hockney

The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends, at the moment, with an iPad.P.12. I saw a retrospective of Hockney at the Tate Britain a few years ago and the landscapes in it really stuck with me, especially the colour palette used. His work has been a subconscious influence ever since so I…… Continue reading Artist: David Hockney

Artist: Richard Smith

Painting, 1958, oil on canvas, 1520 x 1221 mm I saw this painting at the Tate Modern over the Christmas break and was immediately captured by it. The vibrancy and warmth of the colours pulled me in. Then the depth, energy, movement of the brushstrokes kept me in front of it; taking in the whole…… Continue reading Artist: Richard Smith

Piet Mondrian Revisited

I looked at Mondrian when I first started painting the woods nearly a year ago (post here). His method of working still inspires my practice. He spent his life working on abstract paintings and also painting trees. There was no linear transition from trees to abstraction, but a constant relationship between the two parts of…… Continue reading Piet Mondrian Revisited

Oils vs acrylics

Oil paints on right. Acrylics on left. Underpainting is 50/50 Gesso and acrylic paint, one layer. I did both of these paintings right after being outside sketching in the woods. So these paintings are memory paintings. I did the oil painting first, and with the acrylic painting I tried to keep the brushstrokes and colour…… Continue reading Oils vs acrylics